Why I hate Dynamo coin-operated pool tables!

These first 5 pictures show you the table, and the last billiards technicians work on the tables before I started working on them. Notice the folds in the corner pockets. Because of the folds in the corner pockets, the balls actually bounced upward if hit hard enough because the folds are just below the center of the balls. In picture 5 I measured the rail height before I even did anything to the tables, notice the rail height is at 1 1/4" which is 3/16" of an inch to low, which caused even the object balls to jump off the rails...on both tables. In picture 6, you can see why the rails are so low, because the top rails are tilting downward from the weight of the slate.

In pictures 12, 13, 14, and 15 I had to turn over the slate and scrape off the glue build up because it was so thick that the balls were actually getting stuck in the corner pockets, caught between the glue on the bottom of the slate and the pocket gully boots.

In picture 18 you can see the shims I added to cause the rails to angle back upwards to get the point of the cushion back up to where it needed to be in order for the tables to play right again. On the side rails I had to add 6 thicknesses of backed cloth, and on the end rails I had to add 8 thicknesses....what a joke of a design for a pool table.

But as you can see, everything turned out fine. Now the tables are being sold so Pat, the owner can now buy 2 new Diamond 7ft smart tables to replace these tables. Anyone looking to buy 2 Dynamo 7ft coin-operated pool tables...just recovered and playing great!!!...LOL

More pictures

Almost done.

Last pictures

Mr Penguin said:

I can tell by looking at the rail back that those rails are for a Valley. The t-nuts are closer to the top of the rail than a Dynamo. The Dynamo rails are noticeably lower. This is why the cushion nose was too low coupled with too much glue on the slate back.
Mr Penguin

visit us on the web at www.penguinamusement.com

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Not quite, they were Dynamo cushions, in fact they were the original cushions still marked Dynamo, the t-nuts were 3/4" from the bottom of the rail blocks. Glue build up raises up the cushion blocks untill they start to go above the top rail laminate because of the thickness of the glue, not allowing the cushions to mount flat against the cloth/slate, thereby raising the point of the cushions, not lowering them. The reason for the balls hopping off the cushions is because the top rail cap that the cushions bolt to is tilted at a downward angle, if you'll look at the pictures I posted, you'll see that the top rail cap has a down angle of almost 3/16" causing the cushions to point more downward when they're bolted up to the rail cap, that is the reason I had to shim behind the cushions at the rail bolts in order to keep the cushion from being turned downward when mounted.

As far as glue build up causing ball hop, think about it for a second. I scraped off almost 1/8" of glue under the cushions/under the bed cloth/on the surface of the slate. Cleaning the glue off made the cushions sit even lower than they did before I started working on these tables

Glen

What's bad about glue build up on the surface of the slate is that if it's thick enough, it causes a higher slope on the side of the slate vs the flat level surface a little further away from the cushions, which is what causes the balls to roll away from the cushions like the table is out of level, making it hard to run balls down the rails to pocket them, unless you fire them in.

Mr Penguin said:

When the table is new there will be a slight gap under the rail. The slate can actually rise nearly 1/8" before it starts to push the rail up. When that distance narrows you get hop. One of three things happened to that table.
* K55 cushion was mistakenly replaced with K66 (most likely)
* It's one of the Dynamos built for 5/8" slate that came with 3/4" slate when they ran out of 5/8" (just ask around on this one if you're skeptical)
* The rails installed were built for the old, old Dynamos which were drilled the same as a Valley.

Any measurement should be taken from the TOP edge of the rail not the BOTTOM. You could hack 3/16" off the bottom of the rail and it would not effect where it bolts up or lands since it's bolted to the body of the table, not the slate. Notice the older Valley t nuts are 7/8" from the top of the rail and Dynamos are 1" from the top. This changed with the ZD7 and newer tables.
Further, the dimension of the rail is not exactly 1 3/4" tall. You'll find the drillings are consistent with the top edge but the distance from the bottom will vary. We see these range from 1 17/32" up to 1 31/32". The 1 3/4" height is rare.
As much as I dislike Dynamos (our plant is not far from the old Valley and now Shelti plant) I think somebody messed with that table before you got there. It wasnt always that bad.

Mr Penguin

visit us on the web at www.penguinamusement.com

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Fred, if you replace K55 cushions with K66 cushions, the nose height sits higher, about 1/8" higher if the bevel of the cushion block isn't changed to fit the K66 cushions, as the two different kinds of cushions do not share the same bevel. But now if you go from K66 to K55, now that would cause ball hop because the nose of the cushion would now sit about 1/8" lower than it did with the K66

These tables would have had ball hop, even with new Penguin cushions installed on them, unless you purposely mounted them at least 1/8" above the edge of the top rail because of the down angle of the top rail cap. Even when you build replacement rails, you still design them with a square back on the cushion block, as if they're being bolted up to a rail cap that stands straight up and down with a 90 degree face, which means even your replacement cushions just repeat the problem of the design of the top rail cap tilting downward, thereby pulling the nose of the cushions downward as well

Glen

PS. I have been working on coin-op pool tables since September of 1983, and have built replacement cushions for just about every kind of coin-op table on the market, including bolt on replacement cushions to replace the wood screw held on cushions used by the early American tables, which included converting the tables to take bolt on cushions

Fisher, American, Great American, Dynamo, Valley, Global(Old to new), Delta, Delmo, ATI, Brunswick(3 versions), Lola, Irving K, USB, United, Eagle, Quality, and many more I can't even think of right now

First of all, it's over priced. Second, if you were anywhere near my location I'd have given you the Dynamo I just threw away, for free...LOL Check with a local vending company to see if maybe they have a Valley 8ft they might want to sell for cheap. What area do you live in?

Glen

Brodyk said:

Hey Cobra, would you mind answering a few questions for a new gc3 owner? At least I think it is a 3. It had would formica instead of the the painted white legs.

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