The pin in any cue serves a variety of functions. It must be strong, precise, functional and of good design. I use 3 distinct types of joint screws at Josswest and each performs in a slightly different way. The original 5/16 14-thread Acme is a throwback to the historical designs of the past It and the regular 5/16 14-thread are the most common screw used in cuemaking today. I developedhe 3/8 radial pin  in 1989 and is now being used by a variety of cuemakers. The uni-loc which I co-developed with Paul Costain of the Uni-Loc corporation is the newest, most modern and precise of the three.