If offer a shot of Booze after playing pool, do you accept?

If offer a shot of Booze after playing pool, do you accept?

After a win in a pool match . Do you accept a drink (booze) from the the losing side?
Yeah.

I had to bow out of the next season of Monday night league though. It was rough. 5 men on a team and I was with a team that would buy a shot on about any win. Not every win, but when you're not a big drinker 5+ shots on a Monday night sure makes for an awful Tuesday morning. If you start having to close one eye to see the ball it's not a good sign. Thankfully I had a DD, if I didn't I would have had to walk a couple miles home because there was no way I was driving after that shit show. 🥴

It was a fun time but my liver thanks me for not doing that league again!

Help with thoughts / info about "RIEPER CO." billiards cue?

The color of the veneers is exceptional, as is the condition of the cue.
I am confused on why you think the cue was made in Japan?

I walked past the address where the company was originally located just last week in NYC.

Curious if anyone here knows any info about this cue?

I think it looks really interesting, and I love the style of the points, and veneers.

Looks really old. Antique? I do not know.

To answer my own question, I believe that these cues were made in Japan. I am not positive about that though.

Thanks for any thoughts, or info about the cue.

Gold Crown 1 rehab. Lots of questions...

I recently bought a disassembled Gold Crown 1, from the dates on the metal parts looks like from 1963. It has obviously been recovered many times and also moved repeatedly. The pocket angles, both vertically and horizontally are all over the board. I removed one of the cushions and it was glued well in spots and barely attached in others. From the screw holes in the base it looks like the slate was reinstalled at least a half dozen times and never in the exact same place twice. Lots of work to do.

I have been doing custom woodwork my entire adult life, and am now transitioning into something of a semi-retirement. I am repurposing some of the floor space in my shop from work space to recreational space. The table is my retirement gift to myself. I played quite a bit of pool when I was young and used to enjoy it, but then marriage, kids, life....at this point I have not picked up a pool cue in decades. I live in a rural area, a county with a population of less than 20,000 and that I know of, one 7' bar box pool table. I am never going to be a competative player, nor is anyone who is ever likely to play on this table. I say all this just to add some context to the project.

The legs and aprons I have are stained and varnished...rather poorly. I have started stripping the finish and have found remnants of what looks like a green/blue paint on the bottom of the legs. I'm thinking it might have been painted originally? I don't like the formica on the top of the rails, so have already removed that and will replace it with a solid wood veneer. The cushions are not the original Monarch, but Brunswick Superspeed, probably K55? The nose height appears to be correct, 1 7/16" from the playing surface, and after assembling three of the rails the width looks like 49 3/4". Based on this and the appearance of the rail that I removed the cushion from I am thinking that the subrails have never been altered.

My research says that replacing the Monarch cushions with K55s will close the playing surface up by 1/4" both ways, but other than that, not cause any problems. I am not sure this is going to be a concern for a player of my caliber. On the other hand, now would be the time to fix it. It seems to me that if the only problem is the size of the playing surface, then if I were to keep everything about the subrail like it is but shift the whole shape out by 1/8", my playing surface will be the correct 50 x100. Right? Or am I missing something....

Beginning Gold Crown Restoration

A few years back I picked up a 9 foot Gold Crown for the ridiculous price of $400. The owners had the table set up in an open carport here in South Florida and every year or two they slapped a coat of paint on it. I think they used a cat as a paintbrush.

Unfortunately, I hired a local billiards store to disassemble the table at the sellers home and then take it to their store for restoration. In two years the only thing they managed was to find new legs for it. I finally have it back in my possession and I am retired so I have the time to do a very cautious restoration on this table just so long as my age and doctors don't wreak havoc with my free time.

Anyways, I am involved in a project that I needed a spray booth for so I figured it was time to get moving on restoring this thing myself and made the booth 10x10 to I can work on all the apron pieces. There was about 6 coats of paint on everything and I have the aprons and skirts (yep! They painted these too. Same cat brush I imagine) cleaned up and ready for spraying a finish. The stretcher will need two or three small veneer repairs.

The aluminum trim still needs to have the paint removed from it (yep! They painted the aluminum trim on the aprons). I will have to replace 2 or 3 boards in the ball return box as they used huge screws to attach the triangle holder to the bottom of the box and left 14 or so torn out screw holes. The ball storage box will need disassembly to strip the paint and refinish properly. The bezel surrounding the ball storage box really needs to go to a chrome specialist as the finish is bumpy and rough. Any referrals one a chrome specialist would be appreciated.

Now the tricky part. All the paperwork from the seller describes the table as a Gold Crown II. Original bill of sales from August of 1976, service manual, receipts for new cloth being done twice, and delivery and set-up bills. However, I have been reading the forums for about a week and what I read makes me think the GC II might not be. The table has glossy formica rails, aluminum feet (all 8 of them), chrome bezel, and the full ball return system. No bronze color on the feet or trim.

