A little more about shafts

Why a shaft costs $110
There is a lot of labor involved in taking a shaft to finish size.
And this assumes that the shaft remains straight with no surprise blemishes. 

And why some can cost $175.
These shafts are getting a thin walled carbon fiber tube inserted into the first 7" of the shaft.
A wood plug prevents epoxy from filling the tube.  The ferrule is then mounted to the tube.
This stiffens the shaft and has a beneficial effect on the shaft's squirt characteristics.


This shows the progression of machining a shaft with the carbon fiber tube.  The pic on the left shows the
shaft with the tube installed but covered with a dummy center.  This allows the shaft to be finish turned
perfectly concentric to the tube in place.  Once the shaft is to size, the dummy center is cut off.  Then, the
shaft is turned to expose the tubing to allow the ferrule installation.  After the ferrule is installed, it is
blended to the shaft diameter & a tip installed.

A look at a freshly machined joint...

And the steps taken to get there.

A comparison between an accurately machined ferrule thread and the shortcuts that some cuemakers will take.
The bottom tenon was turned to about .265 diameter & a threaded ferrule was simply spun onto it, cutting its own meager thread.
As you can imagine, this ferrule loosened up shortly after a miscue.  Amazingly, this cue's maker is quite well known & respected.

This shows one reason ivory ferrules cost so much.  Not only is the ivory itself quite expensive, there is a lot of work involved in getting it into a usable shape.
First, I have to chuck it up in a 4 jaw & indicate the corners in.
Then I face the end square, center drill, tap drill, tap and drill the glue relief hole - all the while being careful to keep the heat down.
The tapped blank can then be mounted on an arbor, allowing the OD to be machined concentric to the internal threads and the tip face to be squared up.
The final pic shows the glue relief hole in the face.

This shows how the ferrule is actually installed.
First the tenon is turned to .312 diameter with a strength-giving fillet in the corner.
The 5/16-18 threads are cut with live tooling.
Appropriate glue applied & ferrule installed.
Ferrule machined flush to shaft and pad & tip installed.

I've always liked the feel you get with a wood to wood joint.  It just feels better to me than anything using a brass insert in the shaft.  Recently, there have been many new thread forms introduced for use in joints: Uni-Loc's Radial & Quick Release, the copycat radials that are just slightly different, 3/8-11, 3/8-11 modified (smaller OD), 3/8-11.5, 3/8-14, etc, etc, etc.  Many of these have merit because they increase the contact between the screw & the wood.  This is good.  But then all your old shafts are no longer compatible with your new joint.  I was reluctant to make the switch to one of the "high contact" thread forms because I hated to leave my customers stuck with old shafts that were incompatible with new purchases from me.  Fortunately, I found another option: a modified 3/8-10 (Flat Bottom) that gives me the high contact & is compatible (with a 2 minute fix) with all my old shafts.  My old shafts all had a .302 minor diameter for increased strength.  I simply ream the .302 minor diameter to .308 diameter.

Predator & OB-1 shafts with the 3/8-10 threads are a direct bolt on replacement & can be used with no modification needed.  They use a .3125 minor diameter.  In fact, MOST 3/8-10 shafts use the larger diameter & will fit with no problem at all.

Click on the thumbnail above to see the differences between the standard 3/8-10 joint screw and the 3/8-10 FB screw.  There is a much nicer fit between the wood & the screw - almost 100% contact.  This is sure to contribute to a better feel & a much longer life for that snug fit.  As stated earlier, if you have spare shafts that are the old style, they can easily be modified to fit the new pin.  It's a 2 minute fix.  Another benefit is that the new shafts will work on your old style 3/8-10 joints, too.  They will, however, be slightly looser than your originals.  This is actually the fault of the standard 3/8-10 screws available today.  These screws are typically .003" - .005" undersize on the pitch diameter and that is what accounts for the looseness.

Another shot at something a little different.

Comparative weights of different pins
(actual weights, not based on some chart)

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