I agree. The pockets are coming up on 2 years old now (since they were replaced) and the marks seem to be occurring with more frequency. It's still very mild compared to the previous pockets, but it's annoying.
Brand new Diamond table marking balls
- Thread starter Rocket354
- Start date
I don't hit hard very often. Just as hard as needed. I hit much less hard, on average, than the typical pro. Pockets should not limit a player's ability to play or develop as a player.
The four ball below is what I'm calling a gash. That was the typical result on any firm shot on my previous pockets. The group of balls is the marks I saw after playing one rack. The pic below that is one of what happens when the marks on the balls from the pockets happen to slide across the cloth.
To repeat, Diamond did replace the pockets at no cost to me. But I'm still getting marks (almost two years later), just less frequent and less severe. Although, I feel like it is more frequent now than it was just a couple months ago.
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One more comment I'll say, is that I've started more frequently cleaning my balls with Aramith ball cleaner. It used to be about once a month (with a "dry" spin after other sessions). Now it's once a week or so using the cleaner. I'm wondering if the marks might be related to the cleaner's interaction with the pocket material/sealant. I'll try to see if the marks seem to occur more often right after cleaning.
so sad from that company. a little problem that makes their tables low quality and unplayable.
as i always say pay by credit card or at least the final payment by it. then you have the upper hand over them. and watch how quickly they take care of it.
my olhausen has beautiful tan colored pockets and never a mark,
and my old brunswick table has dark pockets and no marks.
seems like someone doesnt care about customers as they have a waiting period. that soon will evaporate i bet.
as i always say pay by credit card or at least the final payment by it. then you have the upper hand over them. and watch how quickly they take care of it.
my olhausen has beautiful tan colored pockets and never a mark,
and my old brunswick table has dark pockets and no marks.
seems like someone doesnt care about customers as they have a waiting period. that soon will evaporate i bet.
Does everything buff out completely?
I'm asking because I have a new diamond and I noticed some scuff marks on a new set of balls.
A couple of the scuffs look like tine scratches and they do not buff out.
I'm searching for the root cause.
This table is maybe 3 months old.
We have a Diamond smart 7 foot table for 6 years now in our poolroom and have never had a problem with scuff marks on the balls from the pocket liners or from the ball return system. It’s the dark gray stained legs, cabinet, aprons and rails, with the black leather pocket liners.
At first I was reluctant to ever use my highest quality set of pool balls with this table due to the ball return, but I’ve not seen any scratches or wear on the balls as a result of playing with these balls on this table.
Everything buffs out. Mine is a pro, not a proam so I have no ball return or any other mechanism like that. I once had the tiniest of chips in one of the balls, but I'm not convinced that was a table issue, and the ball manufacturer replaced it.
I'm pretty sure the marks were due to a fluke contaminant embedded in the tip from a scuffer or something along those lines.
I was just asking because I've never experienced this before in over 25 years of having my own table.
I initially blamed the balls, then the chalk, then Trump and Russia, of course.
You talking about Diamond's wait list? Most of it is covid supply issue related and the fact that people are lined up to buy them. This marking issue is weird because i hear about those that have it and also those that have zero problems. A place near me has all Diamonds that are from 6mos to 18mos old and they have had zero marking issues. The place i play at has had 10 7' ProAm's for well over 10yrs and not one ball marking problem. Strange deal. They need to ditch the leather and go with all synthetic pockets.
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I got a new table last march and yea it was a absolute nightmare with the black marks everywhere on the balls. Fast. I noticed it comes off the balls too as I’m sliding the rack to the spot. As you rack the balls you end up grinding it in to the cloth eventually also. So what I did was put clear packaging tape on the inside of the pockets and it has nearly stopped. I doesn’t look pretty but it’s better that having to clean the balls daily. It works. Try it.
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Strange still that the older reddish wood ones we have never left marks,
MurrayNevada
Well-known member
Played many hours on my Pro-Am over the past two years and never a mark on a ball.
It's called "Clear-Lac." I was instructed to buy this product about 8 year ago when I got my Pro-Am. I have coated my leather pockets carefully with a small foam brush. A few coats spaced an hour apart. The ball marks are minimal. The problem is my quart of Clear-Lac went bad and the company in Texas that sells it cannot ship it to California because it does not comply with air quality standards! I'm going to have to resort to Plan B to get a fresh can.
I think I posted this before in one of these diamond ball marking threads.... on a road trip from Atlanta to Philadelphia about 10 years ago, I stopped in a pool room somewhere in the middle. It had OLD diamond Professionals. Must have been from the early to mid 90's. The pockets looked like regular colored leather. Not black. I played a couple hours. There was not a single mark on any of the balls. I checked the other tables and not a single mark on the balls on those either. I noticed it immediately as I was well aware of all the ball marking issues.
Funny how if true that attempting to make the table look better with darkening the pocket caused 20 years of continuous complaints. The color of the pockets I saw in that room, I bet every person who purchased a Diamond with marks would have preferred regular color leather with no marks, rather than black leather and ball marks.
I think I had a thread about this at the time, but who knows. Too many years passed.
Funny how if true that attempting to make the table look better with darkening the pocket caused 20 years of continuous complaints. The color of the pockets I saw in that room, I bet every person who purchased a Diamond with marks would have preferred regular color leather with no marks, rather than black leather and ball marks.
I think I had a thread about this at the time, but who knows. Too many years passed.
I clean the balls every 2-3 weeks and don't ever see any marks. It's been about two weeks since I cleaned these, and I just looked them over and can't find any marks. These are Aramith Premium, also have Aramith Tmt, and have used Cyclops. Never marks on any. Table gets about an hour of use a day between my wife and I. Also I never have put any treatment on the pockets.
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I will say the leather?, is not very durable as I have a few fingernail nicks in the top of the pockets.So why do some have it, and not others? That's the $100 question I guess.
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I will say the leather?, is not very durable as I have a few fingernail nicks in the top of the pockets.So why do some have it, and not others? That's the $100 question I guess.
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I remember that!
thats a good idea, i wonder if theres any black tape thats on the large size thats not electrical
So I was just at the DCC for four days, where it was all 9' Diamond pro-ams, and literally every match I watched (besides the bigfoot, which I couldn't get that close to) had balls with black marks on them. They were most obvious on the lighter colored balls (1, 3, 5) but every table I watched for at least a few minutes I would see them on at least one and sometimes more balls. They look exactly like what I get on mine at home. So it is a Diamond thing, and it isn't resolved, in my estimation.
I love my Diamond table. I love Diamond tables. But the ball-marking is there and people shouldn't pretend it doesn't exist. How big of an issue is it? I don't know--no one at DCC seemed to so much as mention/worry about them, even the pros. So maybe I'm just too uptight. But it exists.
I love my Diamond table. I love Diamond tables. But the ball-marking is there and people shouldn't pretend it doesn't exist. How big of an issue is it? I don't know--no one at DCC seemed to so much as mention/worry about them, even the pros. So maybe I'm just too uptight. But it exists.
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