Milk duds?

[Byrom]

I am going to give this a go - tip compression is the way to go me thinks - best tip I ever had was done like this for me - excluding the milk thing and it lasted a lot longer and played right immediately. So I just bought my own clamp to compress the elks but it will be a while before I am playing to try one again. So I think I will just prepare a few tips while I am out of action ready for use.

I do not want a marble on the end of the cue so is there a formula for keeping it on the softer side?

How long do you soak

What milk

How long do you clamp

Best drying process

Anything else

[jrc750]

I am going to give this a go - tip compression is the way to go me thinks - best tip I ever had was done like this for me - excluding the milk thing and it lasted a lot longer and played right immediately. So I just bought my own clamp to compress the elks but it will be a while before I am playing to try one again. So I think I will just prepare a few tips while I am out of action ready for use.

I do not want a marble on the end of the cue so is there a formula for keeping it on the softer side?

How long do you soak

What milk

How long do you clamp

Best drying process

Anything else

Why don't you just try a MW supertip, no messing around required !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Byrom]

I like elks - They are cheap and if you get a good one they are great, they just need compressing first, then shaping and burnishing to get right I find and I enjoy messing to get the perfect tip - I actually like the sense of accomplishment when I do get a good one.

Had a few that were suspect ones though but I am getting better at picking the good one out the box now.

[Gallardo26]

@Byrom - The marble feel is only temporary... I'm still trying to figure out the problem. After bedding in (by playing a frame and sanding the tip down). It will become much softer and better to play. How long you soak really depends... I've tried to soak for very long and the tip became cauliflower. LOL.

I normally clamp and leave it overnight as to let the tip to dry... I varies depending on how you clamp. I bought a Nut and Bolt with a torque wrench to keep my clamp hardness consistent.

You really have to experiment around and what suits best with your cue.

The diff with soaking in milk rather than just clamping is that it gives better bite and it keeps the tip feel throughout very similar. If you did not soak the milk properly, most tip after sometime of play, it will give off a very "dead" feel, and no longer have a bit of the proper "bounce" feeling. (Also, It varies on diff people, some like soft bouncy tip, some like 'stable' hard dull feeling...)

@jrc750, I have tried MW's tip a couple of them. They are very nice firm and consistent, very nice tip. I find that when you install and use it nicely without sanding it down thin like you see on Ronnie's, John Higgins, about 1mm edge left, it is very firm and nice. However, i find that the tip is very "dampening" on my shots... thus i have to change my stroke to create the reaction on want on the cueball. And I sucked at sticking on 10mm tips which requires an amount of precision. Wasted a couple on that also.

So far I've spend around at least 25 elks testing and playing around... I have narrowed down a specific settings for the tip like how long you soak, clamp torque, etc... The few "fit for playing" that last long, have nice feel and reaction, good bite and minimum throw, durability (not easily mushroom, and how fast it becomes 'dead')... So far tried 2 with the same settings and its very nice.

I've created another 2 with the same setting to make sure it is still similar and consistent, then I could be sure that my tools and variables are consistent enough, then I slowly tweak different settings to improve the properties.
Frankly, the tip played so nice that I am very reluctant to rip the tip off to test the other 2 extra. and they last VERY long.

I'm not saying other tips are not good... but I find that the tips that I made really plays better... at least for me.

[Gallardo26]

There is a website, can't remember the name, that explains the properties of the Strain, Stress and Grip (Amount of compression, How much pressure the tip could take & how much torque the tip could generate spin) a tip should take in order to achieve the best efficiency scientifically.

Which they explain that it should reach an optimum combination of these 3 properties... for example if the leather on the tip does not have good grip and cannot have good compression, it will cause a lot of squirt or worst, miscue. However if the tip can have good compression but does not have good grip, it will have very stable shots but lots of effort required for screw back etc... when you tried to generate spin.

They also recommend milk and does provide a ridiculously expensive (Nut & Bolt) tool at $67 USD to clamp your tips... They even provide some instructions on the process... I didn't follow exactly though.

[Byrom]

@Byrom - The marble feel is only temporary... I'm still trying to figure out the problem. After bedding in (by playing a frame and sanding the tip down). It will become much softer and better to play. How long you soak really depends... I've tried to soak for very long and the tip became cauliflower. LOL.

I normally clamp and leave it overnight as to let the tip to dry... I varies depending on how you clamp. I bought a Nut and Bolt with a torque wrench to keep my clamp hardness consistent.

You really have to experiment around and what suits best with your cue.

The diff with soaking in milk rather than just clamping is that it gives better bite and it keeps the tip feel throughout very similar. If you did not soak the milk properly, most tip after sometime of play, it will give off a very "dead" feel, and no longer have a bit of the proper "bounce" feeling. (Also, It varies on diff people, some like soft bouncy tip, some like 'stable' hard dull feeling...)

@jrc750, I have tried MW's tip a couple of them. They are very nice firm and consistent, very nice tip. I find that when you install and use it nicely without sanding it down thin like you see on Ronnie's, John Higgins, about 1mm edge left, it is very firm and nice. However, i find that the tip is very "dampening" on my shots... thus i have to change my stroke to create the reaction on want on the cueball. And I sucked at sticking on 10mm tips which requires an amount of precision. Wasted a couple on that also.

So far I've spend around at least 25 elks testing and playing around... I have narrowed down a specific settings for the tip like how long you soak, clamp torque, etc... The few "fit for playing" that last long, have nice feel and reaction, good bite and minimum throw, durability (not easily mushroom, and how fast it becomes 'dead')... So far tried 2 with the same settings and its very nice.

I've created another 2 with the same setting to make sure it is still similar and consistent, then I could be sure that my tools and variables are consistent enough, then I slowly tweak different settings to improve the properties.
Frankly, the tip played so nice that I am very reluctant to rip the tip off to test the other 2 extra. and they last VERY long.

I'm not saying other tips are not good... but I find that the tips that I made really plays better... at least for me.

Great advice and I totally agree,

Please share your optimum settings for making these

Do you boil them in milk and for how long

what milk/

when clamped - (I think I bought the same tip clamp as you from China) how long do you clamp and is there a difference between doing this for say an hour or two or overnight.

Basically because you have done the leg work it would save me a lot of time and tips to get it right if I could follow what you do. Much appreciated.

[Gallardo26]

I can't give you exact details as the tools and equipment does varies a lot. Especially how hard you clamp.
You really have to try it out yourself. Further more some of the variables I'm still trying to get it consistent and I can't guarantee the effect of it. Search around the net, you should be able to find some basic process.

[Byrom]

I have asked various people already some people say just clamp the elks for two hours some say clamp overnight.

Some say boil in milk for 20 mins some say longer

What do you do?