Pool cue maker aims for precision.

The world's largest manufacturer of quality two-piece custom billiard cues has achieved productivity gains by combining high-speed electric spindles with CNC equipment to produce finely detailed inlays.

McDermott Cue Manufacturing Inc. of Menomonee Falls, Wis., manufactures a wide variety of cue designs from a broad range of materials including wood, vulcanized fiber and plastics. The 20-year-old company uses a lot of hard rock maple for cue shafts because of the wood's straight grain. In addition, exotics such as ebony, brazilian rosewood, bacote, zircote, cocobolo and tulipwood are used for decorative inlays. The basic line of cues range from $165 to $2,000, but customers have paid up to $5,000 for cues bearing diamond or gold inlays. McDermott also distributes cue cases, accessories and sportswear.

The growing popularity of billiards, especially in the upscale market, has proved to be fertile ground for growth. In 1993, McDermott shipped more than 60,000 cues worldwide -- racking up sales in excess of $6.6 million.

Jesse McDermott, chief executive officer, said adoption of just-in-time inventory control and introduction of several CNC machines, has helped provide the company with the necessary flexibility to step up production, while being able to produce cues to customer specification.

Inlays are McDermott's forte

In making cues, McDermott strives to achieve much of the same detail and qualit as a low-volume custom cue maker, while being able to produce a high-volume of cues with a wide variety of designs. One way it maintains this production balance is by combining Precise high-speed electric spindles with BostoMatic CN vertical milling machines.

Prior to updating its milling operation, the company's standard milling machine spindles could only achieve a top speed of about 8,000 rpm. Chris Christianson, McDermott CAD/CAM operator, said that the two or three flute custom-ground carbide end mills, ranging from 0.03 inch to 1/8 inch in diameter, would either burn out or break frequently if fed at the 20-inch per minute feed rates used i the operations.

The Precise Type SC 77 spindles, with 1.76 horsepower, increase the top speed o the BostoMatics to 40,000 rpm. By making faster passes with lighter tool pressure, the desired quality inlay work and feed rates can be achieved. Christianson said that the operator can "hog out" a pocket with a larger diameter cutter, then quickly switch to a smaller diameter to complete the fine details.

The McDermott R&D team takes an artist's concept drawing for a new cue design and transforms it via a CAD/CAM system into machine computer numerical control language. These programs are stored on machine readable disks for rapid setup, and consistent and repetitive quality manufacturing. The BostoMatic mills have helped McDermott virtually eliminate certain hand operations.

"Things we used to do by hand, like cutting and sawing points, have all been incorporated into the BostoMatics," Christianson said. Furthermore, the versatile machines are also used, with cutter diameters up to 1/4 inch to produce parts for single and multiple cue display cases and related billiard accessories.