Skip & Jan's Billiards is getting all the 9ft's rebuilt.

realkingcobra said:
Well, I'm kind of doing it again at Skip & Jan's Billiards in Tempe, AZ...only this time Zack from Mesa, AZ and Gordon, from Las Vegas, NV. are the certified table mechanic's doing all the work.

Robert, the location league operator contacted me a while back about the tables at Skip & Jan's...and how bad they were...and would be interested in hiring Zach to fix the tables up once he finished training under me, so...once Zach and I got back to Vegas, Zach went home a few days ahead of me heading to Mesa...so he could get re-acquainted with his gf...after being gone for so long:grin: while I stayed behind in Vegas to meet up with Gordon...and get some work done on Fatboy's 9ft Diamond ProAm...and Mark Griffin's 9ft Diamond Professional...and start Gordon's training to certification level. Got done with all that, then took off for Mesa, AZ. With Zach and Gordon both working together, they took on the job of fixing up one of the tables at Skip & Jan's...an older Oak Diamond 9ft Professional from the Camel Pro Tour days.

I have to tell you...it's not a good feeling to sit back and watch someone else doing the work as good as I do....kind of makes me feel old...like I'm ready for grazing out in the pasture or something:o

But...I guess at sometime I have to learn to pass the torch or something like that...so anyway, Zach & Gordon rebuilt the rails on the first Diamond, replacing the cloth relief wood, correcting the thickness of the rails, modified the bevel for the cushions to be remounted to play right...of which I have to add...were SPRAY GLUED on by the last table mechanic. They've re-leveled the slates, changed the pockets to Pro Cut, 4 1/2" corners, 141 miters with a 15 degree down angle, and the side pockets are now 5" with the same 15 degree down and 102 miter opening. So, in other words...turned the table into todays Diamond being built.

The project at Skip & Jan's...is to take it to the very top level of play when it comes to the tables, so when they're finished, they'll have 7 Diamond 9ft Professionals and 5 Brunswick Gold Crown 3's...completely rebuilt...calibrated...all playing exactly the same...same Simonis 860HR Tour Blue cloth, same Diamond K55 black cushions, same pocket opening...and the Gold Crowns will even have the feet and pocket castings powder coated to look new.

So, bottom line...an old but new place to play on 9ft tables...that no other room in AZ can match...when it comes to being exactly the same in the way they play. I'd challenge any other room owner in AZ to have 12 better playing...or even tied in the play ability of these 12 tables....but somehow I don't think I'd get any takers on a bet;)

Once they're done with the 9ft's...then it's what to do with the 12 Eagle 7ft bar tables. What do you people think....should Natalie get rid of them and replace them all with Diamond 7ft Smart Tables?...Would anyone show up to play on them?

This is your area...some feed back would be nice...as this is a very expensive turn around for her;)

Skip & Jan's Billiards

Full bar, great...and I mean GREAT food, off track betting, outside smoking area...WITH SERVICE:grin: and a huge parking lot.

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I used to play over there approx 8 years ago when the diamond 9' tables played really good. Dave Hemmah was the house pro. It was pleasure to play there.

The business hit some hard times due to Az smoking ban and the tables just drifted into a state of disrepair.

I'm thrilled that all these tables will now play the same.

Glen, am I right in assuming that they will play the same (or similar) to the recently touted new "diamnond" rubber specs? (By new "diamond" I am refering to rubber that suppossedly plays to recent diamond rubber speed but with gold crown rebounding angles).

Thanks. Bernie Pettipiece.
 
berniep said:
I used to play over there approx 8 years ago when the diamond 9' tables played really good. Dave Hemmah was the house pro. It was pleasure to play there.

The business hit some hard times due to Az smoking ban and the tables just drifted into a state of disrepair.

I'm thrilled that all these tables will now play the same.

Glen, am I right in assuming that they will play the same (or similar) to the recently touted new "diamnond" rubber specs? (By new "diamond" I am refering to rubber that suppossedly plays to recent diamond rubber speed but with gold crown rebounding angles).

Thanks. Bernie Pettipiece.
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All the 9fts will have the Diamond black K55 cushions, IMO as good as or better than Brunswick's Superspeed cushions, same exact ProCut pockets, and rails calibrated to play to the exact same as a new Diamond's today. For this go around, the Artemis Intercontinental K55 cushions at a cost of $3,600 for 12 tables wasn't as important to me as correcting all the problems the tables have, and making the Diamonds & Gold Crown 3's play exactly the same, and getting the Simonis 860HR Tour Blue on all the tables and getting rid of the Championship 3030 that was just installed last May, as I can not stand tables that don't play right, and players should be able to have some kind of expectation as to how the equipment is going to play...BEFORE they show up to play...if the tables have been worked on by a certified table mechanic...and that's NOT my opinion as much as it is a fact;)
 
Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if the tables at the US Open have the new rail rubber that you have talked about, or the same designed rail rubber?

I figure that they are the "not new" style due to you have only been talking about making a change to them for a little bit and it takes much more time to implement it into the production process, but I figured I'd ask anyways.
 
Marie's husband said:
Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if the tables at the US Open have the new rail rubber that you have talked about, or the same designed rail rubber?

I figure that they are the "not new" style due to you have only been talking about making a change to them for a little bit and it takes much more time to implement it into the production process, but I figured I'd ask anyways.
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Diamond has already implemented the change some time back;)
 
Glen, I gotta tell you something. I am pretty much a pool newbie, so I don't have a world of experience playing on many tables. I also am, shall we say, "less-than-handy" when it comes to working with tools and such. (I'm quite certain my father rolls over in his grave any time I pick up a hammer, much less any power tool. :o )

With all that having been said, I absolutely LOVE any thread when you detail a project fixing a table, or in this case a whole room full. You have a great way of describing the details such that a lay-person can follow it easily. And the photo's just look fantastic. Thank you for sharing with us.

