tycrawford
New member
Hey folks,
New here. I just acquired my first pool table, and was wondering if anyone had any information beyond what I’ve already discovered, and some advice moving forward.
The pool table appears to be a pre-AMF buyout Play Master Inc table, made in Columbia, Missouri. Its a 7 foot table, former coin op (mechanism has been removed). It has ball return at the end of the table, something I feel like I havent seen a lot of in researching coin op tables.
The table is in rough shape but I am always prepared to take on a project. It needs veneers on its long-side aprons (I THINK thats the term for these parts), and I can easily replace those but also was willing to replace the entire apron bit. Its currently a particle board and I’ve been looking into walnut faced ply. I have a thickness planer, a table saw, ideally all the tools necessary to mill down whatever kind of hardwood I want for the aprons if I wanted to go with something even more solid.
A big problem though is that there is a crack in the slate. It goes through from topside to underneath, but not all the way down the length of the slate. That is to say, its still one big old piece, its just got a crack in it. It runs along the long axis of the slate, is about smack dab in the middle of table along the short axis, and goes from one end of the table right about to the center of the table.
I removed the cloth and its backer to get a better look at it. I havent taken my feeler gauges to it yet, but it feels like at the end of the table, there is a difference in plane of about 0.050”. If I lift on the corner at the cracked end of the table that corresponds to the lower side of the crack, the gap closes a little bit. I am unsure if there is rubble from the crack WITHIN the crack, spreading the two sides apart, or if this is due to another flaw in the table:
The slate sits upon a number of surfaces, seemingly a surface between each of the pockets, usually a platform made of a combination of solid wood (looks like SPF) and particle board. The one that the cracked end of the table is currently sitting on isnt nailed or screwed in place and appears to have come undone by previous owners. While moving the table we noticed that someone attempted to put it back in place with drywall screws. Right now its just sitting there via gravity and the weight of the slate, but whats important to note is that the surface it provides for the slate, as far as I know, is NOT level with the others.
Since I had a group of guys help me move it from one house to another, I also decided to use that muscle to get the thing more or less put back together in its new resting place while I had the help. Since then, I sawed down some 3/4" plywood and made 3 inch wide beams that run the short width of the table, and bolted 4 roller bearings on each of them to allow me to easily slide the slate around.
I’ve seen places that advertise a service to repair slate, sometimes as strong as new. These services talk about repairing a slate thats been broken in two, and so I figured if those can be fixed, surely mine can. I am also unopposed to getting a brand new slate if I can find one that fits the table. The slate is 82-⅛” long and 42” wide. I've also been scouring this forum for cracked slate repairs and have seen folks vouch for super glue/CA glue, usually thin. I reached out to Donny Wessells of West State Billiards, someone I saw in a thread on slate repair, and he agreed with using CA glue. I also saw a long comment or two from realkingcobra, where he had a "shelf crack" on a slate that was wide enough to drill 10-32 holes through and use that to assist in clamping. At the edge of the table, my slate appears to have a "shelf" crack that is about 1-1.25" wide. Might be wide enough for some bolts, but need to see if the diagonal nature of the crack is consistent all the way down.
Another approach I thought about was building some custom pipe clamps. I'm all about reusability, and despite being "custom", the pipe I buy for these clamps could be reused and repurposed as pipe clamps in my wood shop. The idea is that I would build a rectangular "ring" out of black iron pipe, drill some holes through one of the longer sections, fish some threaded nuts down in it, and then use some all thread to apply pressure. Unsure what I'd use on the bottom side to apply pressure. What clamping I've fooled around with at the edge of the table has been done with hardwood (purple heart scraps) and decent 3/4" ply. Have also thought about using some metal stock, would expect less deflection in that than in wood. Build as many of these as is necessary to flatten the crack before gluing it. This approach is significantly more expensive but does not rely on me drilling perfectly straight holes down through a crack.
I think I've got the skills to handle this, I feel like I've definitely got the determination, and most importantly I believe in myself. However, I know enough about the Dunning Kruger effect to know that almost everyone here knows far more about this than I do, and so I'm looking for whatever advice anyone can lend. I think if I can get this slate flattened back out, the rest of this rebuild is gonna be really interesting.
TLDR: Bought a pool table for 30 dollars as a project. Slate is cracked, some parts of the table need work. I think I have the skill set to fix it, just need some direction.
