How long for a handmade cue?

[Wity]

Ignoring the time where the wood is left standing between stages how many hours do you think a cue builder actually spends working on producing a cue lets say to the standard of a £300 Wooldrige 3/4 ? Dont include or if you do, do so seperately the time spent selecting /ordering wood etc Just assume all is already at hand.


Cuebuilders please dont answer (just yet anyways). Not trying to suss an equivelent hourly rate of Wooldrige or anyone, I'm just curious why some folks seem to think it's quite acceptable to wait 6 months or more for a cue made from "normal" materials one would expect to be kept in stock. I accept a one man band like Wooldrige who may refuse to take on staff and thus keep the quality at his own standard could be in the fortunate position where his cues are in such demand his schedule may be so full he cant start a new cue for x months but a six months quote from say Parris or equivelent seems unexplainable to me, yet so acceptable to others.

[ADR147]

lol - why not make a poll and we can vote on how long we think it takes? then later you will get an answer!

[Gramayr]

I reckon about 1/2 an hour. How hard can it be to whittle down a broom handle on a lathe?

[ADR147]

remind me not to hire you!

[Gramayr]

OK, at a guess?
£300 works out at 20 hours (which is about 3 working days) @ £15/hour not including materials.
I'd expect a trained craftsman to have an hourly rate somewhere about this.

I don't know how long the rest periods are between stages, I guess in these times another cue can be worked on.

Then there would be..
Sourcing wood - how do you charge for this?
Time spent searching, overheads (phone, internet, petrol postage etc)
Cost of materials once found

Plus..
General overheads.
Electricity, tool wear.

So, how far would £300 go to produce something handmade while still being competitive within the market?

How far out am I?

[craigslater]

You have to remember that a cue maker has more than one cue to make at the same time, and cues have settle at certain at certain times so that the wood doesnt get stressed etc

So you would have to work out all of the outgoing divided by all the cues which are made.

I think you also have to remember, cue making is an art which not a lot of people are good at, it takes many MANY years to become excellent at cuemaking and this has to be taken into consideration when taking into account the time taken, good things come to those who wait.

[Qubit]

I think this is difficult to answer for many reasons. Depends on your definition of hand made/hand spliced etc. If everything is done by hand - no machines then it probably takes a very long time indeed. Also i dont think all cue makers approach the process in the same way.

[craigslater]

I think this is difficult to answer for many reasons. Depends on your definition of hand made/hand spliced etc. If everything is done by hand - no machines then it probably takes a very long time indeed. Also i dont think all cue makers approach the process in the same way.

good answer

[Watford]

I think about 2 months I'd say would be about right!
6 months would be a bloody long time to wait!

[ADR147]

different cues also take different amounts of time - as we all know already no two bits of wood are the same, plus some cues have an awful lot of time consuming splices etc. also different finishes take different amounts of time. so are we talking a plain black ebony butt cue or what?

[Gramayr]

..so how long do you leave a cue (total hours/days approx) between stages?

[ADR147]

once again every cue is different! as are different peoples methods of building them.

[Wity]

.... so are we talking a plain black ebony butt cue or what?

Lets say like this..


Which is £320 on Mikes site.

[ADR147]

in actual man hours not resting time etc i would guess about 6

[Wity]

I did some sums and came up with 5 or 6 hours myself. 20 if he's an ex Leyland employee used to 40 minuite teabreaks every hour.

Was a daft question really with no bearing on what i really could not understand. ie the 6 months waiting some say. That must be down to a full order book / lack of cues part finished in stages which you would not get from a factory sized maker.