Ernesto Dominguez: Still doing table work in the Los Angeles area?

lawlist said:

Back in the old-en days, Ernesto Dominguez was the person who fixed the tables in the Los Angeles area. I used to play (in part) at Hard Times in Bellflower, CA, and fell in love with the tables on the tournament side -- around the years 1988 through 1995. I went there today and measured the entrance to the corner pockets on the tournament side of the pool hall, and I came up with 4.25". From what I understand, the Gold Crown 3 were manufactured with larger pockets. My first thought would be to contact Ernesto Dominguez and see if he can set me up with a table like I'm used to -- Gold Crown 3, automatic ball returns, pockets like described above, etc. I did not have much luck with Google. Any ideas how best to go about acquiring the same type of setup for my home in the Los Angeles area? [At this point in time, all I have is a dedicated place on my floor that says "x marks the spot for your dream table".]

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Last I’d heard as of just a few months ago, Ernesto is still active, but prefers to do his work almost exclusively for his many regular longtime pool room owners he has serviced for many years. I’d suggest contacting his son Oscar at his pool room in Sacramento, who might be able to provide you with Ernesto‘s contact information, if you wanted to ask him yourself.

The tables in the tournament room are Gold Crown 2s.

lawlist said:

Back in the old-en days, Ernesto Dominguez was the person who fixed the tables in the Los Angeles area. I used to play (in part) at Hard Times in Bellflower, CA, and fell in love with the tables on the tournament side -- around the years 1988 through 1995. I went there today and measured the entrance to the corner pockets on the tournament side of the pool hall, and I came up with 4.25". From what I understand, the Gold Crown 3 were manufactured with larger pockets. My first thought would be to contact Ernesto Dominguez and see if he can set me up with a table like I'm used to -- Gold Crown 3, automatic ball returns, pockets like described above, etc. I did not have much luck with Google. Any ideas how best to go about acquiring the same type of setup for my home in the Los Angeles area? [At this point in time, all I have is a dedicated place on my floor that says "x marks the spot for your dream table".]

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Private Message "Tablemechanic" here on AZB. Steve extended the subrails to tighten the pockets to 4.125", installed new rubber and set up my GCI after I did the cosmetic restoration. It is by far, the best playing table I've played on which includes the GCI's in the Tournament Room at Hard Times. Steve knows his stuff.

Wow, those are tight pockets, but it looks like your pocket facing angle is rather forgiving at about 137 degrees? We have a table which Ernesto modified by extending the rails, but he did not change the pocket facing angle, which is around 143 degrees, with a mouth measurement the same as yours at 4-1/8" corners. Our table plays brutally tough, and doesn't necessarily accept balls even when they are hit flush in to the pocket facing!

ChrisinNC said:

Wow, those are tight pockets, but it looks like your pocket facing angle is rather forgiving at about 137 degrees? We have a table which Ernesto modified by extending the rails, but he did not change the pocket facing angle, which is around 143 degrees, with a mouth measurement the same as yours at 4-1/8" corners. Our table plays brutally tough, and doesn't necessarily accept balls even when they are hit flush in to the pocket facing!

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They are tight but fair, cut at 140*. Balls struck with pace down the rail drop as they should.

9ball5032 said:

The tables in the tournament room are Gold Crown 2s.

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What makes you think they are II's?

rexus31 said:

Private Message "Tablemechanic" here on AZB. Steve extended the subrails to tighten the pockets to 4.125", installed new rubber and set up my GCI after I did the cosmetic restoration. It is by far, the best playing table I've played on which includes the GCI's in the Tournament Room at Hard Times. Steve knows his stuff.

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Remind me to make an appointment to stop by. Looks like you've made a lot of changes since I was there! Your rails may not need the conditioning I would give them, though.

rexus31 said:

Private Message "Tablemechanic" here on AZB. Steve extended the subrails to tighten the pockets to 4.125", installed new rubber and set up my GCI after I did the cosmetic restoration. It is by far, the best playing table I've played on which includes the GCI's in the Tournament Room at Hard Times. Steve knows his stuff.

