First of all, 10 sets of let's say GC 1's or Anniversary's, or Centennial's, well, all the line of Brunswick commercial pool tables that were not produced in the same production run, including their newest GC 5' are going to vary by 10000ths' of an inch per production run. They all have been produced with a sub rail bevel of 23.5 degrees down angle to mount the cushions on, in which on paper work is supposed to set the cushion nose height at 63 1/2% of the ball height, which is 1 27/64ths' of an inch, just a hair under 1 7/16ths'. Well guess what, if one one production run the rails came out a little thinner or thicker then the nose height on that production run is now different, being higher or lower than the targeted nose height, meaning the tables play different.
Now, wood also over the years drys out, which causes shrinkage, that effects the nose height. I use to deal with GC's years ago that had a lot of laminate damage next to and along the feather strip Dado because the wood had shrunk so much that there was a lip of laminate overhanging the feather strip.so that when you were removing the.cloth to strip down the rails, it would snag on the laminate causing it to pull up, or chip off....wood shrinks.
Moisture effects the rails if they're not sealed on the bottoms real well. What happens is the rail bottom that is over hanging the slate if it's not sealed, absorbs moisture in the air, and because the top of the rail is sealed with a finish or laminate, the bottom of the rails swell up, causing the outside edge of the whole rail to lift up, which in turn causes that 23.5% bevel the cushion is glued to....to tilt a little down, causing the nose height to drop. Don't believe that??, put a straight edge on the bottom of the rails you're working on sometime and check to see if it's flat, or a little humped
There is a formula that I pioneered that started this whole "rail calibration" thing. It's called A + B=C....C being the unknown sub-rail bevel that the rails would need in order to set the cushion nose height to the desired height. "A" is the sub-rail thickness, it's more important than the nose height is, because without consistency at the back end of the cushions, the nose height will be all over the chart. So now that "A" has been pointed out as being so important, for the installation of K55 cushions, it is critical to maintain a sub-rail thickness of 1 11/16ths' in order to set the position of the body of the cushions behind the correct nose height so that the cushions play at their absolute best performance, repeatedly, from rail set to rail set and so on.
So now, this brings use back to how important "A" is. Well, what happens to how the rails play if the manufacturer's over time forget about how important "A" is, and start producing rails that have sub-rail thicknesses no where near the mark of 1 11/16ths'?? And yet they don't change the sub-rail bevel and keep it at the same bevel for the last 70 years or so?
Here's what I know to be the facts, no GC rails, of any model have had the correct sub-rail thickness, nor any Anniversary's, or Centennial's. Not one of the tables mentioned have ever had consistent corner pocket angles, the right side of every corner pocket is always turned out a little more than the left side. The right side ear of the side pockets is always just a little longer than the left side. So when anyone extends the rails, or just adds more facings to tighten the pockets, all they're doing is making bad angles worse.
Figure 8 nut plates were a flaw in design, or Brunswick would have never switched to the capture nut inserted in the rails. To many times I've had to repair the mounting screws in the figure 8 nut plates because of the mechanic's who've worked on the rails before me, over tightening the rail bolts, pulling the wood screws mounting them loose...it's a flaw in design.
All the older tables I've ever worked on have had end rail damage from the amount of balls that have been pocketed, bouncing off the facing when going In the pockets, banging on the end grain wood of the sub-rails, which is what causes the wood to shatter and fall apart at the ends of the rails, not to mention how many times the pockets have been nailed in, instead of being screwed in, like some were designed to be.
So, in summery, rail calibration is all about making the table play at its absolute best, the best that it can be.made to play with today's materials, and today's knowledge.
Now let's talk about restoration work on antique pool tables. Most of the people who restore pool tables, for the most part, do a good job of doing just that, providing the customers who spend the money to buy these restored pool tables are only buying one to look at, like a painting on the wall, or they don't really play pool but the room the table is going in...looks like a pool table belongs their, so they buy the antique for that purpose. Well, I'm here to say that not all customers buying tables like these for serious money, are non players!
I've been contacted by such a customer in Connecticut, who laid out some serious money to buy his dream table, a 9ft Anniversary, refinished and rebuilt by a very well known refinisher. He asked for the Artemis cushions to be installed as well, so they were. Well, he contacted me to talk about how his table plays, because even though it's a very beautiful table, it plays like shit. He asked me if he should contact the seller and voice his concerns about how bad the table plays, to which I replied, if the seller knew how to make the table play right in the first place, you'd have never contacted me, so involving the seller in your complaint about how the table plays is going to be a waste of time.
