Swollen joints

[pottr]

As per the title, the joints on my cue have become a touch swollen.

The joint does not sit flush in the wood anymore.

It isn't affecting the playability of the cue, it's purely an aesthetics point of view.

Will this become a serious problem for the cue? Do I simply sand the wood flush once more?

I won't be sending it to a cuemaker as I will be buying a new cue as soon as Mr Wooldridge re-opens his custom cue tool. Just curious if there was anything I could do to rectify it.

Thanks,

Jack

[trevs1]

If the joint is proud of the timber of the cue, then the timber has shrunk a little due to losing a fraction of moisture. It's nothing to worry about, but can feel a bit coarse to touch if it's shrunk by more than a tiny amount.

It can be refinished, but is not so easy to do well without experience or some ability with your hands.

If you are planning to buy a new cue soon, I'd not be too concerned about it. It will not harm the cue.

[pottr]

If you are planning to buy a new cue soon, I'd not be too concerned about it. It will not harm the cue.

Thank you Trevor.

I will leave the cue in it's current condition and not worry further.

[pottr]

The joint came loose last night... Fantastic

[Terry Davidson]

pottr:

Definitely the wood has shrunk to such a degree that at least one side of the joint has come loose (a good argument for 1pc cues I guess).

Anyway, since you intend to replace the cue shortly I would recommend this for a temporary fix. If you can determine which side of the joint is loose then back it out all the way and clean off all the dried out and crystalized glue. Also clean out the hole in the cue.

Now, use a light pencil and mark the joint, the shaft and the butt where you will have the grain lined up perfectly or at least the chevrons matched to the chamfor on the butt. Get yourself some really good epoxy cement for wood and metal and use a lot of it both on the loose joint and inside the hole in the cue and (the tricky part) if you can grip the joint with a pair of pliers or even better if you have the correct die tap, screw the loose part back into the cue so all the lines are perfect and then leave it on a level surface to dry, at least a day and probably more depending on the amount and type of glue you used (although epoxy will dry through a chemical reaction so time in not a big factor).

This should set the cue joint up so at least you can play with it until you get your new cue. Getting everything to line up again is the toughest part and has to be done very carefully. I don't have the proper tools to do this right so I put a couple of layers of electrician's tape around the part of the joint I could grip and then used a small pair of vice grips. It wasn't as good as a good cue doctor would do it but it worked and in fact the cue is still OK after a year or so although I left some small grip marks on the brass joint.

Terry

[pottr]

I'll take it up to Tony. Perhaps he can salvage the life of it for me.