This article is by Thomas Wayne, a real cue-making enthusiast and I enjoyed the story:
What is the minimum equipment required to make cues? In my experience: a pocket knife! Years ago I met a fellow in a small Alaskan bar/pool hall (3 Valley coin-ops) with a homemade one-piece cue. He was a "bush" gold miner, and had CARVED this cue from a small Alaskan Birch tree (presumably while sitting around a campfire singing traditional campfire songs :-]). The grip section had several dozen concave divots carved in for texture and he had flame hardened it full-length; it was burnt-black from butt to tip. He had polished it with boot oil, and it had pieces of boot leather attached at each end, one for a bumper and the other for a tip. He carried it around in a long denim tube (recycled Levi's, no doubt), and he played a fairly mean game with it, I might add (in fact I DID add). When he discovered what I did for a living, he talked me into adding a moose antler ferrule and "real" tip. Though it was remarkably straight, hand fitting was still required. Out of this we became good friends, till he disappeared a few years ago.
My first cues were built using only a floor model drill press. As a child, my father taught me woodworking on a first-generation Shop-smith (his father bought it when they first came out; my father -now in his mid 80's- still uses it). For those not familiar with the Shop-smith, it's a combination machine that can serve as a table saw, sander, lathe, drill press, and lots more. The [Shop-smith] lathe and drill press modes are very similar, so (years later and thousands of miles from home) when I needed a lathe -which I didn't have- I saw a simple way to modify the drill press that I DID have. I fitted a salvaged ball-bearing into the hole in the drill press table and used it for a "live" tail-stock. To the whole thing I added particle-board and drywall screw technology to create router guides and tool rests, etc. With this odd looking contraption I built a number of cues, and I'm proud to say that they were all stunning! (Ok, ok...they were less than mediocre). Having truly caught the bug, I decided to get a real lathe or two,
