1st Billiard

[Silverspur81]

Interested in getting some feed back on this design before I stain and finish.
[img]http://i1053.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

[Growley]

This is a good start for your 1st billiard. Great idea getting advice "before" finishing it It's never as fun making changes after it's stained and polished.

The very first thing that I see is top of your bowl. It makes it look like it's tilted slightly back towards you stem. You want your bowl to cant forward about 3 - 5 degrees. Here it looks like your bowl actually may tilt forward, but your top doesn't. That should be a somewhat easy fix, just sand the top to match the cant of your bowl. If the bowls is a true 90 degrees from your stem it will appear to tilt backwards actually.

The second thing I see (and this could be fine the way it it is) is the taper of your stem. Yours has a curved taper where as a flat straight taper might look better. Not totally sure on that piece of advice though.

Lastly, your bottom line of the stummel doesn't look completely flat making the front bottom of the bowl (farthest part away from the stem) look like it's drooping slightly. If you sit your stummel down on a flat surface you shouldn't be able to see any gaps under it.

Your dimensions look pretty good. The stem/shank junction look great and overall I think this will turn out well.

Nice work.

Wait for some better feedback before you go making any changes though

Brian.

[Silverspur81]

Thanks for the advice! I was thinking I needed to take more wood from under the bowl so you comments make alot of since. The top of the bowl should be an easy fix.

Thanks

[Ocelot55]

Growley hit the nail on the head. I would only add that you may want to thin the button a bit.

It was a great idea to get advice before finishing this one. Overall its looking pretty sweet. Billiards are actually kind of tricky. It look like you got this one basically right excluding a few minor details.

Good Job. I can't wait to see it when its done.

[Joe Hinkle Pipes]

Not bad! the shank pinches a little bit before the stem/stummel junction. You have a tapered shank, then it broadens at the junction before tapering again. I have trouble with that too. try to put a straight edge on top if the shank. That will show you where more material has to be removed. The same is true on the bottom. A straight edge will reveal the bulge of the bowl below the shank line. Those are easy corrections at this point in the pipe. There are other things that are off, like the bowl/shank/stem ratio is a tad off but that cant be easily corrected now that the stem is basically finished. tackle those next pipe. Tailor the taper a bit and you will have a pretty nice first billiard!

[wdteipen]

I agree with Brian's assessment although the bowl doesn't appear to cant forward to me. Nothing you can really do about that. You are limited on what you can do with the stem taper since it's a preformed stem.

[Silverspur81]

Here is what it looks like after finishing.
[img]http://i1053.photobucket.com/album ... .jpg[/img]

[Ocelot55]

Well, I wish we had a few more photos, but that looks great, especially for a first billiard. There are several VERY small details that stick out, but for now I'm going to hold my tongue. I don't need to be that picky yet. Great job. That's a much better looking billiard than most of the machine turned crap you see in the bargain bin.

[Sasquatch]

A very decent attempt to be sure.

The whole thing's a little long for the height of the bowl, and there's a little eccentricity in the shank, but you got the "fat" off the bottom line real well and got a real good bowl shape to boot. Good stuff.

[wdteipen]

Nice first billiard. Shank is a touch long and a touch fat. Otherwise it looks damn good for a first. Good job.