This is a question I get quite frequently, usually when I've finished.
I started in coin-op helping and watching an older gentlemen who was an industry veteran. Later I went to a seminar that my Distributor put on and learned the much better glue down method. I still do the field pretty much the way the older gentlemen showed me but the rails not much at all.
You?
I started when I was 13 or 14. We had a family friend who was well known as the best table mechanic in our area and I would constantly hang around and help him with jobs. Fast forward several years later and I am transitioning out of the military and trying to figure out what I am going to do to pay the bills. I Ended up going through a few jobs and eventually settled for the time being on working on cars and motorcycles. I knew it was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life but hey bills need to get paid. During that time some of my family members and a lot of my friends had pool tables I would get calls or asked on a fairly regular basis if I knew how much it cost to recover a table or if I knew anyone who could do it for them. The first several tables I touched were all friends tables and I did them all for a 12 pack and dinner. I wont say they were my best work, and the first table I did took me nearly 12 hours to complete. At the end It wasn't half bad, No wrinkles on the rails and cloth was tight but that isn't a tough feat to accomplish when your using a non worsted cloth. Eventually I started getting calls from other friends or friends of friends and I decided at that point that I needed to take a good hard look at myself and my future, I sat down and spent nearly every waking moment I had that I was not working and do as much research as I could, I bought books, Video's, a couple cheap tables to practice on, went to seminars basically anything I could to learn and practice on. I filed the proper paperwork to get a business license, resellers permit, and then made a sizeable investment into tools, 3 12" Starrett levels, A duofast EWC5018A stapler, a small compressor, a couple wide crown pneumatic staplers, diamond single platter polisher, mid america lathe, cloth stretchers, and several other misc hand and power tools. I still learn stuff every day, talk to various other mechanics, pass jobs along that I either cant do because of time constraints or don't have the confidence to do a proper high quality job. I have also branched into sales to fill the gaps, We are an authorized Viking Cues, and Smart shops dealer, Mc Dermott dealer, Championship Cloth, and Instroke cases dealer. I have no delusions that this industry will make me rich, I am just happy to be my own boss and have the ability to pay my bills on time and have enough money left over each month to buy a few drinks once a week.
Let me just add. I do not consider myself a Table Mechanic. I consider my self an installer /Sales service Technician!!! I see them as two vastly different titles with the "Mechanic" having a far more diverse and complex skill set
