Drop pockets or ball return?

[bmeek]

There's another advantage to drop Pockets nobody mentioned... You can periodically switch the break end. Every two weeks worked well for me. It helps eliminate getting track lines from the corner balls to the end cushion ( in 8-ball).
And the balls marks from sliding the rack into position will never appear. Also the break track lines will never become bad when breaking from the same spot all the time.
Your cloth will stay nicer a lot longer.

I think somebody mentioned it , I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment.

 

[sjm]

For a home table, it comes down to one's priorities.

Some see a pool table as a piece of furniture that should look as elegant as possible when not in use. For them, I think drop pockets are best. Others just want to minimize the effort it takes to play and for them, I think ball return gets the job done best.

 

[joninnorfolk]

I'm in the bad back/1p/drop pocket camp!

 

[philly]

As good as Diamonds are the ball return loves to eat chalk. Let’s not talk about how stupid Diamond cannot build a table with nice quality ball holder. The design engineer bozo, oops I forgot about a ball holder, let’s just attach a stupid metal ball holder.

Speaking of Diamond tables, my poolroom just replaced some GC's with Diamonds.
They have returns but there is no place to store the balls you made in one pocket like the storage rack in GC's.
Is this true of all Diamond tables?
If so, it is a design flaw.

 

[phreaticus]

Speaking of Diamond tables, my poolroom just replaced some GC's with Diamonds.
They have returns but there is no place to store the balls you made in one pocket like the storage rack in GC's.
Is this true of all Diamond tables?
If so, it is a design flaw.

Yeah, it is a minor but annoying thing on Diamonds. The wire rack thing on the ProAm return box sort of works, but is pretty lame.

Funny enough, ball storage is also an annoying thing that BW messed up a little bit on the GC5 & GC6. The new style ball storage tray in the footer rail looks slick - but for some bizarre reason they removed the center divider, so its not as functional for tracking 1p ball counts as the old style. Although the old GC3 trays used to dump balls out a lot. I stuck a little strip of carpet pad in the middle of my GC6 ball tray with a dab of glue, works fine - but sort of cheezy.

 

[RobMan]

Speaking of Diamond tables, my poolroom just replaced some GC's with Diamonds.
They have returns but there is no place to store the balls you made in one pocket like the storage rack in GC's.
Is this true of all Diamond tables?
If so, it is a design flaw.

The pool room where I normally play has four pro-ams with a lot of one pocket action. A patron built some nice wooden ball holders and mounted to both sides of the return. Perfect for one pocket. But yes, it was an after market addition.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[GoldCrown]

My third table in my lifetime. Went with drops this time. I enjoy the quietness and not bending over. There are no rules to this. Get what you like.

 

[jtompilot]

Another thing, try scratching with 10 or 12 balls in the return and have fun finding the cue ball

 

[GoldCrown]

Speaking of Diamond tables, my poolroom just replaced some GC's with Diamonds.
They have returns but there is no place to store the balls you made in one pocket like the storage rack in GC's.
Is this true of all Diamond tables?
If so, it is a design flaw.

Ask Russ to order these for the ProAms. Seybert’s has them. Or he can order through Diamond.

 

[philly]

Ask Russ to order these for the ProAms. Seybert’s has them. Or he can order through Diamond.

Russ doesn't own the room anymore though he is hanging around through the transition.

 

[GoldCrown]

Russ doesn't own the room anymore though he is hanging around through the transition.

What's the deal. How's Tony doing? Are the Diamonds new?

 

[chefjeff]

I'm waiting for a manufacture to make a flushable table where the balls drop and stay in each pocket, but there is a flush handle that the racker can trip to flush the balls out of the pockets and down a gully for easy racking.

The best of both worlds.



Jeff Livingston

OK, I got 2 laugh emoticons on this one, but I'm serious about it.

It solves the problems.

I was going to do it to my Olhausen with drop pockets but have been too lazy. The balls are ending up on the floor anyway, so I might experiment with some gutters and a valve on the bottom of the leather pockets.

I recently threw away my drawings for it.


Jeff Livingston

 

[Fatboy]

I’ve had both for long periods of time.

It’s 50/50 and I’ve had 5 back operations.

For 1P you can’t sleep a ball with drop pockets. So 51% to 49%

That’s all I got
Fatboy

 

[cjr3559]

Modern *deep* drop pockets

 

[fastone371]

My table came with a return so I guess I am in the ball return camp. I could probably learn to like either. For 1P there is nothing better than an old GC, you have plenty of ball storage area for whatever you can think of and there are also counters. As far as ball returns being dirty the GC has open wire ball gullies, not sure how those can get balls dirty and out of habit I clean my pockets and ball box every time I clean the cloth.

 

[johnnyjumpjump]

I have A Gold Crown 1 with drop pockets, which my old back and knees thank me for choosing.

 

[Banger]

I fully understand the advantages of a ball return, but.....

I like the drop pockets on my table, because I never rack the balls, anyway. I just roll them out on the table, and start shooting.

 

[Korsakoff]

Ordered drop pockets on home table; prefer drop pockets. Played on uncountable Gold Crowns and Gandy Big G’s with ball return.

To each, his own.

 

[TheBasics]

Howdy All;

As long as the table is in decent condition, either works for me. Although
my Respiratory Therapist tells me that the more 'steps' the better. So I'll
throw my nod to the Drops camp. chucklin' The few extra steps are no
problem.

hank

 

[GoldCrown]

I'm waiting for a manufacture to make a flushable table where the balls drop and stay in each pocket


Jeff Livingston

The new TOTO Table.