Can We Use CNC Woodturning Lathe to Make Billiard Stick?

Most people probably know that CNC woodturning lathes are often used in the fabrication of stair parts, furniture legs, and baseball bats. Have you ever thought about turning a pool cue/billiard stick with a CNC wood lathe? The billiard cue is thin and long, the thinnest part may only have a diameter of 9mm, and its total length maybe 1.3 meters. We can imagine that such a workpiece is easy to wobble or even break when rotating at a high rate. So, does this work?

Yes, it is totally feasible. So how did we do it? The tool can only achieve a good finish under the condition of high-speed rotation. Therefore, as long as we achieve the high-speed rotation of the cutter and reduce the RPM of the wood lathe spindle to a safe range, we can get smooth cutting and ensure that the pool cue does not wobble or break.

Please get more information by watching the working demo below.

We can see that the saw tool is installed on the electric spindle to realize the high-speed rotation of the tool. The speed in the video is 18000RPM. Correspondingly, in order to ensure that the billiard cue does not shake or break, we have reduced the speed of the main spindle to 700RPM. Then we successfully get a billiard cue turned. And the finish is nice and clean.

Now we know that a CNC wood lathe machine can be used to make pool cue sticks. So which model is the right one? It is EagleTec EA-TL1530ST4, which is a 4 axis cnc wood lathe with process capacities of turning, twist grooving, and 4 axis carving. 

Let's take a quick look at what its main configuration looks like.

• One rotary & two wood lathe tools & one broaching/carving head

• RichAuto controller special for 4 axis cnc wood lathe 

• AC servo main motor for rotary – 4.0kw  

• Stepper motors on X/Y/Z axes

• YAKO YKA2811MA stepping driver

• Fully cast-iron woodturning lathe body

• Working diameter: 20 ~ 300mm

• Working length: 100 ~ 1500mm 

If you are looking for a cnc wood lathe to make pool cue, please contact us for a free proposal right now.  

EagleTec-CNC is committed to building wood lathes of great quality and providing the best support to our users.

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