Hi, I’m the 66 year old caretaker of a modest pool room. In a Private Facility in South Florida, 15) 9 foot Cincinnati Nationals 1) 5x10 Cincinnati National pocket Billiard table, 2) 5x10 Cincinnati National Carom Billiard tables 1) 5x10 Cincinnati National? Snooker table, and 1) 6x12 GC Snooker Table The 9 foot tables were in sore need of restoration, cosmetically. The CN’s were one of the lesser expensive competitive versions of the GC’s in their hay day, ( kinda sorta speaking) and from building the 10’ table from scratch from an existing Carom Billiard table, I knew immediately where they sacrificed quality. It was not in the rails, frame, castings, trim, or bed either. It was primarily in the blinds, ball rack backing, and pedestals, that are skinned less attractively, cheaply and are angular rather than curved surfaces. I would probably add that the short rails are only 3 bolt mains, and the round, rail bolt captures, although substantial, are prone to crack from over torquing the rail bolts. I found more than a few in that condition from cranking on those fasteners with guns. I was not crazy about cutting the double angled, compound bevels in the corner pocket 1.75 solid poplar rail ends either. One and done if you slightly miscue, quite frankly. The GC’s have a far simpler solution to their joinery, imo. Anyway, for the most part I love these tables to look at and play on. I remade the blinds for 15 tables and decided to post some of the restoration. Of the 15 existing tables, 18 of the blinds were partially destroyed, or fully destroyed, and some idiot, in bygone years, discarded the irreplaceable, SS trims, and replaced the panel with crudely made childs work, in 5 instances, and in the process, discarded all but one set of the ashtrays, on all 15 tables.I came up with a fix for those ashtray routs, rather than strip and recover all the rails, which was not going to happen at the moment, for practicality and time restrictions. In building the 5x10 table, we agreed to sacrificed one 9 footer, (that the 10” replaced, and by doing that, gained 7 SS trims to repair panels on the other existing tables, which was purely accidental, btw) I am a cabinet maker, as well as a cue maker, and I enjoy working on these tables immensely, and learning their intricacies. I do not consider myself a table mach by trade, or by any means, but i've made a living doing custom work, so i'm no beginner either, when it comes to logical problem solving. but by redoing the wood working aspects of these tables, and by setting up these tables, I have come across some atrocious work done in the name of professionalism. I can understand some of the contempt I read on this forum. I found the information on the DVD’s that RKC made to be essential, ( for me) and I purchased them, without hesitation. Anyway, here are some pics of the build. If there is any interest in further pics, or if you need to know what you're lookin at, let me know, I have others. This is my first attempt to post here with pics, so if it sucks, I'm still figuring it out. The pics are in no sequential order, because i could not figure out how to do that as of yet? 50% of the tables are done, and all the SS trim is back on all but 3 headrail skirts, where I made the trim by profiling aluminium. it took me about a week or so, to make the parts and do the install without help. Thanks fellas
