While going to school at Purdue University I had a part time job as a machinist for the Hydromechanics Lab (stuff to do with water) in Civil Engineering. I had access to a very well equipped machine shop, and lots of materials.

When I decided to take up pool as a hobby I figured I needed my own pollcue, so I made one. I understand that most people don't make that jump, but it made sense to me. When I made my first cue I used 2 things I had learned at gunsmithing school.

The first was that setting a joint in a poolcue is very much like working on rifle barrels. It requires the same accuracy for drilling holes true to the center of the shaft. A very useful skill.

The second idea was an interrupted thread, as is used on many rifle bolts and artillery cannons. Since I had access to lots of 1" diameter titanium bar I made the joint from it.

It was more or less a prototype.

I researched patenting the joint design, and found out that Ivan Mancusco already had in 1967, so it is public domain.

I used that cue for a year or so and then made my second cue which my brother Ben owns, and then my 3rd, which is the other cue pictured here.

All 3 cues were made from other broken cues. The 2 cues here both used 1950's Willy Hoppy house cues for the handles. Purdue's pool hall in the student union still had a few of these but broken ones were useless.

For me they were a godsend since they had sentimental value, being part of Purdue, and also gave me the colored inlay already done.

The shaft of my first cue was originally from a Valley brand cue that got broken at my favorite poolbar, but last year I rebuilt the cue, lengthened the handle and made a new shaft from a new house cue.

The 3rd cue still has the original Valley house cue shaft.

The 1st cue, has a green linen wrap, a 10 mm titanium ferrule with a 0.020" wall thickness, it weighs 21 ounces, and now is 64-1/2" long.

This may seem a bit odd except that I love to shoot both straight pool and snooker, and I have a 74 inch arm-span, even though I am only 71 inches tall. Long arms.

My 3rd cue, has a blue linen wrap, a 11 mm titanium ferrule, with a 0.015" wall thickness, weighs 20 ounces, and is 61 inches tall.

I currently use my 3rd cue for breaking and my 1st for shooting.

The 3rd cue has the stronger joint so the breaking has little affect on it.

The case is 3" black ABS drainage pipe with screw cap ends. The cue pieces slide inside golf tubes inside the pipe. The back end is storage for supplies.

Another side story is that while in college I was hit, from behind, by a drunken driver going about 60 mph, when my car stalled on an uphill grade late one saturday night. My car burst into flames instantly, and I escaped, even though both front doors were jammed, by bracing my shoulders against the passenger door and my feet against the drivers door. I bent the drivers door out 6 inches in the middle, shattering the window, which I then crawled through.

Powerlifting is a useful hobby.

When they hoisted my gurney into the ambulance I realized that the driver was one of my pool shooting friends, and I informed him that both my cues were in the back of the car.

The next day I went to the wrecking yard and in the burnt out hulk of my sister's car, I found one of my cue cases on the floor of the back seat. When I cracked off the melted end of the PVC pipe case it was full of water from the fire hoses. The glue joints had popped but the cue seemed fixable, and was. I could not find my other cue, until I called the police and found out that it was been recovered by an officer who overhead me telling my friend about them, and was in their lockup. It had sat in its water logged PVC case for 3 days. It had the same problem, but was repairable.

That is why I like PVC cases. Both of my cues survived a horrific car fire because of the cases.