Making a Threaded Joint Collar From an Old Cueball

I like SS joints most of the time but a nice, white joint is the next best thing.  It's hard to beat the beauty of ivory but some people prefer alternative materials.  Most of the alternatives available are sold only in tubing form, leaving the builder to simply turn a diameter & slide on the white tube with a little glue.  And it works.  There's nothing wrong with that method.  

But (there's always a "but") the toolmaker in me likes a mechanical bond as well as the glue bond.  There's nothing (well, almost nothing) as satisfying as tightening a collar and all its trim rings, slathered in glue, up against a shoulder.  The excess glue is squeezed out & there is a sense of finality when you know the collar is drawn up tight.  You just KNOW it won't loosen and you've done your best to assemble something permanently.

Unfortunately, there aren't many white alternatives available that come in solid rod form & avail themselves to being threaded.  There is Elforyn & Juma, two similar materials that I have used successfully as joint collars.  And as wonderful as both are when used as ferrules, I prefer something just a little harder for a joint because of the exposed edge.  Please don't complain to me that you've never had a problem with these 2 materials.  I haven't either.  I'm just looking for something a little harder.  Don't forget - I like SS.

We won't even consider the thermoplastics available as they are softer still.

So...I remembered that long ago, I used to make ferrules & joints from old cueballs.  They are hard, strong & take a beautiful polish and I have never had one fail.  The only problem is that it takes a lot of work to get the most out of a cueball.  I recall that I was able to get 7 ferrules or 3 joint collars out of one cueball.  I know, I know, it's easy to make one joint collar out of one cueball but what a waste of material.  Since I got the bug to make a few, I decided to a few pics to give you something else on which to waste your time.  Nothing fancy but it will give you an insight into my process.  One thing I should mention: while these are a beautiful ivory color when first made, they will yellow over time - just like a cueball.  So far, nobody has ever complained and I have many out there that are over 10 yrs old.

OK, this is your basic old cueball.  This ball is (or used to be) 2 3/8" diameter.  It is now .030 to .045 undersize, depending on where you check it.

   
I cut the ball down to 1.060 thickness, taking half off each side.  While it's in the lathe, I drill a hole in the center.  This will provide a machined surface that is square to the face I just machined.  In the 2nd pic, you can see my layout that will be used as my guide when cutting out the 3 collars on a bandsaw.  The layout is for 3 joint collars, each .920 in diameter.

   
This shows how I chuck up on the freshly sawn collars.  Now the purpose of the center hole becomes evident.  It helps line up the rough sawn blank perpendicular to the exposed face of the blank.  It isn't perfect but it sure makes it easy to get them very close.  In this particular instance, it only took about 90 seconds to find center & the face ran within .002".  With the collar blank running true, drill & bore a hole to fit a 3/8 arbor.  Don't worry about truing up the faces.  That can all come later.

   
Here you can see both sides of the collar after the 3/8 hole has been bored to size.  You can see the remnants of the drilled hole in the 2nd pic.  Now the collar can be installed on a 3/8 arbor, allowing the OD to be turned concentric with the 3/8 hole. 

 
And a look at the finish turned diameter.


Now that the OD is done, you can drill, bore & tap the collar to the sizes you like.  Personally, I like a .500 bore for the exposed face of the collar and 5/8-18 x 3/4" deep threads on the other end.  Of course, you would face the threaded end at this time to guarantee the face is square with the threads.  The other face won't need finishing until the cue is ready for a joint pin.


And here's the finished product.
Maybe this will help justify why I charge so much for a cueball joint.

A supplement:

  A few have asked how to lay out the 3 equally spaced holes on the face of the cueball.  Originally, before I had my CNC machine, I just constructed 3 equally spaced lines & experimented with different radii & blank diameters until I found a something that worked.  It seems that is a lost art gone the way of the slide rule.  Now, I have the luxury of CAD to simplify my job.  To make it easier for you, I'm including a sketch showing the rectangular dimensions needed to lay out your cueball.  It might be easier to layout a piece of paper & transfer it to the ball.  All you really need to do is lay out the 3 center points on the face of the cueball, prick punch, then lay out the (3) .920 diameter holes from the punch marks.  Then it's off to the band saw.

click on the sketch

Another supplement:

I have some time to kill so here's a quick lesson on how to construct a hex, which will allow you to divide a circle into 3 or 6 equally spaced segments.  Start by drawing your desired radius with a compass - in this case, we'll use .590 as required above.  Then pick a point - any point - in this case, Point "A" in the sketch below.  Take your compass, which is still set to a .590 radius and draw an arc from point "A" that intersects your base circle.  Now draw another arc using this intersection point as your base.  And another.  And so on.  It just so happens that constructing a set of 6 arcs equal to the radius of a circle will divide that circle into 6 equal segments.  Without getting too far into it, it's easily explained by the relationship between the hypotenuse & the short leg of a 30-60-90 triangle in which one is twice as long as the other.  Anyway, I've effectively killed this bit of time so I'll quit now.


click on the sketch

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