Johnbo wrote:
do you own any cues? #? what makes?
what was your favorite creation?
how the weather up there?
Jimbo wrote:
What's your favorite sexual position???
Jim <----Wondering if anyone has any other questions before we close this thread down???
Taiko wrote:
One more before Jimbo shuts the door.
Are there any materials, either natural or man made, that you would like to incorporate more of into your work? How do you test new materials?
How do you choose or determine which of your shaft woods are suitable for production?
Thanks again for taking the time to chat with us, hopefully we'll see more post from you in the future when you have time.
Ok Jimbo, shut the door the air is getting out.
(i'd say, "you're letting the cold air in," but it's 79 degrees outside.)
MurrayTucker wrote:
Jim and Dave,
I understand that you have a UV cure finishing system. Do you use this on all of your cues?
Samsara wrote:
Zeeder wrote:
First off, let me say that I really enjoy your designs. As far as the quoted passage, since THE perfect cue isn't out there, what would be your perfect cue? In other words, what are the aesthetics and specifications of the cue that would be perfect for you to satisfy you with both looks and playability?
I have been playing with the Matterhorn cue since 1995. (shown on the opening page of the gallery section on our website.) Samsara Cues
It weighs 18.8 ozs. 12 3/4 mm Ivory ferrules with medium Mori tips. It is perfect for me.
Thanks,
Jim
Tracy wrote:
Jim,
I clicked on your link. There are some nice looking cues. I have a couple of questions. The maple cue case, pictured with the Matterhorn, do you make these cases? Also I wondered, do you and Dave make all the Barcues and X-Breakers, or do you have employees? Are the custom cues made alongside the Barcues and X-Breakers, or do you have two shops?
Tracy
Samsara wrote:
Taiko wrote:
Thank you once again for sharing your insights with us.
I have been reading on several forums many post concerning prices when buying a cue either from a dealer, a friend or directly from a cuemaker.
What do you base your pricing on or how do you calculate what is an appropriate price for a cue?
Do you feel that dealers, collectors or speculators have a negative or positive affect on the price of your cues? In other words, do you feel that the prices that are asked for on the secondary market are justified or do they detract people from ordering because of the high dollar amount?
What's the oddest or strangest request that you have received? (in cuemaking)
We try to price our cues based on the amount of time that goes into them, the materials used, and the overall apearance of the cue. We have a system that we put together over the years that we use as a guideline. It lists different designs by price. Example: points are priced according to how many veneers they have. The Intarsia designs like the "Swirl" are priced by the inch. ETC.
There is nothing wrong with trying to buy cheaper on the secondary market. Dealers, collectors/speculators are generally good for the market if they don't drop the price just to move the cue quickly. We try to make sure they get value when they order from us. I think our prices reflect good value. I have seen cues out there that simply do not have enough work in them to support the price regardless of who's name is on them. We would rather sell cues with good value than cues with artificial value.
The oddest request was a guy who wanted a cue that would fire a .22 caliber bullet out of the butt end. Needless to say, the liability issues did not allow us to build this cue.
Jim
Catscradle wrote:
This thread gives me a chance to give kudos to Jim.
I recently while using my Sam noticed a "vibration". Send Jim an email, he called me and said send it to him immediately. He found the problem it was an additional weight bolt I HAD PUT IN that had loosened up. Jim not only fixed the problem, that I repeat was ENTIRELY my fault, but shipped the cue back to me free and threw in a few extra weight bolts for nothing.
Samsara cues is a top shelf operation which stands behind there cues beyond what any normal person can reasonably expect.
Samsara wrote:
MurrayTucker wrote:
I understand that you have a UV cure finishing system. Do you use this on all of your cues?
Yes. We built our own system. This is what allows us to do jobs like the X Breaker and the Bar Cues. It is very efficient and it is the best finish that we have used. The learning curve was pretty tough. It took about a year before we worked out all of the bugs.
Jim
Samsara wrote:
Tracy wrote:
I clicked on your link. There are some nice looking cues. I have a couple of questions. The maple cue case, pictured with the Matterhorn, do you make these cases? Also I wondered, do you and Dave make all the Barcues and X-Breakers, or do you have employees? Are the custom cues made alongside the Barcues and X-Breakers, or do you have two shops?
Hi Tracy,
Thank you for the compliments on our cues. Yes, we do make the wood cases, but we do not make many of them. They are very laber intensive and not everyone wants to spend over a $1000 on a cue case that will get scratched up with normal use.
We have one shop. I will try to explain how our shop works the best that I can. First of all, we know very little about other cue shops so what we do works for us and it may not be what everyone expects.
We have put almost every cent of our profits into our shop since 1991.
Dave is an expert machinist with a back ground in building high speed packaging equipment. Together we have designed and built (or modified)almost every machine in our shop. Many of the machines that we have made probably do not exist anywhere else. There are a lot of steps in making cues that are done exactly the same regardless of the price or design. These processes are set up on machines that do not change. We have very little set up time in our shop and all of our parts are made to exact specs. We have found ways to automate the gruelling time consuming jobs such as sanding, polishing, finishing and shaft turning. (This allows us to spend more time on designs, points, Intarsia and inlays,) As a result of this we have a very efficient operation. Not to mention we work hard every day, 6 days a week. We build Gallery cues ($5000 & up), Samsara Originals ($650-$5000) Samsara Barcues ($400-$600). XBreaker cues. We also turn shafts and make parts for other cuemakers and suppliers such as Atlas and OB Cues.
We have several employees that mostly operate machines for our part making, shaft making, rough turning, X-Breaker,finishing and shipping. The Samsara Gallery, Originals, and Barcues are made by Dave and I. All wraps, inlays, Intarsia, and design work is done by Dave and I. (We build about 200-250 Samsara cues a year including the Barcue.) Together we over see all aspects of the shop. My wife Laurie is the office manager, doing the paper work for shipping and paying the bills as well as taking orders. I purchase all of the raw materials.
The people that work for us are our friends and are very loyal. They probably know more about cuemaking than a lot of cuemakers in the industry.
Some may wonder why we choose to run our business like this. We do it beause we love to make the machines as much as we love to make the cues. We also believe in making the highest quality cue possible in many different price ranges.
I hope this helps everyone understand more about Samsara Cues.
Jim
Samsara wrote:
Catscradle wrote:
This thread gives me a chance to give kudos to Jim.
I recently while using my Sam noticed a "vibration". Send Jim an email, he called me and said send it to him immediately. He found the problem it was an additional weight bolt I HAD PUT IN that had loosened up. Jim not only fixed the problem, that I repeat was ENTIRELY my fault, but shipped the cue back to me free and threw in a few extra weight bolts for nothing.
Samsara cues is a top shelf operation which stands behind there cues beyond what any normal person can reasonably expect.
Thanks for the compliments! We believe that customer service is as important as the quality of the cues.
Jim
Jazz wrote:
Jim from Samsara,
Thank you very much for taking the time to answer questions posted. Very much appreciated and it was informative.