Valley table questions...

chefjeff

chefjeff

If not now...
Silver Member
I just returned from the state tourney and some new Valley barboxes were used. I have a couple of questions about those and would appreciate a mechanics viewpoint....thanks in advance.

The new tables have the side pocket cutout extending into the playing surface by about 1/2 inch or so (must be for saving slate costs?). A ball can still be shot down the rail and the bottom of the ball won't be affected by the bigger cutout, but if a ball is hit into the side, won't this affect the potting greatly, one way or the other? It reminds me of the cheap basement tables of my youth.


Also, the low profile chrome corners are nice, but on a lot of the tables, my cue would be riding on the wood lamanent instead of the softer cushion. Is this a bad setup or is this just the nature of the new tables?


One more...and this is my gripe against the mechanics on almost all of the Valley tables in town now.....Why do you guys stretch the cloth around the side pocket points so much that it turns those pockets into snooker pockets, thus making it impossible to play the sides with any consistency? I know it looks nice, but it changes the whole fuggin' game! Couldn't the cloth be folded underneath the rail (NOT inside the pocket, as that changes the game, too!) so the points on the side remain points?

Thanks,

Jeff Livingston
 
chefjeff said:
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One more...and this is my gripe against the mechanics on almost all of the Valley tables in town now.....Why do you guys stretch the cloth around the side pocket points so much that it turns those pockets into snooker pockets, thus making it impossible to play the sides with any consistency? I know it looks nice, but it changes the whole fuggin' game! Couldn't the cloth be folded underneath the rail (NOT inside the pocket, as that changes the game, too!) so the points on the side remain points?

Thanks,

Jeff Livingston
Click to expand...

I haven't seen the new table version yet but as far as the side pockets some people overstretch the cloth resulting in rounded points ala snooker. Kind of boils down to who did the work. No-fold side pockets can be done without losing the point.

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"Also, the low profile chrome corners are nice, but on a lot of the tables, my cue would be riding on the wood lamanent instead of the softer cushion. Is this a bad setup or is this just the nature of the new tables?"

The rails can be adjusted. If they are too low, it will ride on the rail. I bought one of the new tables and played around with the heights as I was riding the rail for certain shots. However, I have since adjusted to 1 7/16 and it is really no longer an issue.
 
Thanks, guys.

Also a problem on some tables was the rail cloth stretched so tight the cueball would jump off the table as the nose was pulled way too low. No standard for that?!?

Isn't there a standard 'tightness' for stretching cloth? Isn't there a spring scale or something similar to insure that overstretching doesn't happen?

Does anyone make a pre-shaped rail cloth piece so this can't happen? That might be a better way?

BTW, all the tables, new and old, in Des Moines now have snooker pockets but we play POOL....they all suck, imho. I'm favoring Diamonds more and more everday..

Anyway, I was surprised that the new Valley tables were setup with such variance.
There were about 130 tables at state (not all new versions) and each one played differently than the others.

Jeff Livingston
 
chefjeff said:
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Anyway, I was surprised that the new Valley tables were setup with such variance.
There were about 130 tables at state (not all new versions) and each one played differently than the others.

Jeff Livingston
Click to expand...

Existing tables will play as good as the experience of the guy that set them up. There's no shortcuts or premade cloth parts when covering tables. When you consider the number of people doing table work (hacks & non-hacks) there's a wide range in the quality of results.

Years ago I was involved in the IL state tourny and all the tables were NIB direct from the mfg. The majority of these tables were spoken for (sold) to various amusement operators that were in attendance and had players in the event. You would think the NIB tables would play with very little to no variance but if significant differences then it's a mfg problem. The Valley brand changed ownership a few years back so there's no telling what's going on at the factory these days.

Anyone know if production was brought back to Texas from Mexico?
 
Headed to the Valley shop today,actually for a few parts.
It moved back to the Ft.Worth area in '09, so it's now a little easier getting things done quickly.
 
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