Help fitting laminated tip

[snookerloopylewis]

Hi,

Can anyone offer any advice for fitting a laminated tip ?

I bought some Talisman soft tips from ADR (many thanks ADR) over Christmas and tried to fit one yesterday evening, however it just fell apart once cut.

I removed my old elkmaster tip and all the glue. Rubbed the bottom of the tip over sandpaper to prepare it. Glued it down using loctite powerflex gel glue. Let it set and turned it upside down to cut of the excess.

I bought the tips at 11mm and my cue tip is 9mm. I'm using a fairly sharp Stanley knife to cut it whilst the cue and tip is upside down but as soon as I'd cut it a few times the tip delaminated.

Am I doing something wrong or could it be that my knife is not sharp enough ?

[karlos fandango]

If I were you I would buy a scalpel off ebay..I use one on laminated tips and never had any bother...Swann Morton scalpel is the one I use..and don't try to take too much off at once, just slowly trim away at the tip

[franksandellsnooker]

You identified your own problem. A "fairly sharp " Stanley blade is pointless. Any craftsman will tell you blades on all tools must be perfect.. F.

[luke-h]

I think that most people on here will say the have a swann morton scalpel with the number 11 blades.

[Catch 22]

I trim my tips by putting the blade against the ferrule and turn the cue as to shave down the tip ( hard to explain)

[Terry Davidson]

I keep telling you guys not to cut the tips and to carefully use a coarse b*stard file with downward motions only, especially for laminated tips.

However, I realize most players want to take that tip down real quick using a sharp blade, holding the cue upside down against a cutting surface and cut away the excess. Even with compressed tips there is a chance you will loosen the tips and they will end up spongy or with laminated tip if you aren't very careful they will de-laminate.

Using a coarse file (which admittedly takes a bit more time) I have never had a problem EVER with getting my tip shaped. I use a coarse file first for the raw shaping, then a finer file and lastly a metal nail file for final shaping. Never had a problem.

[Dave Walton]

You don't need a scalpel but you do need a new blade in your Stanley knife, remember to press the cue tip down onto the cutting surface and use small cuts, don't try and take big pieces off, use lots of small cuts.

[Dave Walton]

I keep telling you guys not to cut the tips and to carefully use a coarse b*stard file with downward motions only, especially for laminated tips.

However, I realize most players want to take that tip down real quick using a sharp blade, holding the cue upside down against a cutting surface and cut away the excess. Even with compressed tips there is a chance you will loosen the tips and they will end up spongy or with laminated tip if you aren't very careful they will de-laminate.

Using a coarse file (which admittedly takes a bit more time) I have never had a problem EVER with getting my tip shaped. I use a coarse file first for the raw shaping, then a finer file and lastly a metal nail file for final shaping. Never had a problem.

Surely using a course file and even a fine file to try and get the tip flush with the ferrule will result in catching the ferrule and or shaft causing damage?!

[trevs1]

Hi,

Can anyone offer any advice for fitting a laminated tip ?

I bought some Talisman soft tips from ADR (many thanks ADR) over Christmas and tried to fit one yesterday evening, however it just fell apart once cut.

I removed my old elkmaster tip and all the glue. Rubbed the bottom of the tip over sandpaper to prepare it. Glued it down using loctite powerflex gel glue. Let it set and turned it upside down to cut of the excess.

I bought the tips at 11mm and my cue tip is 9mm. I'm using a fairly sharp Stanley knife to cut it whilst the cue and tip is upside down but as soon as I'd cut it a few times the tip delaminated.

Am I doing something wrong or could it be that my knife is not sharp enough ?

Part of your problem here is that you're using a tip which is just too large for your cue. Unless you are experienced in doing it, it will always prove a bit tricky to cut off so much excess tip. Having said that, with knowledge and practise, it can still be done perfectly. Laminated tips are fine for holding shape, and if you prefer a harder contact sound for your cue, but, the very fact that they are laminated does mean that they can peel apart this way if pressure is badly applied to them, especially if the tips layers are not bonded together too well.

There is nothing wrong with using a blade to trim any tip into the ferrule wall. No matter whether that's a layered tip or pressed tip. If the layers are poorly bonded, they may well come apart later anyway, so better to find out when it's being fitted than later when you thought all was rosey. The same applies to pressed tips, in that if they don't trim down well and become ragged and soft, then the tip is no good anyhow. Over time, you will learn how to spot these issues without even having to bother fit them, you will know by just looking at them and feeling them.

Anyway, rambling over.. This is how I cut tips into ferrule walls. I have used this same method for more than twenty years and it's always worked fine for me. I understand that I probably fit more tips than most will ever do, but the principle is easily adopted and learnt. Once you get it, it's a quick reliable way of getting the tip sides perfectly aligned with the ferrule wall. After some practise, you should be able to create all sorts of tip shapes using this method, simply by leaning the blade inwards or outwards fractionally, and then final shaping with absrasives.

This shows me cutting a pressed tip, slowly so the technique can be followed. The same can be done with laminated tips, and if you want to see that, I'll make up a vid of it and will post that up.

Here.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N-hmyBxNn0

[gazza147]

I have to say I have seen trevor do this in person and I can assure you it's a lot harder than it looks on that video as when I first seen him do it I couldn't beleive my eyes how quick he re-tipped 6 cues in front of me in the Brackla Snooker Club!

I also fit alot of tips and I will say if your not confident doing it Trevor's way turn cue upside down on hard cutting surface and do tiny cuts as already mentioned but please make sure there is down pressure all the time otherwise any tip will come apart especially pressed ones.

Gaz.

[trevs1]

It's a fair point that it takes a little practise Gareth, but you've seen first hand how quick and effective it is once it's mastered. Fitting and shaping a tip can be done within about 60 seconds. That's not an exageration either.

The advantage to doing it as I do it, is that the cue and tip will be in front of you at chest height as you cut it, or, it can be held over a flat work surface, like done in the video clip. This keeps everything clearly in view and allows any adjustment to the blade angle as you go. Of course, it can be done slowly (much slower than I did it in the clip even) and tiny slithers of tip can be removed at a time. The adjustment to cutting angle is far easier to my mind than by doing it upside down, whereby you are unable to actually see the angle of cut very well, while at the same time having to keep downward pressure on the cue in order to stop you ripping the tip back off again.

The greatest advantage to this method is that there will be (or shouldn't be when you're adept at it) no flat edges to the tip at all. It wil be perfectly rounded and will follow the shape of the ferrule exactly if you wish.

[blinky88]

9mm ferrule 11mm tip, why not simply buy 9mm tips ???

[narl]

9mm ferrule 11mm tip, why not simply buy 9mm tips ???

So you can trim it to an exact fit, some ferrules are a little over or under what they're meant to be, same with tips.

[fredkite]

I think Trev's method is easy if the tip and ferrule are of a similar size, I tried it with a 10mm tip on a 9mm ferrule and struggled like buggery!

[snookerloopylewis]

9mm ferrule 11mm tip, why not simply buy 9mm tips ???

So you can trim it to an exact fit, some ferrules are a little over or under what they're meant to be, same with tips.

Also I seem to remember someone on here stated that the glue was better on the larger laminated tips so it was better to get a larger tip to decrease the chance of delamination.

That was the thinking anyway. ☺