[Otterman]

So, early this year, my son picked up a couple older McDermott's in need of refinishing. I've had a cue lathe from MidAmerica in our garage for a number of years that had only been used for tips and light shaft work, so he had the idea of tackling the refinish job himself. I admit to some early skepticism, but after some trial and error (quite a bit of trial and a lot of error ), and some gracious advice from Eric Crisp, he produced some pretty nice refinish jobs on those McD's. Next up he asked if I'd help him match a shaft to the fresh D-26, so we measured the rings, found some matching dowels from Prather Cue Parts and gave that a go. The shaft turned out pretty much indistinguishable from the original, which I frankly found a pleasant surprise. Then he cut up an old beat-up Dufferin and pretty soon we had ourselves a sneaky conversion cue. A few conversion cues later, we invested in a tapering machine from MidAmerica and graduated to assembling a full cue from some nice blanks from Prather and our own decorative rings. Following is our most recent completed cue. 6 high/low purpleheart points into straight grain maple, 4 veneers in long points of natural, red, green and magenta, rings of natural veneers into purpleheart, surrounded by copper and black fiber, white Juma joint and butt cap, 3/8-10 modified pin, antique white with brown spec Irish linen wrap, 60" cue (30" butt with two 30" shafts), both shafts with 3/8" Tomahawk ferrules and UltraSkin medium tips. 15.1 oz. butt, (1) -3.8 oz. shaft with 13mm tip, (1) - 4.1 oz. shaft with 12.85 mm tip. Hope everyone likes it.

[Snooker Theory]

Came out great, beautiful work!

[Otterman]

Thank you! Here's a few more pics. Hopefully a little clearer than the first ones.

[Thunder Thighs]

Very nice

[63Kcode]

Really nice father, son projects. It turned out stunning.

Larry

[r9ball]

You can't go wrong with purpleheart,, one of my fav woods.
Nice work!

[terpdad]

Looks great. Hope it was a good experience for you both.

[Otterman]

Originally Posted by r9ball

You can't go wrong with purpleheart,, one of my fav woods.
Nice work!

Originally Posted by 63Kcode

Really nice father, son projects. It turned out stunning.

Larry

Thanks, folks! I am going to take that as high praise coming from you, Mr. Vigus.

[Otterman]

Originally Posted by terpdad

Looks great. Hope it was a good experience for you both.

Thanks, and it has been a good experience. Certainly less challenging than teaching him to play pool when he was a little younger. Kids can be stubborn! Turned out well, though. He qualified for the Junior Nationals 6 times, won the Oklahoma 18-under 4 times, Missouri 18-under once and runner-up one more time, and has been holding his own with pros at the Texas Open since he was 15. Spending more time on college and making cues now than playing, but hopefully we both can get back to that in the near future.

[Otterman]

I've always had great respect for cuemakers and have owned many nice cues over the years, but I've certainly gained a whole new level of appreciation over the last several months. Although we've come a long way in a short period of time, the learning curve is extraordinarily steep. Getting a cue right from design, basic construction, joint pin accuracy, wrap groove depth, finish, and then have it play well is one of the most difficult tasks I've ever done, but also one of the most rewarding.

Can't count the number of times I've Googled questions about all of the above, plus lathes, tooling, CNC, etc, etc., all prefaced with "Ask the Cuemaker". That forum has a ridiculous amount of information and guidance. Many thanks to all the cuemakers that share their knowledge there.

[jasonlaus]

Congrats, looks great 👍