Thought you all might like to see a Diamond Pro install from start to finish, so I took a bunch of pictures two days ago when Donny Wessels from http://www.weststatebilliards.com/ and his assistant Jason brought my new table and set it up.
Took them around 8 hours total – it was clear that Donny is a perfectionist. And the table is built like a tank... the Dymondwood rails alone are unbelievably heavy, and the solid oak skirts weren't light, either. He probably spent the most time with his three machinists levels, at various stages of install. Balls definitely roll true on the Simonis 860 HD.
The full set of 79 pictures can be found on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/116726225@N05/sets/72157640639988513/) or Imgur (http://imgur.com/a/62GdB).
Here are 18 showing the basic progress:
Centering the legs and main frame...
Attaching the 3/4" plywood slate backing, with its 22 adjustable shims...
Rolling in one of the three 30mm slates...
Placing the slates in position – they get screwed with long screws through the backing board and into the main frame...
The new steel slate bracing system that Diamond just introduced, which makes a 3-piece slate table act like a 1-piece. Word has it the whole table can be moved on a dolly, although Donny said he hasn't tried it with one yet.
Each slate joint is secured by 5 heavy steel braces with 4 screws each...
Placing the rails down temporarily for level check. The Dymondwood has butcher-block construction and is heeaaaavvvyyyyy...
Something I was curious about – the bracket screws get a little piece of blue tape over their heads, then bondo'd over, along with the joint lines...
Donny made the cloth gluing and stretching look easy...
Continued in next post, can only include 10 pics per post...
Took them around 8 hours total – it was clear that Donny is a perfectionist. And the table is built like a tank... the Dymondwood rails alone are unbelievably heavy, and the solid oak skirts weren't light, either. He probably spent the most time with his three machinists levels, at various stages of install. Balls definitely roll true on the Simonis 860 HD.
The full set of 79 pictures can be found on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/116726225@N05/sets/72157640639988513/) or Imgur (http://imgur.com/a/62GdB).
Here are 18 showing the basic progress:
Centering the legs and main frame...
Attaching the 3/4" plywood slate backing, with its 22 adjustable shims...
Rolling in one of the three 30mm slates...
Placing the slates in position – they get screwed with long screws through the backing board and into the main frame...
The new steel slate bracing system that Diamond just introduced, which makes a 3-piece slate table act like a 1-piece. Word has it the whole table can be moved on a dolly, although Donny said he hasn't tried it with one yet.
Each slate joint is secured by 5 heavy steel braces with 4 screws each...
Placing the rails down temporarily for level check. The Dymondwood has butcher-block construction and is heeaaaavvvyyyyy...
Something I was curious about – the bracket screws get a little piece of blue tape over their heads, then bondo'd over, along with the joint lines...
Donny made the cloth gluing and stretching look easy...
Continued in next post, can only include 10 pics per post...
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