New cue makers

[cambridge]

Further to my above post I've just used the cuemaker on your website, went for a one piece snooker cue at 57 inches long with plain ebony butt and mini butt with extra shaft ? and the list came out thus

cue for snooker $100
ash shaft $200
joint position $50
joint position + type of wood $55
butt design, no design $50
cue weight 18oz's (couldn't get any lighter)
cue tip, navigator $10
mini butt $65
extra ash shaft $170

grand total of $700

Now how come I can get a one piece hand spliced cue with a joint and an extra shaft and have to pay an extra $50 for no butt design ?

Hi, yes i noticed that one the one piece area a few days ago and our web developer will make the change.
Every piece of wood has a setting and there are hundreds of settings.
I could show no settings what so ever and just a total but we tried to show everything.

Maybe i shouldn't split things up as people will pick that one area like you have done and focus on it.
To be honest it has taken 2 years of developing the program and I'm proud of what we have achieved and i think having all aspects of the pricing shown is good.

Wood and having things made still costs money even with a plain ebony butt there's still work and cost involved unless you own a wood mill and don't have to pay anything.
Wish i had that like you must have.

Mike

[vmax4steve]

Hi, yes i noticed that one the one piece area a few days ago and our web developer will make the change.
Every piece of wood has a setting and there are hundreds of settings.
I could show no settings what so ever and just a total but we tried to show everything.

Maybe i shouldn't split things up as people will pick that one area like you have done and focus on it.
To be honest it has taken 2 years of developing the program and I'm proud of what we have achieved and i think having all aspects of the pricing shown is good.

Wood and having things made still costs money even with a plain ebony butt there's still work and cost involved unless you own a wood mill and don't have to pay anything.
Wish i had that like you must have.

Mike

Itemised bills simply rack up the price, we've all been to a garage and had our cars/motorbikes serviced and faced that. I could make you a cup of coffee and give an itemised bill and make it look like actual work has gone into it rather than pouring hot water into a cup of granules.

An awful lot of snooker players swear by a one piece cue, so that's what I chose as I couldn't see a picture of one on your website.
Your cuemaker needs to have N/A to options like joint position and extra shaft when one piece is selected, you don't need two years to work that out and it's easy enough to hand splice a one piece cue that weighs less than 18 oz's; a bare ash shaft comes in at about 14 oz's and once four ash wedges have been planed out and spliced with ebony it's about 16 ounces.

Are your one piece cues genuine true one pieces where one length of timber goes from tip all the way to the end of the butt ? We the customer need to know if we're paying £500 for it when we can get one piece cues made from two separate pieces of timber (that are dowell joined under the splices where it can't be seen) for £50 and turned on a cnc lathe in China or Thailand.

I am genuinely not putting down your company or your efforts but as a US pool cue maker entering the snooker market you need to know what is expected of your product, and something turned on a cnc lathe isn't unique (in fact it would be looked down on by most of the snooker fraternity) so shouldn't be priced like it is hand made by a skilled craftsman.

Simply too expensive for what they are and how they're made and that's all I'm saying.

[jonny66]

Why are cues turned on a CNC lathe seen as inferior by snooker cue buffs? I don't see how it could have any negative effect on the cue.

[Ninja.cues]

Why are cues turned on a CNC lathe seen as inferior by snooker cue buffs? I don't see how it could have any negative effect on the cue.

Let me put it this way, if your buying a sofa and went to a big store to buy one (mass production), would you expect to pay more or the same for one, of you went to a smaller firm that did it all by hand?

If it's more, why would you expect any different from a hand made cue.
That is not a hand made cue if most of the with work is done by CNC machine.
Post of what your posting for, is the time a maker puts in to making it.

[itsnoteasy]

Why are cues turned on a CNC lathe seen as inferior by snooker cue buffs? I don't see how it could have any negative effect on the cue.

Wouldn't bother me , if I liked it. For me as long as they aren't advertised as hand made, it's all good. Who knows they could be far better, I don't see the nine ballers moaning their cues aren't hand planed.

[RogiBear]

I've sold a lot of cues from many different companies in other businesses i have. I've been in the industry for a while and seen most cue makers decide on the balance points depending on the natural cue weights. Most are good at it but some aren't at all.
Most players wouldn't have a preference but some do.
I didn't say all Cue Makers don't let you choose did I??
Anyway lets be nice i was only posting up from a post not to get into a cue war and I'm not looking for a forum life at posting.

Those balance points are good for a 56-59 inch cue for sure.

Mike

Not trying to get into a cue war at all. What was the norm maybe 10-15 years ago regards bp has changed a lot and the demand for a bp is there. Cue makers may not advertise that they offer this but I'd be surprised if they turned someone away for requesting a certain bp.

[GasMonkey]

Wouldn't bother me , if I liked it. For me as long as they aren't advertised as hand made, it's all good. Who knows they could be far better, I don't see the nine ballers moaning their cues aren't hand planed.

I wouldn't like to put a % on it but the majority of US pool players will use an aftermarket low deflection shaft made up of laminates. The butt end really is decorative to be fair and a cnc large will achieve the finish desired.

If X company were to produce a properly built, radially spliced shaft with something akin to the predator or woolridge ferrules I'd be prepared to pay for the R&D etc that's gone in to it. They would almost certainly be CNC lathed down to finish. The quality would have to be miles ahead of the Acuerates I saw though.

Just using CNC to make standard tech cues should equate to a lower overall price as the margin of retail vs production cost is massively wider than handmade, once setup costs have been recouped.

