Connelly rail height

Lawnboy77

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Great work around! I never knew there were any manufacturers producing 1.5 inch thick rails and installing K-55 profile rubber. I had always thought the K-66 cushions were the correct ones for those rails?
 

fastone371

Certifiable
Silver Member
Theres more to it than just setting nose height at 1 7/16" is there not?? If the rail is outside of that 2" thickness range that means that the mounting side of the cushion (the sub-rail) needs to be altered to rotate the nose up or down depending on rail thickness which then changes the way the rail plays. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the sub-rail angle where the cushion mounts is what changed between the older Red Label Diamond and the newer Blue Label Diamonds?? That change between the Reds and Blues had a noticeable difference in the way Diamonds play.
 

trentfromtoledo

8onthebreaktoledo
Silver Member
Theres more to it than just setting nose height at 1 7/16" is there not?? If the rail is outside of that 2" thickness range that means that the mounting side of the cushion (the sub-rail) needs to be altered to rotate the nose up or down depending on rail thickness which then changes the way the rail plays. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the sub-rail angle where the cushion mounts is what changed between the older Red Label Diamond and the newer Blue Label Diamonds?? That change between the Reds and Blues had a noticeable difference in the way Diamonds play.
I found it interesting that he was able to make it play better. That is the CORE of the story, since the table was made by someone in BUSINESS making them play like crap. He took it and made it play better, how simple and nice. :)

TFT
 

senor_kasper

New member
Theres more to it than just setting nose height at 1 7/16" is there not?? If the rail is outside of that 2" thickness range that means that the mounting side of the cushion (the sub-rail) needs to be altered to rotate the nose up or down depending on rail thickness which then changes the way the rail plays. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the sub-rail angle where the cushion mounts is what changed between the older Red Label Diamond and the newer Blue Label Diamonds?? That change between the Reds and Blues had a noticeable difference in the way Diamonds play.
"Theres more to it than just setting nose height at 1 7/16" is there not??"

There has to be !! For any given profile (K55, K66, or any other) the final height of the nose will always depend on an infinite number of rail height-cushion bed angle combinations. It is likely that every possible combination will play a little different. Whether such differences make the play "better" or "worse" will depend on: 1- whether or not a set of objective parameters can be met and 2- who is making the judgement.. I would think a serious manufacturer (say Diamond, Brunswick, Rasson and the like) would painstakingly test a number of combinations, all trying to achieve the "best play" at the regulation cushion nose height of 1 7/6"; they must ultimately settle for one of the combinations for mass production. Obviously, when you do this backwards (staring from a "finished" product) you have only one option, rail height. In my case the first issue with the original table was poor and inaccurate cushion responsiveness; which improved dramatically by changing the cushions to fresh K55-Diamonds. But then, every ball shot at medium speed or higher would jump off the cushion; this was completely corrected by building up the sub-rails (which raised the cushion nose height to 1 7/16"). Over the last couple of years I have had the chance to play on Diamond and Rasson tables, they play great but they feel totally different from each other and (certainly) from my own table. What makes me happy is that my Connelly also plays great (though very different) and I have no desire to "upgrade" to any of the big names.
 
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realkingcobra

Well-known member
Silver Member
Theres more to it than just setting nose height at 1 7/16" is there not?? If the rail is outside of that 2" thickness range that means that the mounting side of the cushion (the sub-rail) needs to be altered to rotate the nose up or down depending on rail thickness which then changes the way the rail plays. Correct me if I am wrong but I thought the sub-rail angle where the cushion mounts is what changed between the older Red Label Diamond and the newer Blue Label Diamonds?? That change between the Reds and Blues had a noticeable difference in the way Diamonds play.
You'd be 100% correct.
 

realkingcobra

Well-known member
Silver Member
"Theres more to it than just setting nose height at 1 7/16" is there not??"

There has to be !! For any given profile (K55, K66, or any other) the final height of the nose will always depend on an infinite number of rail height-cushion bed angle combinations. It is likely that every possible combination will play a little different. Whether such differences make the play "better" or "worse" will depend on: 1- whether or not a set of objective parameters can be met and 2- who is making the judgement.. I would think a serious manufacturer (say Diamond, Brunswick, Rasson and the like) would painstakingly test a number of combinations, all trying to achieve the "best play" and the regulation cushion nose height of 1 7/6"; they must ultimately settle for one of the combinations for mass production. Obviously, when you do this backwards (staring from a "finished" product) you have only one option, rail height. In my case the first issue with the original table was poor and inaccurate cushion responsiveness; which improved dramatically by changing the cushions to fresh K55-Diamonds. But then, every ball shot at medium speed or higher would jump off the cushion, this was completely corrected by building up the sub-rails (which raised the cushion nose height to 1 7/16"). Over the last couple of years I have had the chance to play on Diamond and Rasson tables, they play great but they feel totally different from each other and (certainly) from my own table. What makes me happy is that my Connelly also plays great (though very different) and I have no desire to "upgrade" to any of the big names.
The backend hight of the cushions, and subrails, is just as important, if not MORE important than the actual nose height of the cushions, because at least there you have up to a 1/16"th to play with for variables, speaking about the nose height!!
 

realkingcobra

Well-known member
Silver Member
I've decided that this requires its own thread. Please see my post (http://forums.azbilliards.com/showpost.php?p=1007016&postcount=10) regarding the new rails that I just received from Connelly.

The gist of that post is this: Connelly's current rails (at least their 'Ultimate' rails) use k55 profile rubber on a 1.5" thick rail, with a nose height of ~1-5/16".

This nose height appears to contravene both the BCA and WPA specifications.

Comments?

- s.west
I have already explained this in the past. When rail thickness change, so must the nose height, proportionally.
 
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