Adjusting Rail Height

T

thinman

Registered
Back in March I posted a question about rail height in the Main Forum and that they were about 3mm low. One of the answers I received mentioned maybe shimming between the rails and the bed of the table as a least expensive option. The table is a Sterling 9 foot maybe 15 to 20 years old. I have noticed that when the table is recovered the entire rail section (all 4 sides) comes off in one piece. Is it possible to shim the rails and how would you go about doing it? Is it possible to loosen the rails and do this without taking them completely off? Or is this not a very good idea to start with? :confused:
 
rails

I would remove them for an exact fit, but if you want you may just be able to loosen them. I have removed all the rails before and cloth, installed counter top laminate underneath each rail and found this to be perfect.Then i installed the new felt and they were the perfect height.Thanx, Ron
www.lccsbilliards.com
 
Yes, just loosen the rails, side in your shim and tighten the rails back up. You want the cushion hieght around 1 and 7/16. I go to an Art supply and get poster board the thickness that you want (they have a huge paper cutter) cut the pieces about 2" wide and make cut-outs for the rails bolts. Take in consideration if you put the a shim in front the rail bolt only, when you bolt down the rails they will sit at an angle, this is okay. but its better to take a wider piece and notch around the rail bolts so you can slide it in further, so the rail sits flat. This will get your table playing half way decent if you don't want to redo the cushions. but it will definite be louder.
 
sdbilliards said:
Yes, just loosen the rails, side in your shim and tighten the rails back up. You want the cushion hieght around 1 and 7/16. I go to an Art supply and get poster board the thickness that you want (they have a huge paper cutter) cut the pieces about 2" wide and make cut-outs for the rails bolts. Take in consideration if you put the a shim in front the rail bolt only, when you bolt down the rails they will sit at an angle, this is okay. but its better to take a wider piece and notch around the rail bolts so you can slide it in further, so the rail sits flat. This will get your table playing half way decent if you don't want to redo the cushions. but it will definite be louder.
Click to expand...

Could you explain what you mean by it playing louder?
 
The rails will make a different sound when the balls hits the rails. usually, when the rails are sitting flat on the slate and the rails are tight, the sound will be solid and muzzled. When you raise the rail by shimming, The rails become louder when the ball makes contact. Are your balls jumping when they come off the cushion?
 
Try the posterboard. Let me know how it works. You can call me if you like maybe I can better describe it to you. If your not sure what thickness to buy, stack business cards and put them under the rail near the rail bolt. Get your cushion hieght at 1 7/16".


Sundown
SD Billiards Service
866-379-8983
 
Thanks Sundown. In the process of locating the poster board now. Will let you know how it comes out when it's done.
 
Finally got around to raising the rails SD. We could not find any poster board the thickness we needed, so one of the guys went and bought a piece of hardboard from a building supply. It came 1/8 inch thick, but he shaved it down to close to what we needed. Since the rails on the Sterling table come off as one unit, we just completely removed them. We placed the shims where the rails would sit and drilled holes in them the same size as the bolt holes in the slate, then trimmed the ends. Replaced the rails and bolted everything down. Played on it this afternoon. The biggest difference we noticed was that the balls do not jump when they hit the rail like they had in the past. They seem to come off the rails a little better also.
Thanks for all the advice.
 
thinman said:
Finally got around to raising the rails SD. We could not find any poster board the thickness we needed, so one of the guys went and bought a piece of hardboard from a building supply. It came 1/8 inch thick, but he shaved it down to close to what we needed. Since the rails on the Sterling table come off as one unit, we just completely removed them. We placed the shims where the rails would sit and drilled holes in them the same size as the bolt holes in the slate, then trimmed the ends. Replaced the rails and bolted everything down. Played on it this afternoon. The biggest difference we noticed was that the balls do not jump when they hit the rail like they had in the past. They seem to come off the rails a little better also.
Thanks for all the advice.
Click to expand...
All these fixes are nothing more than putting a band'aid on your pool table. There's a reason the cushions are low, you need to find the reason why and fix it from there, or the table never will play right. Do me a favor, and measure the playing surface from side to side and see if it reads about 49 3/4" inchs wide, if so...does it also measure 99 1/4" long? And the point of the cushions at about 1 5/16" high?

Glen

Glen
 
Glen, he looking for an inexpensive fix. It sounds like someone used K55 instead of K66 when they did the cushions a few month ago.
 
sdbilliards said:
Glen, he looking for an inexpensive fix. It sounds like someone used K55 instead of K66 when they did the cushions a few month ago.
Click to expand...
That would be my first guess, which is why I asked him to measure the playing surface.


Glen
 
OK, here are the measurements I came up with...measuring twice.
Nose to nose the figures are 49 5/8" wide, 99 5/8" long, and the rail cushion height before we shimmed it was 1 11/32" high. I measured two other areas also. The rail itself is about 1 3/4" high (or thick). Measuring vertically, the nose of the cushion is exactly 1/2" lower than the top of the rail. Hope this tells you something.
 
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thinman said:
OK, here are the measurements I came up with...measuring twice.
Nose to nose the figures are 49 5/8" wide, 99 5/8" long, and the rail cushion height before we shimmed it was 1 11/32" high. I measured two other areas also. The rail itself is about 1 3/4" high (or thick). Measuring vertically, the nose of the cushion is exactly 1/2" lower than the top of the rail. Hope this tells you something.
Click to expand...
Yes, it confirms to me that someone in the past installed K55 rail rubber on a set of rails that were designed for K66 rail rubber.

Glen
 
At some point, I think you are going to end up exposing at least a small part of your rail-cushion to see what is going on. The width of the cushion base should match with the width of the beveled rail edge. If it does not (cushion overhangs=k55 cushion on k66 rail, cushion too narrow= k66 on k55 rail), then I would think you have the wrong cushion. I would think you could determine this by feeling around the cushion bottom margin without any disassembly.

If you end up exposing a rail end by peeling back some felt and the facing, you can measure the bevel angle and bevel width.

For K-66 cushions and 1 3/4" thick subrails, the correct bevel angle is 17 degrees. If it is not, then you have a rail designed (or recut) for a different cushion profile.
 
I checked the rails again and there must be at least a 1/16th of an inch overhang between the cushion and the rail. We're going to check with the people who installed these cushions and see what they have to say about this. Of course it have been some time since they did the work so I doubt they will correct it.
Thanks everyone for the input.
 
thinman, who knows they might be more than happy to replace the rails once they realize they put on the wrong cushion, beside its only been a few months. You might want to see if the cushion hieght is consist and the pocket opening are good. check the side pockets, from looking from the opposite side pocket view, look to see if the pockets are cut issometric. you might not want these guys do anything to your table if they did a poor job this time.
 
The Saga Continues

Well we finally had the people out to look at the cushions on the Sterling table. The owner of the business swears that they are the correct cushions, so nothing will be done by them to fix the problem. Two of us were arguing with him about how they were low, and how bad they played. It was like arguing with a sign post. He also said that shimming the rails was a common procedure, for them anyway. Here is something else that was said about this table, which was purchased about 14 to 17 years ago from this same business. Can't quote exactly, but the best I can remember is this. The table is a Brunswick knockoff. It was made overseas and a Sterling emblem put on it. So it appears from what he said, that he ordered cushions for a Brunswick table to put on this table. It seems like I recently read a thread on AZ about what profile cushions are used on a Brunswick, and the answer was K55. If that is true then as you all have said these cushions are K55 and should be K66. Just thought I'd let you know what the outcome was concerning this matter.
 
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