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Steve L.? Cool guy, and an excellent mechanic. That table is beautiful.

DecentShot said:

Steve L.? Cool guy, and an excellent mechanic. That table is beautiful.

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Yes, Steve L., he is and thanks!

rexus31 said:

They are tight but fair, cut at 140*. Balls struck with pace down the rail drop as they should.

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Eyeballing your overhead photo, I guesstimated 138 to 139°. Setting a protractor up to your overhead photo of the corner cushions/facings, looks like 139° to me. I can guess how your pockets play compared to my 143° pocket facing angles would be night and day difference.

ChrisinNC said:

Eyeballing your overhead photo, I guesstimated 138 to 139°. Setting a protractor up to your overhead photo of the corner cushions/facings, looks like 139° to me. I can guess how your pockets play compared to my 143° pocket facing angles would be night and day difference.

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140*. Steve gauged them right in front of me after telling me he cut them at 140*.

143* is too wide at 4.5" let alone 4.125".

rexus31 said:

140*. Steve gauged them right in front of me after telling me he cut them at 140*.

143* is too wide at 4.5" let alone 4.125".

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Yeah, I now agree. If Ernesto comes back in the fall as I hope he will, I plan on getting him to change them to 140 +\- 1, in hopes that they’ll play better.

lawlist said:

Back in the old-en days, Ernesto Dominguez was the person who fixed the tables in the Los Angeles area. I used to play (in part) at Hard Times in Bellflower, CA, and fell in love with the tables on the tournament side -- around the years 1988 through 1995. I went there today and measured the entrance to the corner pockets on the tournament side of the pool hall, and I came up with 4.25". From what I understand, the Gold Crown 3 were manufactured with larger pockets. My first thought would be to contact Ernesto Dominguez and see if he can set me up with a table like I'm used to -- Gold Crown 3, automatic ball returns, pockets like described above, etc. I did not have much luck with Google. Any ideas how best to go about acquiring the same type of setup for my home in the Los Angeles area? [At this point in time, all I have is a dedicated place on my floor that says "x marks the spot for your dream table".]

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If you are unable to get a hold of Ernesto, I highly recommend Donny Wessels at https://www.weststatebilliards.com/. Excellent table mechanic located in the So Cal area.

ghost ball said:

If you are unable to get a hold of Ernesto, I highly recommend Donny Wessels at https://www.weststatebilliards.com/. Excellent table mechanic located in the So Cal area.

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Don’t believe Donny does table work any longer.

pocket said:

Don’t believe Donny does table work any longer.

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Nice try. I'm not taking the bait.

Try Sean Lane or Gibbi Tkatch. Both are in LA.

ChrisinNC said:

Yeah, I now agree. If Ernesto comes back in the fall as I hope he will, I plan on getting him to change them to 140 +\- 1, in hopes that they’ll play better.

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Ernesto finally came back this past week and worked on all our tables. 2 tables every night while we were closed, new cloth, new facings and changing out all our pocket facing angles from 143 to 140 degrees, making them slightly less demanding.

I know I am biased, but Ernesto is awesome. He’s the hardest working man I’ve ever known, and still has a passion for the game (including helping others) that is unmatched.

He is an absolute perfectionist when it comes to his pool table mechanic skills, and he can solve any problem any pool table could possibly present.

At 66, it is sad to think he may not be recovering tables for poolrooms much longer, and even sadder is that, at least to this point, he has not passed on his 50+ years of knowledge to anyone (not even Oscar) because the hard work required is just too demanding for anyone of the younger generation.

Ernesto’s dream of becoming an instructor when the time comes, will no doubt be a success. Once he finished all his work on our tables with one day to spare, he spent a good part of his last day working with some of our most promising young players, and it was amazing to watch how he was able to help them.

In my opinion, Ernesto is the Efren of pool table mechanics. Once he hangs it up, there will never be another like him. I have no clue who the pro tour events will call on to ‘fix’ the pool tables the crew they hire to set up the tables can’t fix / level.