It took me years of trial and error to learn how to build rails to play right, and now that I've put all that knowledge to work, I turn out some unreal playing pool tables, because I know what I'm doing.
Now, on to this subject with Mark and Trent. First of all, Trent, I never work on pool tables changing the cushions without calibrating the sub-rails to play at their best. I never get called to just recover, level, and change cushions on any pool table. My calls are always about "Can you make my table play like a Diamond" So, to answer your question, I recalibrate the rails on every pool table I work on. I also believe that when a pool table is rebuilt, restored or what ever, it should include the most that can be done to the table to male it look right, and play at the best the table can be made to play. There should be no up charge added to the price of the table, and what ever is done to the table to make it ready for sale should already be reflected in the selling get price of the table. YOUR customers are looking to buy a restored, beautiful pool table. Choices or options as you will, should be limited to the type of cloth, color of cloth, balls, cues, or whatever, but not to the quality of the rebuild or refinish do the table. By your lack of being willing to include completely rebuilding the rails in your selling price, I can only concluded that you are worried about not being able to sell the table if the price gets to be to high, so you option rail rebuilding to the customer, to which they really know nothing about, so they're not interested in having it done.
Here's a little sale info for you to think about. If the table you rebuild and refinish, don't better than any other table in the area near the cutomer, or better than any table the customer has eve played on in their lifetime, how are you going to set your tables apart from any other tables for sale? Think about it, your customer has friends that come over and play pool on that very same table, if they don't leave there thinking to themselves....that's the best playing table I've ever played on, I might have to see about getting me one of them! That's the customer your looking for next, because your not making any more money off the customer that already bought your table.
Because of the work I do, I can't keep up with all the customers wanting to hire me to work on their pool table(s) next, even to the point of offering me more than I charge if I'll do them next. And as far as Mark being high priced, trust me, he's not. I'm the highest price mechanic in the country, as I charge $2,500 to rebuild GC's and Diamond's, and I'm not even selling a pool table for that price. And to me, my pricing has nothing to do with how well the customer can play pool, it has everything to do with what I put into rebuilding a pool table, and it's not negotiable when I have such a waiting list.
So, to sum up rail calibration, every set of rails being rebuilt today need it done, it should be done, and I feel it's wrong to sell such high dollar antique pool tables if it's not done. I also feel it should be priced into the selling price of the table, not discussed as an option. That's like buying new tires for your car, but the air to fill them up is an option you can pay for or not.
Glen, the "Realkingcobra"
Now, wood also over the years drys out, which causes shrinkage, that effects the nose height. I use to deal with GC's years ago that had a lot of laminate damage next to and along the feather strip Dado because the wood had shrunk so much that there was a lip of laminate overhanging the feather strip.so that when you were removing the.cloth to strip down the rails, it would snag on the laminate causing it to pull up, or chip off....wood shrinks.
Moisture effects the rails if they're not sealed on the bottoms real well. What happens is the rail bottom that is over hanging the slate if it's not sealed, absorbs moisture in the air, and because the top of the rail is sealed with a finish or laminate, the bottom of the rails swell up, causing the outside edge of the whole rail to lift up, which in turn causes that 23.5% bevel the cushion is glued to....to tilt a little down, causing the nose height to drop. Don't believe that??, put a straight edge on the bottom of the rails you're working on sometime and check to see if it's flat, or a little humped
There is a formula that I pioneered that started this whole "rail calibration" thing. It's called A + B=C....C being the unknown sub-rail bevel that the rails would need in order to set the cushion nose height to the desired height. "A" is the sub-rail thickness, it's more important than the nose height is, because without consistency at the back end of the cushions, the nose height will be all over the chart. So now that "A" has been pointed out as being so important, for the installation of K55 cushions, it is critical to maintain a sub-rail thickness of 1 11/16ths' in order to set the position of the body of the cushions behind the correct nose height so that the cushions play at their absolute best performance, repeatedly, from rail set to rail set and so on.
So now, this brings use back to how important "A" is. Well, what happens to how the rails play if the manufacturer's over time forget about how important "A" is, and start producing rails that have sub-rail thicknesses no where near the mark of 1 11/16ths'?? And yet they don't change the sub-rail bevel and keep it at the same bevel for the last 70 years or so?
