Question;

Hello!

I’ve liked your cue very much and I’m starting to really get familiar with it. I started to use the shaft with 8mm tip for 8-ball and it really seems to be more accurate if you just hit the ball exactly on the right spot. And sometimes it’s great in narrow spaces when there are obstructing balls nearby. With the smaller tip and shaft there’s more room to manouver in tight spaces. Definite plus.

But now I have a small problem. The cue fell down on the floor once and now the metal ring at the tip is loose. It sounds bad when hitting a ball but still works fine. Although I don’t like the sound at all and I also think that the metal ring will loosen up even more if not fixed. What is the best way to tighten the ring? Now it revolves quite easily when turned. I don’t fully understand the purpose of the whole ring there as the tip itself is still tight on its place and doesn’t move at all.

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Jani Auvinen

Answer

Hi Jani, I’m happy that you are pleased with your cue and sorry you have a problem.

I presume you are talking about the brass ferule below the tip. The purpose of the ferule is to stop the cue shortening when the tip is changed. Also, on the small tipped cues it helps to strengthen the cue as obviously the would is quite small at this point and takes a lot of impact when hitting the ball hard. We always recommend players use a different cue for breaking if they break very hard and in fact many pool players now use a separate `breaking cue` for this purpose.

With regards the problem you have with the loose ferule I would recommend the following;

Remove the tip. This is something that has to be done at some point anyway so is not a major repair at all, and you can see how we recommend changing a tip by following this link on our website https://www.snookercues.com/how-to-re-tip-a-snooker-and-pool-cue . Before you fix the new tip however make sure the ferule is also glued on properly. If it is as loose as you suggest you should be able to lift it off a little, put a drop of loctite superglue on the exposed wood underneath and then push the ferule back down and hold for a while. I would then leave it for a little while before putting a new tip on.

When you put the tip back on the tip should also be glued to the ferule which is something else that will help prevent the ferule turning.

Do not worry, it does not sound like anything serious is broken on the cue unless it was dropped with such force that the shaft has cracked. I would be surprised if this was the case and would think that if you followed these instructions carefully the problem will be fixed. I hope so anyway, please let me know how you get on.

Kind Regards, Rob