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Anyone make pool cues

Joined
May 7, 2004
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Never tried to make one, but have had a few swung at me in my younger days before I learned it's best to just shoot pool and not your mouth! :cool2:

My guess is if you are one swinging the heavier the better, but if you are one being swung at they need to be light and flimsy. :) :eek: :p
 
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
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Most cues run 16 to 21 oz with a provision to change weights according to the feel. custom can start at 100$ and go thru the roof. Brunswick has some burled maple with inlays starting at 600$ , there is a ton of custom makers out there , just google brunswick pool cues and there ya go.and good luck.
:D
 
Joined
Jan 31, 2006
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Gaston, Oregon
Pool Cue

My advice....unless you are VERY good at this, stay away!!! The one unhappy customer you do NOT want (be it due to design, warping, breaking, etc.), is the person that has paid you $500-$1000 or more, and has maybe waited a year for that "dream cue". I, for one am good at what I do, but do NOT need that kind of a day!!! If you want to, go for it, CAREFULLY!!! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
Joined
Sep 30, 2006
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Location
Los Angeles Area
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www.workingwoods.com
The limited pool cue turning I've seen was done on more of a metal lathe than a regular wood lathe. A carriage (or whatever it's called) is used to hold a tool bit.

I Googled "pool cue making" and got this site at the top of the list:

http://www.cuecomponents.com/cuebuco1.html

Looks like a lot of info to be had.

(I've made a couple custom pool cue cases, but that's flatwork, so we'll leave that for another story.)
 
Joined
May 14, 2006
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Location
Vantucky, WA (Vancouver)
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I too have thought about turning "my own" cues, mainly just to see if I can. As it is, I need a better set up. But thought to turn in maple, rock maple, purpleheart and some others I have read that makes great material.

I guess, it would be cool if there were any link to any info. Hopefully someone
may have some. I guess the best way would be to have a duplicater attachment. That way the dia. can be taken down smoothly and evenly, but that is a guess.

Thanks for starting the thread.

Later,
Gothyc Designs
 
Joined
Jan 23, 2007
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Pro shops use a " pattern " lathe that has adjustments for the taper and have a lead screw / carrage for the tool bit along with excellent steady rest to keep things in line, and scarry sharp tooling to cut em with, with out this you will not beable to get it dead straight due to the wobble in the stick and your hands , I for one would not try it with out at least a good accurate steady rest longer than the shanks so I would not have to start and stop my cuts to move the rest and doubled ( two horizontial bars) to make sure my skew gouge/s stayed even. but thats me someone out there who is better than me ,proably would do it different but thats only 30 years of metal machine work talking ....Good luck!
 
Joined
Feb 15, 2006
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There is much more to turning a custom pool cue than meets the eye. As posted before, a special lathe is used to cut a precise taper. Also, laminated maples dowels are sometimes used inside the fore end of the cue to help prevent any warping. Do a search for the "anatomy of a pool cue". Really well crafted cues sell for $2000-$4500 easily. I explored making them and decided to leave it to the experts.
 
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