Knowing how to change your own pool cue tip is a great skill to have; it can save you time and money! In this Billiards tutorial, Florian “Venom” Kohler and his tip guy, Joe Klimchak, show us how to change a pool cue tip by hand. As an added bonus, Joe shows us how the pros do it by using a lathe. Follow the steps in the video or read below for a step-by-step visual explanation. Enjoy!
Begin Transcript:Hi my name is Florian Kohler, also known as Venom. Here with me is Jamillette. Today we're going to talk about a question I don't like to answer, but I get asked a lot. It's how to change your pool cue tip.
Alright, so I'm with my friend Joe at his workshop. He's got a nice little shop for repairing pool cues. And today he's going to try to show you how to change a pool cue tip.
When you guys do this by hand, you've got to be really careful. Again, you know, take your time and make sure you don't hurt yourself. There's a lot of sharp stuff involved, we don't want you to get hurt. And Joe is going to show you how to do that.
Joe: Alright Florian, let's get this done.
Changing a Pool Cue Tip By Hand
To change a tip, you're going to of course need a razor blade to cut off the excess once the tip is glued on, some Loctite super glue, and different grades of sandpaper.
So you cut the tip off very carefully without cutting your fingers. Make sure there's no old glue on the top of the ferrule, and you want to kind of gouge your ferrule [if you gouge the top of the ferrule, make sure it is just in the center and not on the edges] so that you got some where for the glue to go hang on.
Frank Says: "A key part of ferrule prep is having a perfectly flat ferrule. The Cue Top Sander Machine helps with this so that your new tip can be glued on properly!"
Probably best to use rubber gloves with this.
Make sure you scuff the bottom of the tip so the glue has somewhere to hold on.
Then wipe the excess glue off the tip.
Wait approximately two to three minutes for the glue to dry. To make sure your tip stays on, try out the rubber band sequence provided below:
Well, we've got the tip glued on onto the ferrule. Now we have to cut the excess. All tips come in soft, medium, and hard. This is a medium soft tip. It cuts relatively easy.
The other thing is try not to gouge the ferrule with your knife. Easier said than done.
Finish off the sides with a high grit sandpaper. Anything more abrasive (lower) than 800 grade could leave scratches on the ferrule. Proceed with caution!
If you don't have one of these [tip shapers], these can be made out of anything. This is PVC cut it in half. Then you want to have a flat piece of sand paper.
Frank Says: "If you don't want to make your own tip shaper, we have plenty of options. The Last 4 Ever Combo Tip Tool shapes, scuffs, and burnishes your tip all in one!"
That's about the process of doing it by hand.
Alright, you've seen the process of putting on a tip by hand. It's really not a lot of fun, takes a lot of patience, but it can be done if you're in a pinch.
Professional Pool Cue Tip Changing: Using a Lathe
Alright, I'd like to explain to everybody the process of putting a tip on professionally.
First thing you have to do is get the tip off. Be very careful with this so you don't get into the ferrule and you don't cut your fingers.
Get as much off as you can. Put it into the machine.
Get all the old glue off the top of the ferrule. Put a couple grooves in it for the glue to set in. Make sure it's smooth, so the tip sits flush.
Get your tip, you'll have to scuff it a little bit.
Put a drop or two of Loctite glue on the tip and ferrule, make sure it's all over. Secure your tip to the ferrule, and wipe the excess glue off the tip.
Should be about set up to take off the excess around the ferrule.
Take your razor blade and rest it on the ferrule, and cut the excess tip off. Very Carefully. Some tips have different kinds of backings on, which is not consistent with the leather.
You gotta be very careful so you don't dig into the tip once you get through the backing.
Different guys have different processes. This is just the one that works for myself. Take the flat side, I use 80-grit sandpaper. Put the flat side on here [top of the tip] and round the tip up as much as you can.
It always helps to tell your repair guy if you don't want the full tip line there before he gets it detailed out to the correct shape you need it cut down, tell him before he gets started.
Now for the last step, we burnish it. Make sure everything is flushed up to the ferrule.
Burnishing your tip helps to seal up the pores of the leather and smooths it out. Remember to only burnish the sides of the tip, NOT THE TOP! This will help your tip to keep its shape longer and prevent it from mushrooming.
This is how a professional would do it.
Florian: Thanks Joe. That was great, it was awesome.
You're welcome Florian, thank you for letting me be part of your tutorial.
Florian: Thank you guys for watching. Remember, if you want to see more, subscribe to my channel right here and if you want to order any pool and billiard supplies, go check out Pooldawg.com.