Bridge Head Template
- Saturday, October 12 2013 @ 11:29 am EDT
- Contributed by: masodo
- Views: 4,442
Sometimes when playing pool it really helps to have a bridge stick around for those hard to reach, across the table cue shots. No self respecting billiard parlor would be complete without one. A while back I picked up a couple of shorty pool cues with the intention of fitting one with a bridge head while keeping the other one for the "why is there a bookcase here?" shot.
Today I finally decided I would take care of my "lack of bridge head" problem. I do have a scroll saw and figured if I couldn't use it to cut out a bridge head, what's the point? So I hop on the friendly interwebs and search for "billiards bridge head template" (thinking surely I can not be the only scroll sawyer with this idea.) I turned up some pictures but not a template per se.
I found a head-on shot of a bridge head with the shape I am most accustomed to and PhotoShopped it into a two-color image and printed it to size. Click on the image below for a PDF template - ready to print out.
Download Template: BridgeHead.pdf
I cut out the printed shape and headed out to the workshop to find a piece of quarter-inch plywood to impart this shape unto. The scraps I had on hand were slightly too narrow (and I would not waste anything larger on this project.) A glance in the right direction revealed a "drop" of quarter-inch plexiglass that would be just the ticket. This plexi had its protective paper covering still attached. I laid the template shape on the plexiglass blank and spray painted over it to transfer the outline.
A slow and steady pass through the scroll saw, a stop at the drill press and some judicious sanding resulted in the handy-dandy bridge-headed shorty pictured above. For the record, the first shot taken with this device in a real game resulted in the successful pocketing of the desired ball - what more do you want?