Pool cue are usually finished with lacquer. A good tip off to this is
the fact that a finish that thin would actually chip. I would take
some lacquer thinner on a Q tip and test a >>small<< (tiny) spot under
a strong light and see if you dissolve the finish at all.
If you do, it is most likely laquer. You can buy a can for a few
bucks, and sand off the chipped edges and put several coats of lacquer
on yourself. You can buff the new finish out to match the rest of the
cue with some white diamond compound on a slow speed buff. Buff out
the test spot, too.
If you just want the protection and realize that more chips are on the
way, try clear fingernail polish (high solids lacquer).
Robert
ted harris wrote:
> The reason that
> this job is $100- to $150- is because there really is no correct way to
> repair a chip like this without the use of a lathe and stripping it all the
> way back to the wood, for most cuemakers standards anyway.
> --
> Ted Harris
> http://www.tedharris.com
And Ted, I know, is a cuemaker with the highest of standards. Thanks
for the advice, Ted!
I know a refinish job is well worth the money. It's just that I plan to
sell this cue in a couple of months, when my new one is finished. It
won't fetch more than $250-$300 so I'm not anxious to invest much in
it. Sounds like my best bet is to just sell it with the chip disclosed.
Anything I try to do will take a lot of effort and probably make things
worse.
BTW, I did refinish my 39 year-old cue once, without benefit of power
tools. It took me two days to hand-sand the old finish off, and another
week to put 10 coats of tung oil on it. But the result is distinctive
and repairs are easy. The finish feels warmer and softer than poly, and
it provides a better grip. I wish cuemakers offered tung oil finishes,
but it's a lot of work compared to spraying poly.
David Hakala
"Mike Marlow" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Toller" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>>
>> "Dhakala" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>> news:[email protected]...
>> > Knocked a chip out of my pool cue's butt:
>> >
>> > http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/dhakala/CueButt002.jpg
>> >
>> > There's no dent in the wood. I suspect this may been a bubble in the
>> > finish.
>> >
>> > Any DIY repair I can do? A cuemaker will charge about $100 to refinish
>> > the entire butt.
>> >
>> Personally I would sand it all down and refinish. Obviously you don't
> want
>> to do that.
>
> No need Toller. It's more likely lacquer which blends very nicely and can
> be buffed to a perfect finish, but even if it really were poly, it can be
> feathered and repaired to a likewise perfect finish.
>
Foolish me, I assumed it was polyurethane because he said it was!
If you can feather poly, you are better than me.
>>
>> If you carefully paint a bit of varnish on with a paint brush, it should
> be
>> okay. Obviously it will still be a defect, but a small one.
>>
>
> Won't work well with either type of finish. You really want to prep the
> area first. You want to break the glaze no matter which finish it is.
>
On the other hand, I have had that work just fine.
"ted harris" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> The first question that needs to be answered in order to repair the cue is
> what kind of finish is it? So in order to determine the finish it would
be
> helpful to know who made it? As far as I know, there are only two
cuemakers
> that use lacquer; Tad Kohara and Barry Szamboti.
Cool - the voice of real expertise.
> In any event, you will have to sand the area until any lifting of the
finish
> in the chipped area has been removed, like say 400 grit. Be very careful,
> as this will create a flat spot in the sanded area, so basically you will
be
> filling the flat spot, then sanding it back to flush with say 1000 grit
the
> rest of the finish.
Correct. I would probably go less aggressive than 400 grit for this very
reason. Maybe no more aggressive than 600. That's probably a preference
thing.
> This in itself creates a problem, as there really is
> almost no way to maintain the roundness of the cue. All of this should be
> done in an area no bigger than the eraser head of a pencil. You will be
> able to tell if the flat spot is round again by rotating the cue between
the
> fingers of your other hand...you will be able to feel the flat spot coming
> around and hitting your fingers. This repair is very tedious at best, and
> you may not like the results.
Tedious somehow doesn't seem to do justice. But let me ask - typically in a
cue like this, how much build up is there from the manufacturer? Enough
that he can expect to contour the shape back to perfect tapered round with a
paint stick (laid across, not along the butt), to flatten the fill back to
the original contour? Obviously, this is going to take some of the factory
contour down as the repair averages out. I don't know how much material
there is to work with.
