Kevin DeRoo cue maker

[JasonOwen]

good luck terry, you need to be very careful.

as jason owen can testify, there is a danger of the drill wandering and coming out of the side of cue near splices.

Terry,
You need to think along the lines of a drill bit that is very long (18 inches) and hence very flexible and also you have to understand your drilling through part ebony to start with and then into softer ash.
I came to the conclusion that the grain in the softer ash could possibly cox the flexible drill bit to wander off the true centre.
I looked at the gun barrell bits but havent tried them, may work better with these than conventional drill bits.
Its a tough part of cue making and takes some working out.

[DWOT]

ok, lets call it a misunderstanding.

yes, i was questioning, but only cos i did not quite understand what was being said.

pqj actually confused issues when he mentioned 'prongs'. he has since explained what he meant to me and now kevin has cleared up my query about the length of his ebony butts.

also, i was puzzled that i asked specifically about ebony length but was given an answer about the way butterfly spliced and hand spliced are made and the way they affect weight. i know this of course, and had already explained to terry in an earlier post almost exactly the same information.

i was just curious about the length. so i have no further questions nor any particular interest in this matter.

as for tips, yes, good news. my little run out yesterday proved to me i am onto something.

but it's not just the tips, i have something else up my sleeve

i'll be posting some more info in a separate thread soon.

Fair play chap, very intriguing as to what it is you're on to!

p.s. welcome to Kevin, I forgot to say that!

[DeanH]

as for tips, yes, good news. my little run out yesterday proved to me i am onto something.
but it's not just the tips, i have something else up my sleeve
i'll be posting some more info in a separate thread soon.

what a tease
cannot wait to find out

[narl]

Will these tips be available in sizes over 10mm? Think my Mannock thats geting referruled is around 10.5-10.7.

[DWOT]

Will these tips be available in sizes over 10mm? Think my Mannock thats geting referruled is around 10.5-10.7.

You'll have to splice two of them together!

[Terry Davidson]

I have a Northwest cue here which weighs around 17oz and has no butt socket. I added 1.5oz of lead tape around the balance point and it actually played (for me anyway) quite well and I basically got the cue for free so I will experiment with that one and if I screw it up then no big deal.

My wife has a nice drill press but it's not high enough to take a 1pc cue and an 18" bit so I will have to use a vice and a hand drill plus I'm going to start with a bit which is under 1/2" and go very carefully and slowly. Luckily the Northwest does not have an ebony butt however I have a MAC cue here which was supposed to be over 17oz but came in at 16.4oz which is way too light but again it plays quite well when I weighted it up to over 18oz with the lead tape so that will be project #2. The problem is it has a butt socket so I will have to remove that first and I don't have any kind of removal tool outside of finding a long bolt which will fit the socket and then heating it up and trying to turn it out. That should be a challenge for me.

I have no ambitions to be a cuemaker since my wife has taken all the room not only in her own workshop, but also in the basement and the garage with her glass art, so there would be no room for me to set one up. I guess I have to consider myself lucky I was able to make a snooker room in the basement without having to share it with one of her glass cutters.

Terry

[narl]

I I guess I have to consider myself lucky I was able to make a snooker room in the basement without having to share it with one of her glass cutters.

Terry

Must be a pretty big basement to say the least

[poolqjunkie]

Gun drilling would be a much better option in my humble opinion. You also need to deal with the heat when you bore that deep.

[Terry Davidson]

pqj:

WTF is 'gun drilling? Never heard the term (remember, I'm a good candidate for 'Canada's Worst Handyman).

Yes, with an 18" bit I figured I'd have to go slow and maybe lubricate the bit a bunch of times, especially with the ebony.

Of course, on the other hand maybe I could send these two cues to you, along with my latest Aurora 1pc and have them all weighted up to 18.5oz, how does that sound?

Terry

[poolqjunkie]

You can also try to use a forstner bit to drill a short hole to sort of guide the drill bit straight into the wood and then do it bit by bit--but you still need to deal with the heat and all the mess. You can get a steady rest with a metal bushing to hold the long drill bit in place so it will not wobble and stay straight.
Gun drilling is a much better method. You can also bore through metal with gun drilling. You need to buy special tools and set up to do it--unless your wife has something like that in her workshop. You would need to have a lathe. A wood lathe would work with some modification but you need a lathe.
Nowadays a lot of US pool cue makers core their woods to keep them from warping and to keep the weight down. Gun drilling is usually the method they use.
I suspect this term "gun drilling" came from boring a long straight hole through metal to make that long barrel in guns. As the hole needs to be very straight and the length is usually many times the diameter it was not an easy task.
Gun drilling involves the use of coolant/air to cool down whatever it is that you need to drill and it extracts all the bits along the process so they will not get trapped inside the hole as you drill. It can drill a very straight hole that is much longer than it is wide.
It is very useful in making flutes, guns, pipes, pool cues, and so on.

[Kevin DeRoo]

hello kevin
welcome 14 years and counting with my 1pc ash ebny/snake branch
rodney

Hey Rodney ,thanks , good to hear from you.

[Kevin DeRoo]

pqj:

WTF is 'gun drilling? Never heard the term (remember, I'm a good candidate for 'Canada's Worst Handyman).

Yes, with an 18" bit I figured I'd have to go slow and maybe lubricate the bit a bunch of times, especially with the ebony.

Of course, on the other hand maybe I could send these two cues to you, along with my latest Aurora 1pc and have them all weighted up to 18.5oz, how does that sound?

Terry

An old trick to keep a long drill bit centered in the cue is to if possible have the cue turning in the opposite dirrection
as the drill bit. It makes the drill bit want to be self centering .

[Terry Davidson]

Kevin:

No doubt a good suggestion, however I would think a lathe would be needed to accomplish that and I don't have one.

Would you offer this service? If so, what would you charge to drill out 3 one-piece cues and weight them up to 18.5oz?

Terry

[hotpot]

Terry i may be able to help you out if you want Trevor to do your cues . I can take them to him at the start of your trip and ask him if he can do them by the time you leave .

[Terry Davidson]

That would be a good thing...I have a TW cue, 3/4-butt which is my playing cue and I need about 0.8oz added to it to bring it up to 18.5oz.

However, on the 3 cues I'd liked drilled out it would be too cumbersome to bring them over and back as I'm already picking up a couple of cues while I'm at the SWSA and I would probably have to ship them back or else tie a couple of cases together.

I can't seem to get a response from Trevor so I assume he must be busy with orders

Terry