Sanding the tip flat helps me

[Stick]

Recently got two new local cues made, but tip-size were 9.5 which I thought would be OK.

However, it seems my potting abilities takes a serious nosedive when only the little flat part of a dome-shaped 9.5mm tip actually makes contact with the white ball.

Last night I took them out and sanded the tips totally flat so that just about the whole 9.5 mm now makes contact with the white. Or at least in my mind it does

Hooray, I can now pot a ball again. Seems that whilst 10mm is my preferred tip size a flat profiled 9.5 will also work.

Is it common practice to sand down tips till their flat, or is it not normally a good idea?

[jrc750]

Normally a bad idea
If you only ever strike the white at the centre of the ball then its ok, but as soon as you use any sort of screw, top spin, or side, the contact patch is greater (and hence more control) if the tip is domed to match the curve of the white. Edit: see my crude sketch to try & prove you get more contact patch on the white with a domed tip

[Stick]

Oops

I am not a very advanced player, so I tend to strike mostly plain ball. Did hit a few top spin shots which behaved very well (but then again I am used to a old Joe Davis cue with the plastic ferrule) whilst screw shots were generally not good.

Potting was excellent however and, having cheated with one red that refused to drop by a millimeter (I helped it into the pocket a bit) I actually made a fairly good break of 41.

Think I will leave it as is for a while and see what happens in a club game

[jrc750]

Just added a crude sketch to my last post - take a look

[Stick]

You are no Picasso, but you make a very good point

It seems this was one of my not so great ideas. Maybe I must edit the topic to "sanding the tip screw up your screw shots"