Thanks in advance
New here. I just acquired my first pool table, and was wondering if anyone had any information beyond what I’ve already discovered, and some advice moving forward.
The pool table appears to be a pre-AMF buyout Play Master Inc table, made in Columbia, Missouri. Its a 7 foot table, former coin op (mechanism has been removed). It has ball return at the end of the table, something I feel like I havent seen a lot of in researching coin op tables.
The table is in rough shape but I am always prepared to take on a project. It needs veneers on its long-side aprons (I THINK thats the term for these parts), and I can easily replace those but also was willing to replace the entire apron bit. Its currently a particle board and I’ve been looking into walnut faced ply. I have a thickness planer, a table saw, ideally all the tools necessary to mill down whatever kind of hardwood I want for the aprons if I wanted to go with something even more solid.
A big problem though is that there is a crack in the slate. It goes through from topside to underneath, but not all the way down the length of the slate. That is to say, its still one big old piece, its just got a crack in it. It runs along the long axis of the slate, is about smack dab in the middle of table along the short axis, and goes from one end of the table right about to the center of the table.
I removed the cloth and its backer to get a better look at it. I havent taken my feeler gauges to it yet, but it feels like at the end of the table, there is a difference in plane of about 0.050”. If I lift on the corner at the cracked end of the table that corresponds to the lower side of the crack, the gap closes a little bit. I am unsure if there is rubble from the crack WITHIN the crack, spreading the two sides apart, or if this is due to another flaw in the table:
The slate sits upon a number of surfaces, seemingly a surface between each of the pockets, usually a platform made of a combination of solid wood (looks like SPF) and particle board. The one that the cracked end of the table is currently sitting on isnt nailed or screwed in place and appears to have come undone by previous owners. While moving the table we noticed that someone attempted to put it back in place with drywall screws. Right now its just sitting there via gravity and the weight of the slate, but whats important to note is that the surface it provides for the slate, as far as I know, is NOT level with the others.
Since I had a group of guys help me move it from one house to another, I also decided to use that muscle to get the thing more or less put back together in its new resting place while I had the help. Since then, I sawed down some 3/4" plywood and made 3 inch wide beams that run the short width of the table, and bolted 4 roller bearings on each of them to allow me to easily slide the slate around.
I’ve seen places that advertise a service to repair slate, sometimes as strong as new. These services talk about repairing a slate thats been broken in two, and so I figured if those can be fixed, surely mine can. I am also unopposed to getting a brand new slate if I can find one that fits the table. The slate is 82-⅛” long and 42” wide. I've also been scouring this forum for cracked slate repairs and have seen folks vouch for super glue/CA glue, usually thin. I reached out to Donny Wessells of West State Billiards, someone I saw in a thread on slate repair, and he agreed with using CA glue. I also saw a long comment or two from realkingcobra, where he had a "shelf crack" on a slate that was wide enough to drill 10-32 holes through and use that to assist in clamping. At the edge of the table, my slate appears to have a "shelf" crack that is about 1-1.25" wide. Might be wide enough for some bolts, but need to see if the diagonal nature of the crack is consistent all the way down.
Another approach I thought about was building some custom pipe clamps. I'm all about reusability, and despite being "custom", the pipe I buy for these clamps could be reused and repurposed as pipe clamps in my wood shop. The idea is that I would build a rectangular "ring" out of black iron pipe, drill some holes through one of the longer sections, fish some threaded nuts down in it, and then use some all thread to apply pressure. Unsure what I'd use on the bottom side to apply pressure. What clamping I've fooled around with at the edge of the table has been done with hardwood (purple heart scraps) and decent 3/4" ply. Have also thought about using some metal stock, would expect less deflection in that than in wood. Build as many of these as is necessary to flatten the crack before gluing it. This approach is significantly more expensive but does not rely on me drilling perfectly straight holes down through a crack.
I think I've got the skills to handle this, I feel like I've definitely got the determination, and most importantly I believe in myself. However, I know enough about the Dunning Kruger effect to know that almost everyone here knows far more about this than I do, and so I'm looking for whatever advice anyone can lend. I think if I can get this slate flattened back out, the rest of this rebuild is gonna be really interesting.
TLDR: Bought a pool table for 30 dollars as a project. Slate is cracked, some parts of the table need work. I think I have the skill set to fix it, just need some direction.
Thanks in advance
