Antique Rail Work

[Twice]

I have an antique table that was given to me quite a few years ago, I think it's a Brunswick Wellington that had the emblem replaced by a local mechanic back in the day. It's obvious that the emblem was changed, it now says W.A. Bergen St Paul Minn, anyway, the table is in pretty good shape and most any work needed I can do myself. Except the rails! I have read through Bigkahuna's thread and his rails sound like the ones I have. I don't have the knowledge or equipment to repair the rails. The pocket openings are really big! 5.5 inch on the corners and 6 on the sides. I would like to tighten up the pockets and still have the table preform correctly. Does anyone have a suggestion of who or what company I could have do this rail work?

Below is a picture of the table, if anyone knows who the manufacturer is, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

Twice

 

[n10spool]

On old tables with number 3 pockets each pocket iron was hand made so to tighten the pockets correctly the person would need all 6 rails and irons at the same time and number or label each one so you will have a consistant pocket size. If any get mixed up you could pocket sizes very by 1/8" in size roughly.

Any real table mechanic can extend the sub rails and recut the poscket openings to build the pockets to the size you that you want.

I can work on the rails for you as can a few other guys oin az can like Glen-- Realkingcobra-- and Donnie--- SD Billiards out of southern California.

If you do a search you can see what is envolved in this type of work, Glen and a few other mechanics have posted alot of pictures. I also have a feew photo's posted on my myspace page there a link in my profile here on az just click on my name.

Its not cheap and you really get what you pay for this type of work. you are roughly looking at 10 hrs of work and $100- 400 on just new rubber plus the installers rate or price to do all the work.

Best of Luck,

Craig

 

[OTLB]

Simply attaching pocket irons with rails is really no way to insure that they will be the same size pockets when mounted on the table later, you will still have pocket size variation. Correct way to do this is to splice in a new rail liner extension say at least 4 inches in and not add to the existing liner. Then mount to table and tighten up. At this point you may elect to replace the entire rail liner also which is not hard. Then you can put whatever rubber you want. The only proper way to extend liners and make smaller pockets all the same size is to remount, measure then cut IMO

 

[LCCS]

table

Where are you located?

 

[Twice]

Where are you located?

Thanks for the replies, the table is located in Minnesota. The table currently has #6 pocket irons , I have the original #5's that I'm thinking of having new leathers and pockets made for and put them back on when I get the rail work done. I don't think changing from #6's to #5's will change the pocket opening size.

About 10 years ago, I brought all the rails and pockets to Peters Billiards, they installed accufast cushions on them and replaced the felt, but obviously didn't tighten up the pockets and I wasn't aware at the time what the pocket openings should be. Shame on me.

The link below brings you to a photo album with a bunch of pictures of the table.

http://s35.photobucket.com/albums/d180/Twice_x2/martys pool table/

 

[LCCS]

cushions

Do you know if the rail has been cut for the accufast cushions? Those cushions are wrong, for that table. If you are thinking of having subrails, built then i would put the correct cushions on.
Ron

 

[Twice]

The rails were cut for the accufast cushions. If I get the rails redone, do you think they should be changed back?

 

[LCCS]

rails

I would leave them, then. The draw back, is the price for Accufast.
Thanks, Ron

 

[OTLB]

I've never purchased Accufast how much is a set? they must just charge more for the name

 

[Bigkahuna]

You should do some planning here. I would suggest doing some mock ups using some pieces of 1/2" plywood to see how two balls fit in the front and back of the pockets. Because the pocket facings are splayed the opening is larger in the front than in the rear. This would benefit you to give the person doing the work the correct measurements. You should also check for any variations in the size of the pocket openings as on my table they were not consistent. There is a video on youtube to demonstrate measuring the pocket sizes.

I will say this about my table. Since doing all this work I found that I really did not miss more shots with the smaller pockets. The larger pockets actually helped with my confidence in cheating pockets. So, really for various reasons my table was a good practice table as it was in my opinion.

My side pockets now at 5" I will not shoot a ball into at much less that 30 degrees. I also should have opened up the angle on the sides as now they are almost facing each other. The problem with this is when shooting a ball directly at the pocket if I hit the point where the facing is there is almost no cushion action. Kind of hard to describe but if I were hitting a piece of sheet metal at an angle it would bend easily where if I hit it right with the edge facing me it would not bend at all.

Nice old table good luck with your project..

 

[Ben at Muellers]

I work on rails everyday here at Mueller's. Give me a call or PM me, I would be happy to discuss the different options for you rails. Here are a couple of photos of similar jobs. The first three are of a rail liner replacement. The last two are a new set of #3 iron rails that I made for a customer.