Valley table rails jump aggressively

I have the opportunity to pick up a 60's vintage Valley 7' table. Really good shape cosmetically, and it will fit nicely in my rec room.

I tested the table yesterday. A minor rollout that's consistent on both ends of the table. Should be fixable. But what really got me was the rails. The first test was just rolling a ball across the width of the table. When the ball hit the rail it seemed to accelerate off the rail. I hit a few shots and saw the same reaction.

The guy selling the table told me he recovered the table about 6 months ago. Rails look generally aligned, but could use a little TLC. I'm planning on doing a full recover and rail replacement at some point, but was curious if this "acceleration" could be adjusted out somehow?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and feedback.

Rick

Johnnybgood said:

Do you know if the cushoins were replaced? Its possible they used a different profile of cusions. It would explain the speed and the jumping off the rails. Also are you using a standard or oversized cue ball?

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Thanks for the reply. Cue is standard size. It's an older (late 60's, early 70's) version. I don't know if the cushions were replaced, but I'll find out.

Thanks again,
Rick

tjohnson said:

The laws of physics don't allow the ball to leave the rail at a speed that is faster than the speed at which it arrives (i.e. "accelerate"). Maybe the ball is "jumping" when it hits the rail which makes it look like it's accelerating? If so this could be a problem with the nose height.

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Thanks for the reply. I understand what you're saying, and yes, the ball is jumping a bit. It seems like it's accelerating because none of the Valleys I play on in league do this. I do know the table was recovered about 6-12 months ago - could be they recovered the rails and maybe stretched the fabric too tightly.

I wasn't sure if some of this might be due to over/under torquing the rail bolts or if the rails aren't properly installed/leveled. If I go with this table, I think I'd end up using Ridgebacks and recovering once again.

Thanks again for the quick reply!
Rick