GC Cushion Replacement Question

[lgherb]

MY GCII has sat disassembled in my basement for the past 2 years. Now that the basement is semi-finished, we're getting the table back together.

It appears that the cushions are completely original. They appear to be showing some signs of dry rot (see pictures.)

My questions are:

1. What is the consensus of the condition based on the photos?
2. Does anyone have step by step procedures for removing the old cushions and putting new ones on? I would plan on doing the work myself. I have one of Mose Duane's maintenance and repair books, which seems to make the process pretty straight forward.
3. I'll open the debate on Artemis, Superspeed, other brands. I am an average at best player, but would like to have the best table for the dollar to improve the game of both myself and my 21 year old son. What are the merits of each? From what I have researched so far, I'm leaning to simply replacing them with Brunswick Superspeed (I assume the K-55 would be an exact replacement.)

My apologies if these questions have been retreaded so often. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[Dead Crab]

Go down to your local Brunswick dealer and feel the cushions on the floor models to get an idea of how much they compress when you firmly push your thumb into the cushion nose. Do this on a factory-new table, as some pool hall tables have terrible cushions.Then do this on your table. If your cushions are noticeably firmer, it is probably time for a change.

There are a couple of factors to consider before you commit to this job:

1. One single bad cut out of your 12 cushion cuts can completely destroy a $200 set of cushions.

2. Put on the wrong type of replacement cushion, and the table won't play right.

3. Rail cloth will also have to be changed, and doing that correctly can be tricky. You will also probably need to find a source for matching new rail cloth, or re-felt the whole table. Again, there is a risk of trashing $200 worth of cloth with a single bad cut.

4. When you yank the old cushions, you may also pull out some rail wood.

If this is a good table, and it looks like it is, you might want to consider having a pro do it. If you want to take a crack at it, some of the billiards supply store have videos and instructions. Or, there is lots of info in this forum.

BTW, I'm not a mechanic, so you can take this with however many grains of salt you choose.

 

[lgherb]

Thanks for your response.

My overall dilemma is whether the cushions needs replacing or not. I have heard conflicting information from multiple sources regarding the longevity of the original Monarch Superspeed cushions as well as regarding the quality of replacement Brunswick Superspeed cushions that can be purchased at this point in time.

Regarding the original cushions, I have heard from local billiard shops and read online that the lifespan of the original Monarchs can be anywhere from needing to be replaced after 5-7 years to really never needing to be replaced for 30-50 years. Logic tells me that much of this disparity is totally dependent on not only the environment that the table lives in but also on the quality of the production batch that the cushions were made in.

From the pictures, you can see the micro wrinkles that indicate a degree of dry rot. I assume this will only increase as time passes. This is the number one symptom that leads to believe the cushions should be replaced.

Talking to a local billiards dealer - who tried to sell me some Olhausen AccuFast cushions and seemed unaware that the GCII had K-55 cushions - I was told that the current Brunswick Superspeed cushions and generic K-55 rubber cushions were essentially the same and that I would merely be paying for Brunswick's name by purchasing actual Superspeed replacements. He went on to say that both current Superspeed cushions and generic K-55 have a ton of filler and that I could only expect about a 5 year lifespan before they would need to be replaced again.

I have also read in some of the posts on here, that Brunswick had some quality control issues in the last few years to the point that some of the nose profiles on some cushions were malformed and missing rubber, etc.

So my main questions are: 1) based on the wrinkles in the photos should I definitely replace the cushions? and 2) has Brunswick adequately addressed the previous quality issues to the point that one could confidently purchase Superspeed replacement cushions without worrying that they would be getting a suspect product?

I know the reputation of Artemis cushions is excellant, but the price difference between Brunswick Superspeed (sub $150) and Artemis K-55 profile (over $300) is a bit of a show stopper from my wife's perspective. (Yeah, that.)

Larry