Hardness Durometer

PoolTable911

PoolTable911

AdvancedBilliardSolutions
Silver Member
Does anybody here use a durometer on the cushions? I am curious if it would be useful or not.
Durometer.jpg
 
Championship is the only one I think that use a durometer to test there tour edition rubber..

Craig
 
The guy who tried to sell goofy tools at billiards express tried getting me to waste $400 on that at the trade show in vegas. I think we are all more than qualified to tell when it is time for new cushion runber.
 
meter

Ya, it is useful, but not worth the money. Just carry a new set of rubber with you and show the owner the difference. That usually takes care of it.
Thanks, LCCS
 
I think its an excellent tool and I have one. It is important for a Mechanic to demonstrate to the customer the problem in a way they can understand. Numbers are easy to see on a tester. Using tools like this lend credibility to the trade and show you are professional. Just like a Dentist showing you an X-ray. Further you can monitor incoming cushions and know if there is a problem. Why would you want to go and put on new cushions if they weren't in spec. Having quality control methods prevents problems from occuring. Its also nice to play with and benchmark the hardness of rubber like old masters etc. Very helpful also when reviewing antique tables. Of course there are other methods which are very easy like throwing the ball and seeing how many rails you get etc but numbers don't lie. Its also nice to know what the spec is on the rubber as this is what a company like Brunswick for example would dictate to a supplier when ordering goods. Benchmarking rubber with cloth on and off with a tester is cool and again shows that you know what your doing. Just as customers like to see machinest levels, they love this one even more. also good to have a nice set of digital calipers to show how balls may be out of round. Well I hope I have shared some good tips here. I record rubber hardness on tables and keep it in a spreadsheet. It takes about 10 seconds and worth it. I am not sharing that info so don't ask me, sorry. You can start your own log if you want to know, its very easy.

By the way, a stint meter is also good to have. Lots of data to be collected with this tool also.

I think I will stop giving info out at this time as I am getting carried away.

Having worked in MFG(VP) for over 20 years and bringing companies through ISO and QS 9000 I will tell you the more testing you do the more you will understand.
 
OTLB said:
I think its an excellent tool and I have one. It is important for a Mechanic to demonstrate to the customer the problem in a way they can understand. Numbers are easy to see on a tester. Using tools like this lend credibility to the trade and show you are professional. Just like a Dentist showing you an X-ray. Further you can monitor incoming cushions and know if there is a problem. Why would you want to go and put on new cushions if they weren't in spec. Having quality control methods prevents problems from occuring. Its also nice to play with and benchmark the hardness of rubber like old masters etc. Very helpful also when reviewing antique tables. Of course there are other methods which are very easy like throwing the ball and seeing how many rails you get etc but numbers don't lie. Its also nice to know what the spec is on the rubber as this is what a company like Brunswick for example would dictate to a supplier when ordering goods. Benchmarking rubber with cloth on and off with a tester is cool and again shows that you know what your doing. Just as customers like to see machinest levels, they love this one even more. also good to have a nice set of digital calipers to show how balls may be out of round. Well I hope I have shared some good tips here. I record rubber hardness on tables and keep it in a spreadsheet. It takes about 10 seconds and worth it. I am not sharing that info so don't ask me, sorry. You can start your own log if you want to know, its very easy.

By the way, a stint meter is also good to have. Lots of data to be collected with this tool also.

I think I will stop giving info out at this time as I am getting carried away.

Having worked in MFG(VP) for over 20 years and bringing companies through ISO and QS 9000 I will tell you the more testing you do the more you will understand.
Click to expand...
Thank you for the post. I am going to purchase one. Could you tell me how much of a difference there is between clothed and unclothed cushions? Also, what is a stint meter?
 
