Slate Gap Fillers????

Depending upon the location and table, I either use wax or Bondo. And if it's a seam or a repair. I've tried a variety of other options in a variety of scenarios, and it all just boils down to what are you willing to give up in return for what you are doing, and is it temporary or more permanent?
Beeswax is awesome for seams and small stuff in a controlled environment without alot of sunlight and heat, but not the greatest for much else. That's what they make bondo for.
So isn't it more of a personal, and timeframe, decision than anything else?
Wax is faster, but bondo is more reliable in most circumstances, especially if you aren't coming back in a few days for one reason or another.
Done right Bond seals the seam, and wax is more of a "buffer between two points of friction".
And of course there's always the unspoken...."customer factor"..
Seems like the best jobs are done for the best customers...
And the opposite is also true. (magic seam, anyone)

As for the original topic of cleaning- If you use wax and are using straight suction from a vaccuum, and the wax should rise, there's always the old deep well socket to roll it back down and out. Putty just doesn't seem to have much of a support group here now does it...?
And nobody has mentioned JB weld ( what a relief!)
I ran into a few tables this year sealed, filled, and covered with JB weld spots. ( if anyone out there knows who did it in NorCAl, PLEASE let me know. I'll be nice.... Although I have my suspicions)

And, just for the sake of argument and contraversy.... anyone ever try repairing with Liquid Steel?


That Olhausen was a 10' carom table wasn't it Craig......?

Wow...

...This is a VERY interesting thread! I will be needing to recover my table fairly soon, and was cruising the threads looking for info on the better cloth, and ran across this thread concerning gaps in the slate.

Here's my dilemma: My table is located on the 2nd floor we added to our shop. While we are slowly adding insulation and such to that area, the shop itself does not have a climate control system...basically, it's just a big ol' garage-type environment...meaning, it goes through the temp fluctuations from summer to winter. Now in the winter, when in use, we have a wood stove that we fire up about 2 hours prior to play....in the summer, it's just fans and open windows. When the table is idle, it is covered with a heavy-duty, fitted table cover, plus we throw a handmade quilt over that....the quilt is mostly white, so it will reflect any late evening sunlight that comes through the windows.

Now, we have noticed in the last year or so, that the beeswax that was used to seal the slate seams has come up out of the slate in one area of the table, and has reformed as a nasty small lump in that area. Given the extremes between the summer heat and the winter cold, while the table sits idle, would it be suggested that the seams be redone with Bondo?

Since I live in northwestern WA, the extremes in temperature are not as great as they might be elsewhere in the country, but it is enough in the summer that the wax did move out of the seam, and I would really like to avoid that in the future.

While I am at it.....the table is an 8' Olhausen with enclosed pockets...the model similar to the Pro model. Now, my ol' man just hates the leather pockets, he cannot hit a hard shot into them without them 'spitting' the balls back out. Are there rubber replacement pockets, perhaps even from Olhausen, that would work? Also, would it be advisable to add table leg levelers to the table?

And yes, I purchased the table brand new from the local Olhausen dealer, it was put together in about 2 hours....we had to constantly tighten the bolts for a year after initial installation. We were not terribly happy with the installation of this particular table, to be sure.


Thanks in advance!

Lisa

Lisa,

I bet that bump line under the cloth that you're referring to starts at the cushion and works it way out toward the middle of the table...LOL. The reason I say that, is because that's an indication of the slates shifting at the seam. That can happen with any kind of seam filler, unless the slates are super glued at the joints first. But, still...I feel that bees wax still being used today by billiards technicians is more of a installer friendly use instead of a more permanent fix of the seams, which is why I always use bondo, I don't like call backs...for any reason, so to me it's like measure twice, cut once so to speak...why take the chance of the seams showing through the cloth...for any reason!

Glen

I keep forgetting to try the super glue trick i have some tables coming up in a few day's. I have to get my work truck back Monday or Tuesday from the body shop dumb thieves thrash my trunk leave my tools but take my gps and leaver the stereo alone. On the brite side I got a new steering wheel seat door panels and carpet not bad for $500.00 all leather.

Craig

need a bigger dog..... lol

Gap fillers

For those that use Bees-Wax, do you also use superglue or would the heat affect integrity of glue?

TheWizard said:

"Steam Cleaning", as I remember it being called, is actually more of a type of deep cleaning the cloth is done by soaking the cloth in warm (Not Hot)water, and then immediately using a vacume cleaner that has a water vacuming ability, to vacume out the water, along with the chalk, etc, out of the cloth, but when doing this, make sure that there is a hose attatchment for the vacume cleaner, that will keep the vacume hose head, perfectly flat on the bed of the table (Playing surface) and go over the table slowly, to make sure that you are able to remove as much chalk and dirt as you possibly can.

If steam cleaning is done, when finished vacuming up the water, again, it is best to let the table dry naturally for 24 hours before playing and when it's done right, it brings the cloth up as close to brand new as you can get.

This process would be only need doing once every 2 months or longer, depending on how much a particular table is used, but if you have plaster paris or a similar type filler for the slate joins, it can't be done, because obviously the plaster paris will soften again, and the end result would most definitely not be a pretty sight.

It is something that I have been aware of for a good few months now, from a website that I came accross (I'll post the link at a later time when I get the chance), but I personally haven't had the oppertunity to try this and so, I'm still unsure about the effectiveness of this process myself.

Willie

Click to expand...

this is a bad idea. what happens is the water soaks up the chaulk and it rest and dries on the slate. It will need to be scraped off when the cloth is removed.

poolfitkids said:

For those that use Bees-Wax, do you also use superglue or would the heat affect integrity of glue?

Click to expand...

You should glue the slates somehow no matter what you use to fill the seams with.

TheWizard said:

"Steam Cleaning", as I remember it being called, is actually more of a type of deep cleaning the cloth is done by soaking the cloth in warm (Not Hot)water, and then immediately using a vacume cleaner that has a water vacuming ability, to vacume out the water, along with the chalk, etc, out of the cloth, but when doing this, make sure that there is a hose attatchment for the vacume cleaner, that will keep the vacume hose head, perfectly flat on the bed of the table (Playing surface) and go over the table slowly, to make sure that you are able to remove as much chalk and dirt as you possibly can.

If steam cleaning is done, when finished vacuming up the water, again, it is best to let the table dry naturally for 24 hours before playing and when it's done right, it brings the cloth up as close to brand new as you can get.

This process would be only need doing once every 2 months or longer, depending on how much a particular table is used, but if you have plaster paris or a similar type filler for the slate joins, it can't be done, because obviously the plaster paris will soften again, and the end result would most definitely not be a pretty sight.

It is something that I have been aware of for a good few months now, from a website that I came accross (I'll post the link at a later time when I get the chance), but I personally haven't had the oppertunity to try this and so, I'm still unsure about the effectiveness of this process myself.

Willie

Click to expand...

Not to oversimplify things, but why don't you just use Quick-Clean and a vac or hand vac with a brush attachment?

Josh,

B/c Quick Clean sucks!

Club Billiards said:

Not to oversimplify things, but why don't you just use Quick-Clean and a vac or hand vac with a brush attachment?

Click to expand...

Always worked for me. Just used it to clean Simonis on a GC after someone was nice enough to spill an Irish Carbomb on the table. You can't even tell! I can picture Billy Mays using that for a demo! LOL