Need help on Diamond (Red) made around 2005

[CTB704]

Hello. I have a nice walnut 9 foot Diamond Pro Red Label table at home that I have had since new. I had stopped playing for many years but recently started back, and focus almost 100% on one pocket. Anyhow - I was getting the table recovered with Simonis 860 but once recovered I was really disappointed in how it played. The local installer (nice guy in Charlotte NC) said not only were the Artemis rails spongy, but that the Red tables were known to "trap" the balls due to the slightly higher point where the cushion hits the ball. So when I play, all of the rails seem "dead" vs the halls I frequent that have newer diamonds.

According to my installer, this is a common issue with these Red Diamonds. The balls not only make a "thunk" sound when coming off the rail, but they simply don't rebound with the same speed. For example, when I try to slow roll a long rail bank as a speed I know would work at my local hall, it comes 2 diamonds short because of what I perceive is the ball being trapped under a cushion that's too high.

Anyhow - looking for more affordable solutions vs. selling table and getting a new one or even getting new table top from Diamond. Seems like there would be a custom solution with custom cushions, or modifying some part of the table to make this work.

Thanks for your help. I live near Charlotte and am glad to pay top dollar to get this right.

 

[garczar]

Hello. I have a nice walnut 9 foot Diamond Pro Red Label table at home that I have had since new. I had stopped playing for many years but recently started back, and focus almost 100% on one pocket. Anyhow - I was getting the table recovered with Simonis 860 but once recovered I was really disappointed in how it played. The local installer (nice guy in Charlotte NC) said not only were the Artemis rails spongy, but that the Red tables were known to "trap" the balls due to the slightly higher point where the cushion hits the ball. So when I play, all of the rails seem "dead" vs the halls I frequent that have newer diamonds.

According to my installer, this is a common issue with these Red Diamonds. The balls not only make a "thunk" sound when coming off the rail, but they simply don't rebound with the same speed. For example, when I try to slow roll a long rail bank as a speed I know would work at my local hall, it comes 2 diamonds short because of what I perceive is the ball being trapped under a cushion that's too high.

Anyhow - looking for more affordable solutions vs. selling table and getting a new one or even getting new table top from Diamond. Seems like there would be a custom solution with custom cushions, or modifying some part of the table to make this work.

Thanks for your help. I live near Charlotte and am glad to pay top dollar to get this right.

Do a 'Search' here on Red Label Diamonds. Lot of info. They bank that way because the subrail angle was off. This was corrected when the Blue came out. A good table mech. can fix this. Contact RKC(RealKingCobra) here on AZ. He's the guy that helped Diamond with this issue.

 

[fastone371]

Hello. I have a nice walnut 9 foot Diamond Pro Red Label table at home that I have had since new. I had stopped playing for many years but recently started back, and focus almost 100% on one pocket. Anyhow - I was getting the table recovered with Simonis 860 but once recovered I was really disappointed in how it played. The local installer (nice guy in Charlotte NC) said not only were the Artemis rails spongy, but that the Red tables were known to "trap" the balls due to the slightly higher point where the cushion hits the ball. So when I play, all of the rails seem "dead" vs the halls I frequent that have newer diamonds.

According to my installer, this is a common issue with these Red Diamonds. The balls not only make a "thunk" sound when coming off the rail, but they simply don't rebound with the same speed. For example, when I try to slow roll a long rail bank as a speed I know would work at my local hall, it comes 2 diamonds short because of what I perceive is the ball being trapped under a cushion that's too high.

Anyhow - looking for more affordable solutions vs. selling table and getting a new one or even getting new table top from Diamond. Seems like there would be a custom solution with custom cushions, or modifying some part of the table to make this work.

Thanks for your help. I live near Charlotte and am glad to pay top dollar to get this right.

I have never heard of a red label being slow, usually everyone complains that they are too fast and the cushions too springy. I would be highly surprised if the cushions needs replacing already, I play on many red label bar boxes that are as old or older and the cushions are still good.
Did you have this problem before the table was recovered???

 

[Sheldon]

I've replaced cushions on 9' red labels with Championship Tour Edition rubber and it definitely helps. Not sure how it happened, but the old rubber was really dead, cracking and hard. RKC recommends the Championship cushions if you can't do the proper rebuild of the sub rails.

 

[jtompilot]

I've replaced cushions on 9' red labels with Championship Tour Edition rubber and it definitely helps. Not sure how it happened, but the old rubber was really dead, cracking and hard. RKC recommends the Championship cushions if you can't do the proper rebuild of the sub rails.

I didn't know about that, sound like a reasonable quickie sort of fix. Thanks for the info.

 

[realkingcobra]

I didn't know about that, sound like a reasonable quickie sort of fix. Thanks for the info.

How many people in this country do you think can modify a red label Diamond and turn it into a blue label design? My guess is less that 5 can do it right!

 

[jtompilot]

How many people in this country do you think can modify a red label Diamond and turn it into a blue label design? My guess is less that 5 can do it right!

My guess is closer to 3 or 4, but you would know. With the odds so low of getting a correct fix, a quickie fix might be in order, maybe the mechanic can install Championship Tour cushions reasonably well.

I have yet to find a table mechanic that glues the seams on a three piece slate. So there’s that also