Since I'm over here on the East coast I doubt I'll get to see your work first hand. But I sure am enjoying your accounts of the projects you're working on. Lucky folks out there to have you making the tables look and play right. Thanks again.
 
realkingcobra said:
"I"...sat in a seat...on the sideline...it's just WRONG I tell ya:grin:Glen
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I know where there is some GCII rails that need some attention.....If you tire of sitting on the sidelines that is...:wink:

That is...if you are sure you know what your doing...:grin-square::grin-square::grin-square:
 
justadub said:
Glen, I gotta tell you something. I am pretty much a pool newbie, so I don't have a world of experience playing on many tables. I also am, shall we say, "less-than-handy" when it comes to working with tools and such. (I'm quite certain my father rolls over in his grave any time I pick up a hammer, much less any power tool. :o )

With all that having been said, I absolutely LOVE any thread when you detail a project fixing a table, or in this case a whole room full. You have a great way of describing the details such that a lay-person can follow it easily. And the photo's just look fantastic. Thank you for sharing with us.

Since I'm over here on the East coast I doubt I'll get to see your work first hand. But I sure am enjoying your accounts of the projects you're working on. Lucky folks out there to have you making the tables look and play right. Thanks again.
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I do get to the east coast as well, but not as often as I'd like to...seems like I'm always just passing through there...but I plan on staying back east for a while once I get my hands on Diamond's new 9ft ProAm Billiards table next month:grin:
 
BRKNRUN said:
I know where there is some GCII rails that need some attention.....If you tire of sitting on the sidelines that is...:wink:

That is...if you are sure you know what your doing...:grin-square::grin-square::grin-square:
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You're close to being done...I've worked on worse rails before...I'm just not sure of when though:grin::grin:
 
stuckart said:
Please post some finished product photo's.

I'll also create a full story about the work being done and post it up on AZPoolScene.com for those people that don't frequent AZBilliards. (I know, it's hard to believe, but still so many people don't come on here.)
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Hmmm...pictures of the finished table:grin:...how about these to show of one of AZ's best playing 9ft Diamond pool tables;)

Table 9.JPG

Table 9 (2).JPG

Table 9 (3).JPG

Table 9 (4).JPG

Table 9 (5).JPG
 
Well, Zach will be taking over fixing up the rest of the tables at Skip & Jan's starting this Monday, at a rate of about 2-3 9ft's a week until they're all caught up. I'll be out of here either tomorrow or Sunday on my way to TX.

One last thing I'm going over with Natalie is the table rental time on the new tables, she likes my ideas on that, which is to set all the tables to $10.00 per hour regardless of how many players are on the tables, which may seem a little high to some, but not when you throw in the kicker...any drinks or food you spend your money on during the rental of the tables....is applied to your table time bill;) so, play for 2 hours, rack up $20.00 in table time...buy a pitcher of beer for $9.00 and a burger for an extra $5.00...and your table time comes up to $6.00 for 2 hours...but if your buddy also had a burger for $5.00 and helped you drink that beer...now your table time at the end of 2 hours....is $1.00:grin:

And if Scott Frost were to come in and play someone for say 10 hours, that would end up as a $100.00 table time bill...but if everyone that came there to watch....pitched in the receipts of their spending during that time frame....if they totaled more than the table time for Scott...the table time would be $0.00;)

I'm just not really interested in the players coming in drinking water and playing on excellent tables....for cheap, so...they can pay the $10.00 per hour....if they don't want to spend money on anything else Skip & Jan's has to offer;)

Glen
 
happy trails

realkingcobra said:
Well, Zach will be taking over fixing up the rest of the tables at Skip & Jan's starting this Monday, at a rate of about 2-3 9ft's a week until they're all caught up. I'll be out of here either tomorrow or Sunday on my way to TX.

One last thing I'm going over with Natalie is the table rental time on the new tables, she likes my ideas on that, which is to set all the tables to $10.00 per hour regardless of how many players are on the tables, which may seem a little high to some, but not when you throw in the kicker...any drinks or food you spend your money on during the rental of the tables....is applied to your table time bill;) so, play for 2 hours, rack up $20.00 in table time...buy a pitcher of beer for $9.00 and a burger for an extra $5.00...and your table time comes up to $6.00 for 2 hours...but if your buddy also had a burger for $5.00 and helped you drink that beer...now your table time at the end of 2 hours....is $1.00:grin:

And if Scott Frost were to come in and play someone for say 10 hours, that would end up as a $100.00 table time bill...but if everyone that came there to watch....pitched in the receipts of their spending during that time frame....if they totaled more than the table time for Scott...the table time would be $0.00;)

I'm just not really interested in the players coming in drinking water and playing on excellent tables....for cheap, so...they can pay the $10.00 per hour....if they don't want to spend money on anything else Skip & Jan's has to offer;)

Glen
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making gold crowns play like diamonds? That is sooooooo sick! Have a safe trip! T O
 
Well, it's official...starting today, any of the 9fts that have the Simonis Tour Blue cloth on them...meaning rebuilt tables...are renting at the $10.00 per hour rate...any number of players, so...any food or drink money spent during the rental time...comes off the table rental bill:grin:

Zach will be starting the rebuild of 2 more 9fts this week, and will continue doing so until all the 9fts have been rebuilt:grin:
 
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