The custom pool cue shafts are glued up, so let’s work on the cue butts. Here’s a butt made with walnut and figured maple being glued up.
Here are a couple of butts rough turned to about 1.5 inches in diameter.
Next, on some of the shafts and butts I added accent rings. On this one I used ebony, plastic, and aluminum joint rings. On others I used SpectraPly (from Cousineau Wood Products) and dyed veneer.
I got my cue parts (ferrules, tips, joint collars, etc.) from Atlas Billiard Supplies (cuestik.com). The Atlas standard brass inserts have a lip on them. After drilling a hole as deep as the lip on the inserts (about 1/8 inch) with a ½ inch Forstner bit, I then drilled a 3/8 inch hole in the center of the ½ inch hole (the tape marks the depth). This hole was then tapped for a 7/16 x 14 outside diameter brass insert. A steady rest (this one’s a Spindle Steady from Oneway) is an absolute necessity for cue making.
On the other end of the shaft I turned a recess to fit a 1.25-inch long capped and threaded Aegis II ferrule. I found that my 5/16 x 18 die really chewed up the wood, so instead of threading the end, I turned the end of the shaft to slightly larger than .25 inches, turned some shallow groves on it, and basically screwed and epoxied the ferrule in place. They do make compression dies for threading the shaft for the ferrule and for threading the butt for the joint collar.
The shaft (and ferrule) is then turned to shape. After the brass insert had been epoxied into the joint end of the shaft, I wrapped a little masking tape around the threads of an extra brass insert, screwed an extra brass pin into the insert, and then screwed both of these into the brass insert in the shaft. I used smooth spigot jaws to hold and center the joint end of the shaft in my headstock. Fortunately, the tip end of the ferrule has a very small center hole that allows a sharply pointed revolving center in the tail stock a place to anchor. I knew that I wanted the end of the ferrule to be about 12.5mm (.492 inches) in diameter. The joint ring is .875 inches in diameter. My relative wanted a straight or European taper on the shaft, so I figured out what the diameter of the shaft should be at one quarter intervals of the length to guide my turning. That came out to .492 inches at the tip, .588 at the first quarter, .684 at mid-point, .779 at three quarters, and .875 at the joint.
Custom Cue Part 3 Coming Soon.