I tried to keep track of the number of coats of paint on the aprons as I removed it all. Looks like a white (primer?), tangerine, blue, and fudge brown (2 or 3 coats of brown). The oddest thing is that they always painted around the decal on the stretcher but when I finally got everything the decal had been scraped off like they used a paint scraper. Don't know if the seller of the company I hired did that.

Rosewood stain is on the way here and I will spray a satin polyurethane on the aprons and a white satin on the skirts. Maybe, white on the ball return box but not sure yet.

I am taking photos as I move along but so far they are of the dreadful condition of the ball return box and skirts and aprons before and after paint removal.

And, danged if I didn't see photos here tonight of someone re-doing the formica on their rails. Might have to see if I can find any Rosewood formica to pretty up the rails. I have a little bit of experience in doing formica for some home projects years ago so I know I can do that if I decide on it.

I guess that is about it for tonight. I am hoping to get moving on this and I may be posting some questions so any replies, suggestions, and/or criticisms are welcome.
Welcome! Sounds ike your project is right up my alley. I restored my Gold Crown I about 5-6 years ago: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gold-crown-barn-find.497624/

From what you are describing, it sounds like you've got a Gold Crown I. If it had been a Gold Crown II, under all that paint would have been a clear top coat and solid color Rosewood stain and as you pointed out, bronze feet and ball tray bezel. Do you recall what the decal on the stretcher looked like or said?

The metalwork can be tricky. Aside from the ball tray bezel, all the metalwork was originally clear anodized; pockets and feet cast aluminum and the rail trim extruded aluminum. There's also a possibility your feet are cast steel pot metal and nickel plated as seen on later Gold Crown I's. My rail trim was pretty beat up so I had them stripped, sanded/polished and anodized. The process wasn't cheap at $400 (what I paid for the table). They wanted $900 to do the same to the pocket castings but wouldn't guarantee the finish wouldn't rainbow, which can happen with old castings. I decided to powder coat the pocket castings and feet in a color that very closely matched the rail trim. As for the ball tray bezel, what you describe is known as pitting which is common, especially on cast pieces. Many chrome shops with touch a cast piece and it will be VERY expensive to have all the pits filled (one at a time with copper) and rechromed. Mine wasn't that bad so I left it alone. A buddy of mine was restoring his Gold Crown I at the same time and he opted to have all the metalwork power coated the same color I did my castings and feet and it turned out great. That might be an option for you.

The Formica is tricky. Remove and replace aside, Formica has long since discontinued the Elegant Rosewood 6211 pattern Brunswick used for the rails. I found that out when I was in the midst of my Gold Crown Ball Polisher Project (https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/gold-crown-ball-polisher.538320/). I landed on Wilsonart Laminate in their Rio pattern which is a Rosewood, kinda similar to the Elegant Rosewood pattern. Kinda. If your formica isn't chipping or have any major dents, I'd recommend trying to restore it. You can lightly color sand then buff it using automotive correction compound and a DA polisher. I just used the compound and polisher on my rails and they came out nice.

Looking forward to seeing your progress and please, post some pics!

Rhino 'Time' and 'Time Crystal' tips

I'm aware of 'old wives tales'. That's why what I've shared can also be found on some of the adhesive manufacturer's own web sites. Loctite, Devcon, Starbond, and others, publish extensive and helpful information and also white papers. Most people don't have the patience to read through it. Haven't seen that depth of 'sharing' from Gorilla yet but I do use their product. I will say that even at 600 grit, and a 'matte' finish, you provide way more 'tooth' than the smooth shiny surface of an unsanded plastic. Ever run into a cheap Asian cue that had a plastic ferrule which began to dissolve from the Gorilla (and probably any other CA) super glue? What #$&*! plastic was that?! Makes the tip replacement job more work than the cue is worth. BUT... back to RHINO: I can appreciate that they are trying to innovate, and 'sharing' all their R&D 'secrets' isn't good for them, but cue repair people eventually figure out what they are doing / how they are building things, even if they don't share. Rhino has brought some things to market which had to be repaired, revised and improved later, but so has Predator, and Cuetec. For now, I have the 'Time Crystal' #4 tips on BOTH my play shafts, so I can speak to their performance for me, as 'time' goes on.

Scammers on this site

PayPal goods and services makes the video chat unnecessary. It favors the buyer
As a seller and buyer, I have only ever used check, or postal money order, and just the other day did a sell with zelle. I have no problem sending photos a buyer requests or video calls, I'm an open book. I've only had one purchase of a cue on here go slightly off track, but chose to live with it. If a buyer of what I am selling, or seller of what I want to buy doesn't want to deal with my method of payment, that's ok, not the end of the world. When buying or selling on here I only deal with established members. Twice I've had new members want to buy what I was selling and I told them I don't business with new members. Also when buying I do a search on the picture.
Heck, I have a new condition DZ that I don't use and wouldn't mind selling, but haven't listed it due to some of the crazy stories on here. Sometimes when practicing, I will pick it out of the rack to shoot a game with it just because.

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