Here is the back story:
Had a new 8' 'furniture' table purchased as a surprise gift for me when I returned from middle Middle East deployment in 2004. It was set up in our dining room complete with a nice set of lights and even had Simonis cloth (what a great wife!)...disclaimer: since it was inside the house, she said she had to pick the cloth color to match <insert random decor item here>. Hence, I have some sort of 'wine' color cloth.
Anway, the rails slowly became worse over time until they were completely unplayable by 2006. As they became worse, I played on them less and less, until I rarely played at all. We decided to move the table into the garage with hopes of one day hiring a mechanic to 'fix it'. There is sat for 5 years in various stages of disrepair until recently.
This past January, my son decided he wanted to start playing pool, so we've been frequently the local pool hall, where he has shown some pretty fair dedication to actually learning the game correctly, and by the end of February, was begging to play everyday, and we'd end up playing for 3-4 hours at a time.
Not wanting to spend that amount of money on rented tables when we have a table at home, I decided to at least give fixing the home table a shot.
So....with virtually no specialized tools, zero experience, and little money, and guided only by threads on 'Talk To A Mechanic', we gave it a whirl.
I leveled the 'carcass' with a 60 year old carpenters level that is most assuredly not calibrated at all and some plastic shims I found laying around in the garage.
I put the center slate on and eyeballed it to 'reasonably centered', then screwed in the slate screws with some more shims underneath, and leveled that by rolling some pool balls on top until they looked like they rolled straight.
I then put the end slates on, and raised each with shims until the seam felt pretty flush. I leveled those length wise by once again rolling a pool ball until it looked straight (I think it was a 3-ball).
I went to Ace Hardware and bought entirely too much plaster of paris, and filled in the seams and slate screw holes.
After cleaning the slate, I sprayed Super 77 over the entire bed, and layed the old cloth on top, lining up the existing rail bolts...only a few wrinkles.
I took the staples out from the underside of each rail, and being careful not to remove the featherstrip, folded the rail cloth back to expose the hardened rails., The rails came off pretty easily , so I sanded them lightly to remove the old glue. I bought a set of K66 profile no-name rubber for $90 from a local billiard depot, and attached those with Super 90 spray glue. I cut the rubber along the same compound profile as the wood rails and then glued on the old facing, then (wanting a bit tighter pockets and a smoother face) attached 1 set of new facings (double-shimmed?).
I carefully folded the cloth back over and stapled the cloth back to the underside with staples that were entirely too long and had to be pounded in with the back-side of a screwdriver until they neatly folded over.
Bolted the rails back on, and voila! My first attempt is in the books.
...btw, I highly recommend hiring a mechanic.
Had a new 8' 'furniture' table purchased as a surprise gift for me when I returned from middle Middle East deployment in 2004. It was set up in our dining room complete with a nice set of lights and even had Simonis cloth (what a great wife!)...disclaimer: since it was inside the house, she said she had to pick the cloth color to match <insert random decor item here>. Hence, I have some sort of 'wine' color cloth.
Anway, the rails slowly became worse over time until they were completely unplayable by 2006. As they became worse, I played on them less and less, until I rarely played at all. We decided to move the table into the garage with hopes of one day hiring a mechanic to 'fix it'. There is sat for 5 years in various stages of disrepair until recently.
This past January, my son decided he wanted to start playing pool, so we've been frequently the local pool hall, where he has shown some pretty fair dedication to actually learning the game correctly, and by the end of February, was begging to play everyday, and we'd end up playing for 3-4 hours at a time.
Not wanting to spend that amount of money on rented tables when we have a table at home, I decided to at least give fixing the home table a shot.
So....with virtually no specialized tools, zero experience, and little money, and guided only by threads on 'Talk To A Mechanic', we gave it a whirl.
I leveled the 'carcass' with a 60 year old carpenters level that is most assuredly not calibrated at all and some plastic shims I found laying around in the garage.
I put the center slate on and eyeballed it to 'reasonably centered', then screwed in the slate screws with some more shims underneath, and leveled that by rolling some pool balls on top until they looked like they rolled straight.
I then put the end slates on, and raised each with shims until the seam felt pretty flush. I leveled those length wise by once again rolling a pool ball until it looked straight (I think it was a 3-ball).
I went to Ace Hardware and bought entirely too much plaster of paris, and filled in the seams and slate screw holes.
After cleaning the slate, I sprayed Super 77 over the entire bed, and layed the old cloth on top, lining up the existing rail bolts...only a few wrinkles.
I took the staples out from the underside of each rail, and being careful not to remove the featherstrip, folded the rail cloth back to expose the hardened rails., The rails came off pretty easily , so I sanded them lightly to remove the old glue. I bought a set of K66 profile no-name rubber for $90 from a local billiard depot, and attached those with Super 90 spray glue. I cut the rubber along the same compound profile as the wood rails and then glued on the old facing, then (wanting a bit tighter pockets and a smoother face) attached 1 set of new facings (double-shimmed?).
I carefully folded the cloth back over and stapled the cloth back to the underside with staples that were entirely too long and had to be pounded in with the back-side of a screwdriver until they neatly folded over.
Bolted the rails back on, and voila! My first attempt is in the books.
...btw, I highly recommend hiring a mechanic.
