Dings and dents

Jeff sparks · Nov 27, 2016

I had two shafts with dings in them... I knew about soaking a piece of paper towel with water and letting it set on top of the ding to make the wood swell outward, thereby eliminating the ding...

This method has worked for me in the past, but it wasn't always foolproof, sometimes it wouldn't work and the dent would remain, plus it took to much time...

I had an idea today that I thought might work and damned if it didn't work like a charm... Maybe somebody has been doing this for years, but I'd never heard of it before...

I have a rice steamer made by Black and Decker, it's got a glass lid with a small hole in it that let's excess steam escape.. Yep, that's right, I just held the dinged shaft about 1/2 inch directly over the escaping steam for maybe 7 or 8 seconds and the ding was completely gone...

Then to top it off I glassed both shafts and they are as smooth as a babies bottom...

Probably won't improve my one pocket, but it makes me feel better about my equipment...

rich htx · Nov 27, 2016

I've used steam too, it works

Hardmix · Nov 27, 2016

i have used steam as well, it works great. Boil water in a small pot and and place a funnel over the top giving you a nice thin stream of steam.

Ben

Miller · Nov 27, 2016

dats the way to do it - that wood grain raises right up. tinkered with a repair lathe for a while - shafts/ferrules/tips - another one of those things that you sell that you wish you would've kept...... garment steamer does an ok job - always figured if a guy did it for a living would want one of those heat up in a hurry hot plates and a dedicated teapot/steamer of some kind. amazing what really fine sawdust and CA glue can do as well for nasty gouges.......

good work.

Jeff sparks · Nov 27, 2016

Miller said:
dats the way to do it - that wood grain raises right up. tinkered with a repair lathe for a while - shafts/ferrules/tips - another one of those things that you sell that you wish you would've kept...... garment steamer does an ok job - always figured if a guy did it for a living would want one of those heat up in a hurry hot plates and a dedicated teapot/steamer of some kind. amazing what really fine sawdust and CA glue can do as well for nasty gouges.......

good work.

The sawdust thing is a cabinet makers trick... A master carpenter showed me that about 50 years ago.. Nice Dustin, I had completely forgotten about that.. Nice tip..

12squared · Nov 28, 2016

Jeff sparks said:
I had two shafts with dings in them... I knew about soaking a piece of paper towel with water and letting it set on top of the ding to make the wood swell outward, thereby eliminating the ding...

This method has worked for me in the past, but it wasn't always foolproof, sometimes it wouldn't work and the dent would remain, plus it took to much time...

I had an idea today that I thought might work and damned if it didn't work like a charm... Maybe somebody has been doing this for years, but I'd never heard of it before...

I have a rice steamer made by Black and Decker, it's got a glass lid with a small hole in it that let's excess steam escape.. Yep, that's right, I just held the dinged shaft about 1/2 inch directly over the escaping steam for maybe 7 or 8 seconds and the ding was completely gone...

Then to top it off I glassed both shafts and they are as smooth as a babies bottom...

Probably won't improve my one pocket, but it makes me feel better about my equipment...

Nice one, thanks. I thought you were going to ask for other ways besides wet paper towel, I was going to suggest a wet rag or paper towel and steam the ding up using a soldering iron to heat up the towel/paper towel. That has worked for me, too.

Good post oh, tall one.

Dave

RedCard · Nov 28, 2016

I've watched the guy who maintains my cue take dings out and he uses a garment steamer while it's on his lathe. Follows up with a thin coat of Renaissance Wax and the shaft is as smooth as can be.

Years ago a friend of mine used to recommend a hot knife blade, looking back on it I hope he was referring to taking a ding out of a cue shaft. Don't see how it wouldn't char the shaft, never tried it.

Dings and dents

Jeff sparks

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rich htx

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Hardmix

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Miller

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Jeff sparks

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12squared

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RedCard

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