Does anyone else do this to hide their staples or is it just me?

[jbcornerpocket]

The staples I'm referring to are the two usually placed behind the cushion facing when stapling cloth to the rail. Specifically in the side pocket of a furniture style table with leather drop pockets. I started doing this pretty early on in my career because I actually had a customer complain about the visible staples. I did nothing out of the norm that day and placed them where 95% of installers usually do and until that point never had anyone mention it, let alone complain about it. I moved the staples on that table like this to hide them and I've been doing it ever since. If you do it right, you have to trim the cloth around the hole created for the pocket iron similar to cutting out a hole in the bed cloth for a rail bolt. Since that day, I've made it a point to check every side pocket to understand the issue a bit better considering it was the cause for a customer to initially be unhappy with the way the inside of the pocket looked. From examining hundreds, if not thousands of pockets after that, I realized the leather on the inside of the pocket creates the "flaps" on both sides and they are always trimmed to different lengths. Sometimes they are untrimmed and installers just tuck them under the rail. I refuse to do that because I know if I do it will change the nose height of the bumper and will negatively affect playability. If they are that long, I trim them to the appropriate length. If they are already cut to the appropriate length, they will hide staples normally placed behind the cushion facing. When it is initially cut too short either from the factory or by the previous installer they absolutely will not cover staples placed where 95% of installers place them behind the cushion facing. This happens to 1 set out of every 40 to 50 leather drop pockets on furniture-style tables made by all companies. Some more than others depending on quality control. Tell me what you think about my solution. Even if you can find a reason for why it should not be done, I can say it hides those staples 100% of the time and if done correctly, you'll never see a staple in that part of the table ever again, I can promise you that. I'm curious to see what other people think though. I've never seen anyone around my area do it until recently but I have been doing it around here for 10 years or longer.

Cloth: Iwan Simonis 860 Tournament Blue

 

[buckshotshoey]

There are other ways to hide those Staples. Situations where leather Pockets were too short to cover them, I did a modified mini French cuff. All you can see is a small fold.

All it requires is a tiny piece of scrap cloth, and some super glue. Just make sure the crease is nice and tight (glue it to a business card or something similar if you have to), the cloth pieces are even on both sides of the pocket ( you may have to trim the leather on one side or the other a little to make it look even ) and don't be sloppy with the glue.

I don't have any pictures, but it actually looks pretty good..... like it was supposed to be there.

 

[jbcornerpocket]

There are other ways to hide those Staples. Situations where leather Pockets were too short to cover them, I did a modified mini French cuff. All you can see is a small fold.

All it requires is a tiny piece of scrap cloth, and some super glue. Just make sure the crease is nice and tight (glue it to a business card or something similar if you have to), the cloth pieces are even on both sides of the pocket ( you may have to trim the leather on one side or the other a little to make it look even ) and don't be sloppy with the glue.

I don't have any pictures, but it actually looks pretty good..... like it was supposed to be there.

I understand what you're trying to describe. I've never seen that done either but I'm sure it works as well. I guess I just can't rationalize adding an unnecessary step with glue when you can simply move the staple placement.

 

[buckshotshoey]

I understand what you're trying to describe. I've never seen that done either but I'm sure it works as well. I guess I just can't rationalize adding an unnecessary step with glue when you can simply move the staple placement.

True. If its possible.

 

[boogieman]

Not a mechanic but my only worry would be the hole for the pocket iron could split out. It would depend but I'd be very cautious with this method, making sure to not get too close to the hole. A pool table could potentially last for a hundred years, seems like stapling there could eventually cause problems.

 

[jbcornerpocket]

Not a mechanic but my only worry would be the hole for the pocket iron could split out. It would depend but I'd be very cautious with this method, making sure to not get too close to the hole. A pool table could potentially last for a hundred years, seems like stapling there could eventually cause problems.

If you're not careful you can do damage to that part of the rail. That goes for just about any part of a pool table really. I should add that I modified my staple gun so shooting through the cloth and/or doing damage to the rail is highly unlikely if not impossible. With that being said, I've never done damage to the rail in that area from using this method.