Just curious.. Cue making

[Piruz]

Hi. I moved this text from snooker questions, because, I think it belongs here.

"Quote:
Originally Posted by ADR147
in theory making a cue is not very difficult, takes a lot of time to do very well though so in reality you don't often see a cue makers best possible work otherwise they would need to charge you 2 or 3 thousend pounds for a cue!

the process is simple enough, plane or turn a 60" by 1.5" by 1.5" block of ash or maple gradually down to an oversized taper then mark your splices and plane the area flat and then plane the the ebony splices flat glue two at a time on opposite sides then plane down the whole cue then gradually sand to the desired size add any further required splices fit ferrule and tip and drill and fit badge! oil and wax - sell cue retire to antigua. "

Sounds like a peace of cake!
1. But what glue do you use to glue ebony splices to shaft?
2. And where do you buy your wood (ash, maple and ebony)?

I dont think these are secrets that past only to next generation of cuemakers?
This question is for ADR147, BITTER, MikeWooldridge, Trevs1 and any other cuemakers, who have done many cues by themselves. Althought never seen one of ADR147s cues, but I think he is good. Right?

Im just curious. I think Im not gonna try making my own cue until Im retired, and have some time. So, maybe in 60 years, I have done my first cue. Maybe. I dont even know does any carpenters or woodsellers (whats the right word? I lost it. ) have ebony in Finland. Ash grows in South Finland, so maybe I can even get good quality wood from our own forests.

[MikeWooldridge]

1. But what glue do you use to glue ebony splices to shaft?
2. And where do you buy your wood (ash, maple and ebony)?

[/B]

1) pritt stick
2) b+q

[MikeWooldridge]

joking of course, homebase do better wood

[Piruz]

1) pritt stick
2) b+q

Pritt stick is best always!!!
No, seriously, is epoxy glue best for glueing woods? Or what glue is?

[Semih_Sayginer]

what glue do you use to glue ebony splices to shaft?

id like to know the answer / answers to that too Piruz

hopefully someone will post an accurate answer soon

[MikeWooldridge]

Pritt stick is best always!!!
No, seriously, is epoxy glue best for glueing woods? Or what glue is?

i'm afraid i can't tell you. for then i would have to kill you....

for myself, it's a jealously guarded secret. why? well let's put it this way, nobody told me anything when i started out. i had to learn/teach myself everything. i looked around, went to libraries (haha, oh for the internet back then!), but i could not find anything that helped.

so i value my hard earned knowledge very highly. knowledge is power!

if i give away my knowledge, i lose my power...

BUT, i will tell you that epoxy is a very good glue to use. as are others.

at end of the day, glue is glue and virtually any type will do the job. what i mean is, you don't have to worry about your cue falling apart whatever glue you use.

apart from pritt stick...

[ADR147]

never under estimate the sticky power of pritt stick - try cleaning it off your television after your 4 year old has made his own screen images! second only to weetabix left in a bowl for 4 hours for total sticking power!

[Semih_Sayginer]

never under estimate the sticky power of pritt stick - try cleaning it off your television after your 4 year old has made his own screen images! second only to weetabix left in a bowl for 4 hours for total sticking power!

i highlighted good use of pritt stick in this thread

http://www.thesnookerforum.com/the-s...vatar-891.html

[ADR147]

evil stuff pritt stick!

[Piruz]

i'm afraid i can't tell you. for then i would have to kill you....

for myself, it's a jealously guarded secret. why? well let's put it this way, nobody told me anything when i started out. i had to learn/teach myself everything. i looked around, went to libraries (haha, oh for the internet back then!), but i could not find anything that helped.

so i value my hard earned knowledge very highly. knowledge is power!

if i give away my knowledge, i lose my power...

BUT, i will tell you that epoxy is a very good glue to use. as are others.

at end of the day, glue is glue and virtually any type will do the job. what i mean is, you don't have to worry about your cue falling apart whatever glue you use.

apart from pritt stick...

Thats the idea myself too, sometime in future test how difficult it is to make your own cue, and I dont need any tips to what machines do I need, but I just cant get ebony or rosewood anywhere in Finland! A carpenter, who imports exotic woods, told me that I would need to buy 2-3 cubic meters ebony, so he could find it to me!

I think I have to improvise the butt wood. Maybe Jatoba (Brazilian cherry) is heavy enough? I dont know, or maybe when I visit UK next time I try find a place to buy wood to just one cue.

[trevs1]

There are many specialist adhesives a cuemaker would use, different kinds for different purposes, and to be honest, it's not really worth you considering getting anything like these to build just one cue.The best adhesive you could probably use would be any good PVA woodworking glue. Although this is not really the kind of stuff you'd use if building cues professionally, it will definitely do what you want it to do. I'd stay away from the idea of using an epoxy, as it's not only expensive in comparison to PVA, but is arguably not going to do the job any better.

For timber in singular pieces, you could try Craft Supplies in Derbyshire, UK, they may be able to help you with timber, although it would obviously cost to get it to Finland.

I'm pretty sure they can be reached online and deal with most commercially available timbers, even exotics like ebony when available.

try here: http://www.craft-supplies.co.uk/

Good luck with it.

[Wity]

ADR has also recomended Craft-Supplies to me as a place that might sort out a specific type of wood suitable for turning into a butt as I've fancied a cartain type of grain in black and white ebony / asian ebony for a while now. I very much doubt cuemakers stock it as i've never seen it used as a butt so my idea was to get the wood and send it to a cuemaker.

[simplythebest]

ADR has also recomended Craft-Supplies to me as a place that might sort out a specific type of wood suitable for turning into a butt as I've fancied a cartain type of grain in black and white ebony / asian ebony for a while now. I very much doubt cuemakers stock it as i've never seen it used as a butt so my idea was to get the wood and send it to a cuemaker.

Good lord.... I searched for Asian Ebony and White Ebony on google to see what kind of wood you meant.

Surprised at the results!

[SideShowKeith]

Good lord.... I searched for Asian Ebony and White Ebony on google to see what kind of wood you meant.

Surprised at the results!

Did you get wood though?

[Wity]

hahaha, honestly I had no idea what you were on about till I just googled the same myself.

If anyone wants to look up pics of virtually any kind of wood the place to go is : http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/person...indextotal.htm
I cant imagine a more comprehensive site let alone find one.

The grain in black and white ebony I like looks a bit like marble, oil on water or even the pattern kids make with a straw by blow painting. I've seen it on knife handles which look stunning and I reckon it'd look just as good as a butt on an unspliced cue.

look at the 7th and 8th pictures from top to bottom left to right: http://www.hobbithouseinc.com/person...ny,%20misc.htm
and under "pale moon ebony" there is simlar.