> After you have sanded it flush again, then it
> has to be polished. Let me know when you get that far. The reason that
> this job is $100- to $150- is because there really is no correct way to
> repair a chip like this without the use of a lathe and stripping it all
the
> way back to the wood, for most cuemakers standards anyway.
Now there's my "light a man a fire" for the day. I would never have thought
of turning the cue down to repair a defect like this. Hell, in my opinion
even a basic fill repair that did not involve using a lathe would be worth a
C note. It's tedious work.
I've hand filled paint chips before and had to sand them down to flat with
the surrounding paint and it's a real labor of love. Small is worse than
big when it comes to this stuff. But... those weren't on a round, tapered
shaft.
--
-Mike-
[email protected]
In news:Dhakala <[email protected]> typed:
> Knocked a chip out of my pool cue's butt:
>
> http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/dhakala/CueButt002.jpg
>
> There's no dent in the wood. I suspect this may been a bubble in the
> finish.
>
> Any DIY repair I can do? A cuemaker will charge about $100 to refinish
> the entire butt.
The first question that needs to be answered in order to repair the cue is
what kind of finish is it? So in order to determine the finish it would be
helpful to know who made it? As far as I know, there are only two cuemakers
that use lacquer; Tad Kohara and Barry Szamboti.
From the picture I can pretty much determine that it is neither.
Now we just have to determine if it is a polyuerthane or an automotive
clearcoat. If the finish has a yellow tint to it, like say an old Meucci or
an old Huebler, then it is polyurethane. Easier to just ask the cuemaker I
think...
In any event, you will have to sand the area until any lifting of the finish
in the chipped area has been removed, like say 400 grit. Be very careful,
as this will create a flat spot in the sanded area, so basically you will be
filling the flat spot, then sanding it back to flush with say 1000 grit the
rest of the finish. This in itself creates a problem, as there really is
almost no way to maintain the roundness of the cue. All of this should be
done in an area no bigger than the eraser head of a pencil. You will be
able to tell if the flat spot is round again by rotating the cue between the
fingers of your other hand...you will be able to feel the flat spot coming
around and hitting your fingers. This repair is very tedious at best, and
you may not like the results. After you have sanded it flush again, then it
has to be polished. Let me know when you get that far. The reason that
this job is $100- to $150- is because there really is no correct way to
repair a chip like this without the use of a lathe and stripping it all the
way back to the wood, for most cuemakers standards anyway.
--
Ted Harris
http://www.tedharris.com
Back when I was playing pool (a lot!), nicks on he butt of the cue's were so
common that we didn't worry about them too much. Personally, I'd wait
because as soon as you fix it, you'll probably get another one. I did have
friends that would send their cues back to the manufacturer for refinishing
if they got too bad.
"Dhakala" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Knocked a chip out of my pool cue's butt:
>
> http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/dhakala/CueButt002.jpg
>
> There's no dent in the wood. I suspect this may been a bubble in the
> finish.
>
> Any DIY repair I can do? A cuemaker will charge about $100 to refinish
> the entire butt.
>
>
"Dhakala" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Knocked a chip out of my pool cue's butt:
>
> http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/dhakala/CueButt002.jpg
>
> There's no dent in the wood. I suspect this may been a bubble in the
> finish.
>
> Any DIY repair I can do? A cuemaker will charge about $100 to refinish
> the entire butt.
>
Personally I would sand it all down and refinish. Obviously you don't want
to do that.
If you carefully paint a bit of varnish on with a paint brush, it should be
okay. Obviously it will still be a defect, but a small one.
"Toller" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "Dhakala" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Knocked a chip out of my pool cue's butt:
> >
> > http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f4/dhakala/CueButt002.jpg
> >
> > There's no dent in the wood. I suspect this may been a bubble in the
> > finish.
> >
> > Any DIY repair I can do? A cuemaker will charge about $100 to refinish
> > the entire butt.
> >
> Personally I would sand it all down and refinish. Obviously you don't
want
> to do that.
No need Toller. It's more likely lacquer which blends very nicely and can
be buffed to a perfect finish, but even if it really were poly, it can be
feathered and repaired to a likewise perfect finish.
>
> If you carefully paint a bit of varnish on with a paint brush, it should
be
> okay. Obviously it will still be a defect, but a small one.
>
Won't work well with either type of finish. You really want to prep the
area first. You want to break the glaze no matter which finish it is.
--
-Mike-
[email protected]