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A Techno computer numeric controlled (CNC)
router has increased sales at Josey Custom Cues (Savannah, GA) by 50
percent by making it possible to create inlays in any design a
customer wants. Previously, when inlays and pockets were created
using manual methods, inlay designs were limited to relatively
simple shapes. Now, Josey can draw any shape in the software that
controls the CNC router, and the machine reproduces that shape in
the wood, cutting to a far higher level of accuracy than is possible
with manual methods. The Techno CNC machine has freed both Josey and
his customers from creative limits and they can let their
imaginations run wild. This new freedom in the design of inlays on
the cues has attracted new customers and has increased sales
significantly in only one year.
Keith Josey was inspired to start Josey Custom Cues after taking one
of his own cues to a shop for repair and being displeased with the
results. Josey had learned the art of custom woodworking from his
father, and enjoyed playing pool with his father and brothers when
he was growing up. In 1992, he combined the two avocations into a
business that now draws customers from all over the world. Some of
the leading professional pool players, including 1999 Viking Tour
winner Shawn Putnam, use Josey cues. Teruki Kobayashi of Okayama,
Japan, another tour professional, also plays with a Josey cue.
With the exception of the tips, bumpers, and screws, Josey makes
every component of his cues in his one-man shop. All ferrules,
collars, and butt caps thread on for more secure construction. Josey
prefers a forward balanced cue with a solid stiff hit and each Josey
cue is crafted to ensure superior playability. But it is the
appearance of the cues that really makes them stand out. Rare,
beautifully patterned woods gleam under a painstakingly applied,
mirror-like finish. Inlays, using precious material such as mother
of pearl, exotic woods, turquoise, and malachite, further decorate
each Josey cue in intricate one-of-a-kind designs. One Josey cue,
which was featured on the cover of The American Cueist magazine,
features a birdseye maple front with three long ebony points and
three short ebony points with ebony diamonds. It also has six mother
of pearl shields. Ebony, micarta and silver dash rings run
throughout cue. The wrap is bocote wood with six ivory diamonds and
six turquoise diamonds inlaid inside two black phenolic rings. The
butt sleeve is ebony with sixteen ivory points and eight turquoise
diamond inlays. The buttcap is black phenolic with eight mother of
pearl diamonds. This cue is priced at $3,100. Josey's least
expensive cue sells for $200 while some of the more elaborate ones
are priced at more than $10,000.
Depending on the intricacy of the design, it could take several
hours to put all the inlays into a cue. Before he even starts that
process, however, Josey goes through a number of preliminary steps.
First he must find the wood. He looks for highly figured woods and
buys them from all over the world.
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Next he turns his shafts on a lathe six
times over a six-month period, dipping them in a wood stabilizer
after each turning to season the wood so it won't warp.
Next comes the process of splicing the
front to the handle, and gluing the two pieces together. Josey then
lets the cue sit for a few more months to give the wood a chance to
move and breathe. He turns it again, then adds the ringwork, the
precision metals or wood rings that go around the cue. After that,
he turns the cue one final time.
Producing inlays by hand
The next steps in making a cue involve
carving the pockets for the inlays and cutting the inlays
themselves. In the past, Josey performed these steps manually using
an Exacto knife and a Dremel tool. A Dremel has a number of
different cutting tools, making it possible to cut diamonds and
other simple shapes. If Josey didn't have a Dremel tool for a
certain shape, he worked freehand using the Exacto knife. Both
methods were time consuming, and they limited inlays to fairly
simple shapes. Later Josey started using a small pantograph machine
to trace more complex shapes onto the wood and then cut them out by
hand. This approach gave him a somewhat broader range of inlay
shapes that he could produce, but it still limited him in terms of
designs. If a customer wanted an inlay in a certain pattern that
Josey didn't have, for example, he either had to turn down the job
or hire somebody to make the pattern for him. Another drawback to
the pantograph he was using was that, although it was fairly
accurate, it was still not up to the standards of Josey, who strives
for perfection on every cue.
At a woodworking trade show, Josey investigated CNC routers that
could cut wood according to patterns stored in a computer. Although
there were quite a few such routers on display, the Techno Series
III PC-driven CNC wood router from Techno Inc., appealed to him for
several reasons. This machine is designed for production routing and
drilling on a wide variety of materials including wood, plastic, MDF,
solid surfacing materials, and nonferrous metals. The price includes
the Mastercam CNC programming software, which was originally
designed for metalworking but is also well suited for woodworking
because of its ability to generate the most complex contours with
little programming effort. One of the things Josey liked about this
system was that all the components--software, controller, router,
and table--came from one vendor. Another plus was that this was a
turnkey system, suitable for people such as Josey with no computer
experience. Also, Techno's booth featured a pool cue with inlay work
that had been produced by a Techno customer also manufacturing pool
cues. This convinced Josey that this system was right for his needs.
He purchased a three-axis Techno router with a 21-inch by 39-inch
cutting area. The cost of the entire system was approximately
$22,000.
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New inlay process
Now, when it comes time to cut the
pockets for inlays, the inlay designs are drawn in Mastercam. The
software automatically creates the router toolpaths that will cut
these shapes.
After attaching the cue to the machine,
he gives the command to start cutting and the machine takes over.
One of the benefits of this system is that it can run unattended,
cutting all the pockets on a cue before stopping. It does this by
means of an indexing system that cuts the first set of inlays, then
indexes and cuts the second set of inlays, and so on until the job
is complete. Once the pockets have been cut, Josey cuts the inlay
pieces on the router as well. The shapes of the pieces are already
in Mastercam since they were used to program the cutting of the
pockets. Josey has equipped the Techno table with a vacuum device
that holds the inlay material. After the machine cuts the inlays,
Josey cleans out the pockets, and assembles the inlays into the cue.
Josey has prepared a brochure that shows
many of his popular inlay designs. Sometimes customers ask for
variations on these designs. Since the shapes have already been
drawn in Mastercam, Josey just modifies the computer model to match
the customer's idea and he is ready to cut the inlay. The main
advantage to cutting pockets and inlay pieces on the router,
however, is that Josey can make inlays of any design that he or his
customers can envision. The only requirement is drawing the design
in Mastercam. No matter how complex a design is, once it has been
drawn in the software, the router can cut it with a level of
accuracy that .1± satisfies even Josey. The Techno machine features
a positioning accuracy of mm in 300 mm. Its use of anti-backlash
ball screws ensures play-free motion and makes it possible to
produce extremely accurate inlay cavities in the wooden parts as
well as the inlays themselves.
Josey is currently working on new cues for Shawn Putnam as well as
Tommy Kennedy, both professional players who will showcase the
abilities of his new technology. This cue, like all pool cues made
by Josey Custom Cues, will be both highly functional and a work of
art. Now that Josey has added a CNC router to his operation, the
cue-making process is still a labor of love by a master craftsman.
But now the range of design possibilities has expanded to include
inlays that were previously impossible to create by hand. |