Well it varies with the cloth and where you place the tool. When you start using it, try it on the top of the rail where the canvas is and the nose. Also you will see how pockets facings are terribly mismatched with the rubber. There is a reason but it isn't good. Of course you can't tell this without the tool, another reason to have it. I love making money putting on rubber, its such a quick easy job. You will have that thing paid for in no time I would say. At the very least you will like a MASTER and you can't be a MASTER if you don't look like one. Having tools I believe helps alot. Lets say you go back and recover the table in a few years, wouldn't it be nice to show what the readings were, see if they changed. Maybe the table was in the sun etc, you will see. When a pool table mechanic produces a spreadhseet the customer will have a heart attack, tell all his firends about you. This is a fun business isn't it.
 
A stint meter is a tool that you make like the golfers have to determin the speed of the greens. Pick an elevation for a ball to roll from say 2 inches high with a travel of 10 inches and see how far the ball rolls. Create a spreadsheet and document results. Again it takes about 10 seconds but man the customer can't believe it.

I will tell you Diamond and Brunswick are way dif on the shore hardness scale.
 
One more thing I would like to say, a tool is only as good as the guy using it. Like a guy with a chainsaw that can carve, there are things to be done with this tool. Another thing you might like to check is the hardness of rubber at dif tempertures. Same rubber, same table but dif temp. Of course how the hell would you know if there was a dif if you didn't have the tool.

One more tip, just buy a used one on EBAY, you don't have to waste your money. Good tools don't go bad. Hope this helps.
 
OTLB said:
A stint meter is a tool that you make like the golfers have to determin the speed of the greens. Pick an elevation for a ball to roll from say 2 inches high with a travel of 10 inches and see how far the ball rolls. Create a spreadsheet and document results. Again it takes about 10 seconds but man the customer can't believe it.

I will tell you Diamond and Brunswick are way dif on the shore hardness scale.
Click to expand...

I bought a durometer on e-bay. Friday I was able to put it to work.I was doing a recover for Brian (doctorb98 from AZ and a really nice guy) I showed him he had a 2 bad cushions on his bar box. I normally have the customer squeeze the rail but it was nice to have an instrument that showed it plain as day. When we pulled the cloth off the rails we could see the cushions were the wrong profile and the wood was rotted. They had K-66 on them and needed U-23. He opted for all new rubber and rails from Penquin Amusements. Brian has a real nice Irish Pub in Bayonne NJ. Any players traveling in the area should definatly stop by.He is currently waiting on a Diamond Smart Table to arrive. (Hint Hint to Glen lol...)


OTLB, Could you please share a couple of readings from your durometer for different tables.
 
OTLB said:
A stint meter is a tool that you make like the golfers have to determin the speed of the greens. Pick an elevation for a ball to roll from say 2 inches high with a travel of 10 inches and see how far the ball rolls. Create a spreadsheet and document results. Again it takes about 10 seconds but man the customer can't believe it.

I will tell you Diamond and Brunswick are way dif on the shore hardness scale.
Click to expand...


I have been reading through all of the mechanics threads doing research...

Is a stint meter different from a stimp meter or was that a typo?

As a past club pro I have always referred to it as a "stimp" meter. Is the stint meter a different (but similar) tool?


For reference the stimp meter has a notch in the channel that the ball sits in...as you raise the meter end to a ceratin height gravity will pull the ball out of the notch an it will run down the channel. That means that everyone that uses the stimp meter will roll the ball from the same height on every green it is used on. Picking the elevation to roll the ball from is not an option as it will skew the reading consitency.

On a golf green you try and pick the flattest part of the green and must roll the ball from the same spot in 4 different directions and take an average of the distance rolled since greens are not level and the ball could be going downhill in one direction....if the ball rolls an average of 8 feet the green is rated an "8" on the stimp meter.

I usually picked at least two different areas since you could potentially pick a crown on the green in which the ball would roll slightly dowhill in all 4 directions....(On a pool table you "hopefully" would not have that issue)

For reference the greens on a professional event are up around 12-13

IF using this type of device on a pool table I would think it would be beneficial to test the cloth speed (and also) the effective rebound speed of the cushions..and perhaps even rolling rebound angle.

Obviously weather conditions will play a roll in the readings...(just as in golf)
 
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