[cambridge]

I wouldn't like to put a % on it but the majority of US pool players will use an aftermarket low deflection shaft made up of laminates. The butt end really is decorative to be fair and a cnc large will achieve the finish desired.

If X company were to produce a properly built, radially spliced shaft with something akin to the predator or woolridge ferrules I'd be prepared to pay for the R&D etc that's gone in to it. They would almost certainly be CNC lathed down to finish. The quality would have to be miles ahead of the Acuerates I saw though.

Just using CNC to make standard tech cues should equate to a lower overall price as the margin of retail vs production cost is massively wider than handmade, once setup costs have been recouped.

maybe you should buy a CNC lathe to do this as they aren't cheap at all.
The reason i have done this and Stuart Bingham agrees with this is that the finish is so much smoother.

Cues made by hand have small straight segments when you run your finger around them and with the CNC finish it leaves a much smoother surface.
We of course also use sand paper like all other cue maker do.
For the USA pool cues we have a new shaft out using a carbon core but in a completely different way that hasn't been done before. That comes out in a few months time.
With the USA butts the standard butt is made from three seperate pieces as shown on our video but we have also made another very large change to construction here as well which will come out later this year.

In our snooker cues we have also done other things but that can come out later.
Unlike Predator i don't think everything should be shared as people just copy and can do that later.

Not worth getting patten's these days as they don't mean anything in the copying centre of the world. (China)
As far as low deflection i think the USA uses this word to much with many low performing cue shafts.
We had Dr Cue (Tom Rossman) try our new butt and shafts for pool and he took one home straight away and wants another cue made up with his current design.

Mike

[cambridge]

Not trying to get into a cue war at all. What was the norm maybe 10-15 years ago regards bp has changed a lot and the demand for a bp is there. Cue makers may not advertise that they offer this but I'd be surprised if they turned someone away for requesting a certain bp.

Yes, i agree balance points have become more asked for and some of the major cue companies do set up some rather weird one's. Also wish they would stop using steel rods as fixing peoples cues is hard when you have a piece of steel in them.
I know in the UK lead is still ok to use but they have banned it in the USA now.

McDermott uses aluminium of different weights in the pool cue designs which as they make so many USA pool cues the designs have been made and specifications on each cue are stored on ipads. Each cue has a chart and which joint bolts to use depending on the cue design and weight.
Quite an amazing factory compared to some i saw in the UK with humidifier controlling the whole factory.

[cambridge]

Hi, yes i noticed that one the one piece area a few days ago and our web developer will make the change.
Every piece of wood has a setting and there are hundreds of settings.
I could show no settings what so ever and just a total but we tried to show everything.

Maybe i shouldn't split things up as people will pick that one area like you have done and focus on it.
To be honest it has taken 2 years of developing the program and I'm proud of what we have achieved and i think having all aspects of the pricing shown is good.

Wood and having things made still costs money even with a plain ebony butt there's still work and cost involved unless you own a wood mill and don't have to pay anything.
Wish i had that like you must have.

Mike

We have fixed the one piece cue area and as we have a coupon code BING17/18 the 15% takes care of the pricing issue you mentioned.

[vmax4steve]

We have fixed the one piece cue area and as we have a coupon code BING17/18 the 15% takes care of the pricing issue you mentioned.

Please tell us if your one piece cues are genuine one pieces where the shaft is one solid length of timber that goes from tip to the end of the butt.

[vmax4steve]

Cues made by hand have small straight segments when you run your finger around them and with the CNC finish it leaves a much smoother surface.

My own cue does, but I don't feel it when the cue runs over my bridge, and I think this helps stop the cue feeling sticky as there is less wood touching the skin, too smooth means too sticky, which is why I don't like maple too much and also why a lot of 9 ball players use a glove.
The benefits of ash are that it isn't too smooth and the enhanced grain looks good, so if you're making an ash shaft super smooth by filling the natural pores/grain and finishing it to be as smooth as maple then to my mind you're masking the benefits of the natural product.
Some players swear by super smooth I know, especially so if they're sponsoring a product, doesn't mean anything as long as you don't get splinters

[ambrad]

hi all
does any one have experience making their own snooker cue. I am a joiner that has played snooker for 35 years and wanted a new cue. I decided to make my own and have made the shaft ready for the ferrule and splices. Although the shaft appears straight when I look down the shaft, when I put a long straight edge to it there are some imperfections and although I spent about an hour trying to correct it, it still isn't as straight as I think it should be. can hand made cues be perfect or am I expecting too much. does anyone have any tecniques to help me improve the shaft. any help would be great as I don't want to make a cue that is playable.
thanks all. I look forward to your reply

[Ninja.cues]

hi all
does any one have experience making their own snooker cue. I am a joiner that has played snooker for 35 years and wanted a new cue. I decided to make my own and have made the shaft ready for the ferrule and splices. Although the shaft appears straight when I look down the shaft, when I put a long straight edge to it there are some imperfections and although I spent about an hour trying to correct it, it still isn't as straight as I think it should be. can hand made cues be perfect or am I expecting too much. does anyone have any tecniques to help me improve the shaft. any help would be great as I don't want to make a cue that is playable.
thanks all. I look forward to your reply

There are a few that make cues on here.
Don't use the straight edge for a start, as using you eye, will do fine.
Not all maker's have straight sides to a cue, depending on how thick they make it at a certain point.
Shoe is some pics but would be better to start your own thread and more chance to get the answers you want.

[vmax4steve]

Please tell us if your one piece cues are genuine one pieces where the shaft is one solid length of timber that goes from tip to the end of the butt.

The lack of an answer tells me that they aren't.