Here's what I know to be the facts, no GC rails, of any model have had the correct sub-rail thickness, nor any Anniversary's, or Centennial's. Not one of the tables mentioned have ever had consistent corner pocket angles, the right side of every corner pocket is always turned out a little more than the left side. The right side ear of the side pockets is always just a little longer than the left side. So when anyone extends the rails, or just adds more facings to tighten the pockets, all they're doing is making bad angles worse.
Figure 8 nut plates were a flaw in design, or Brunswick would have never switched to the capture nut inserted in the rails. To many times I've had to repair the mounting screws in the figure 8 nut plates because of the mechanic's who've worked on the rails before me, over tightening the rail bolts, pulling the wood screws mounting them loose...it's a flaw in design.
All the older tables I've ever worked on have had end rail damage from the amount of balls that have been pocketed, bouncing off the facing when going In the pockets, banging on the end grain wood of the sub-rails, which is what causes the wood to shatter and fall apart at the ends of the rails, not to mention how many times the pockets have been nailed in, instead of being screwed in, like some were designed to be.
So, in summery, rail calibration is all about making the table play at its absolute best, the best that it can be.made to play with today's materials, and today's knowledge.
Now let's talk about restoration work on antique pool tables. Most of the people who restore pool tables, for the most part, do a good job of doing just that, providing the customers who spend the money to buy these restored pool tables are only buying one to look at, like a painting on the wall, or they don't really play pool but the room the table is going in...looks like a pool table belongs their, so they buy the antique for that purpose. Well, I'm here to say that not all customers buying tables like these for serious money, are non players!
I've been contacted by such a customer in Connecticut, who laid out some serious money to buy his dream table, a 9ft Anniversary, refinished and rebuilt by a very well known refinisher. He asked for the Artemis cushions to be installed as well, so they were. Well, he contacted me to talk about how his table plays, because even though it's a very beautiful table, it plays like shit. He asked me if he should contact the seller and voice his concerns about how bad the table plays, to which I replied, if the seller knew how to make the table play right in the first place, you'd have never contacted me, so involving the seller in your complaint about how the table plays is going to be a waste of time.
It took me years of trial and error to learn how to build rails to play right, and now that I've put all that knowledge to work, I turn out some unreal playing pool tables, because I know what I'm doing.
Now, on to this subject with Mark and Trent. First of all, Trent, I never work on pool tables changing the cushions without calibrating the sub-rails to play at their best. I never get called to just recover, level, and change cushions on any pool table. My calls are always about "Can you make my table play like a Diamond" So, to answer your question, I recalibrate the rails on every pool table I work on. I also believe that when a pool table is rebuilt, restored or what ever, it should include the most that can be done to the table to male it look right, and play at the best the table can be made to play. There should be no up charge added to the price of the table, and what ever is done to the table to make it ready for sale should already be reflected in the selling get price of the table. YOUR customers are looking to buy a restored, beautiful pool table. Choices or options as you will, should be limited to the type of cloth, color of cloth, balls, cues, or whatever, but not to the quality of the rebuild or refinish do the table. By your lack of being willing to include completely rebuilding the rails in your selling price, I can only concluded that you are worried about not being able to sell the table if the price gets to be to high, so you option rail rebuilding to the customer, to which they really know nothing about, so they're not interested in having it done.
Here's a little sale info for you to think about. If the table you rebuild and refinish, don't better than any other table in the area near the cutomer, or better than any table the customer has eve played on in their lifetime, how are you going to set your tables apart from any other tables for sale? Think about it, your customer has friends that come over and play pool on that very same table, if they don't leave there thinking to themselves....that's the best playing table I've ever played on, I might have to see about getting me one of them! That's the customer your looking for next, because your not making any more money off the customer that already bought your table.
Because of the work I do, I can't keep up with all the customers wanting to hire me to work on their pool table(s) next, even to the point of offering me more than I charge if I'll do them next. And as far as Mark being high priced, trust me, he's not. I'm the highest price mechanic in the country, as I charge $2,500 to rebuild GC's and Diamond's, and I'm not even selling a pool table for that price. And to me, my pricing has nothing to do with how well the customer can play pool, it has everything to do with what I put into rebuilding a pool table, and it's not negotiable when I have such a waiting list.
So, to sum up rail calibration, every set of rails being rebuilt today need it done, it should be done, and I feel it's wrong to sell such high dollar antique pool tables if it's not done. I also feel it should be priced into the selling price of the table, not discussed as an option. That's like buying new tires for your car, but the air to fill them up is an option you can pay for or not.
Glen, the "Realkingcobra"
