Introducing myself and table

D

Desert Pool

New member
Finally bought a home table after not having one for 13 years. New house, new room.

After reading the archives here I went on the hunt. I found an oversized 8 Diamond Professional (46x92) red label. Installed yesterday. Price was 40% of what it would have cost new at today's prices.

Love the table. It's better than the 9' Presidential table I had at my other place, and that was a decent table.

I do not find that it banks short. It does bank differently depending on how you hit the ball (speed/English). I do not know if it got changed to the blue rails in the past. The salesman at the place where I bought it could only tell me it was "maybe" built in 2000, and then shrugged when asked other questions. Can anyone give me a way to tell if it ever got the blue rail change? Maybe measure the height of the nose of the rail?

I had to put it in a room that is 14' 6" x 16' 1". So, great on the sides, tight for close-to-rail shots on the ends. In any given game I'll have to grab the 52" or 48" cue a couple of times. I'm no pro trying to get a consistent rhythm so I find this a minor inconvenience. I considered a 7' table, but all I could find were a couple of 7' Valleys. Looked at them; they didn't really get me excited. I'm used to more real estate to play on.

Need a light. Could use some suggestions there, too.

IMG_6082-smaler.jpg
 
Location?
May be able to steer you toward what you need locally with that info.
Welcome. Nice table.
 
An 8’ shop light should be fine. But, lots of options. My old shop light came with metal ’library’ diffusers. Keeps down the glare, but leaves faint shadows on the cloth. I converted it to brighter 120v LED bulbs, but at the time could only get ‘daylight’ spectrum. Makes the ball colors a bit garish in comparison to the fluoro.
 
Desert Pool said:
Finally bought a home table after not having one for 13 years. New house, new room.

After reading the archives here I went on the hunt. I found an oversized 8 Diamond Professional (46x92) red label. Installed yesterday. Price was 40% of what it would have cost new at today's prices.

Love the table. It's better than the 9' Presidential table I had at my other place, and that was a decent table.

I do not find that it banks short. It does bank differently depending on how you hit the ball (speed/English). I do not know if it got changed to the blue rails in the past. The salesman at the place where I bought it could only tell me it was "maybe" built in 2000, and then shrugged when asked other questions. Can anyone give me a way to tell if it ever got the blue rail change? Maybe measure the height of the nose of the rail?

I had to put it in a room that is 14' 6" x 16' 1". So, great on the sides, tight for close-to-rail shots on the ends. In any given game I'll have to grab the 52" or 48" cue a couple of times. I'm no pro trying to get a consistent rhythm so I find this a minor inconvenience. I considered a 7' table, but all I could find were a couple of 7' Valleys. Looked at them; they didn't really get me excited. I'm used to more real estate to play on.

Need a light. Could use some suggestions there, too.

View attachment 676836
Click to expand...
How much do you want to spend on a light? I just installed a Perimeter light (LED). My wife loves it.
 

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Desert Pool said:
Finally bought a home table after not having one for 13 years. New house, new room.

After reading the archives here I went on the hunt. I found an oversized 8 Diamond Professional (46x92) red label. Installed yesterday. Price was 40% of what it would have cost new at today's prices.

Love the table. It's better than the 9' Presidential table I had at my other place, and that was a decent table.

I do not find that it banks short. It does bank differently depending on how you hit the ball (speed/English). I do not know if it got changed to the blue rails in the past. The salesman at the place where I bought it could only tell me it was "maybe" built in 2000, and then shrugged when asked other questions. Can anyone give me a way to tell if it ever got the blue rail change? Maybe measure the height of the nose of the rail?

I had to put it in a room that is 14' 6" x 16' 1". So, great on the sides, tight for close-to-rail shots on the ends. In any given game I'll have to grab the 52" or 48" cue a couple of times. I'm no pro trying to get a consistent rhythm so I find this a minor inconvenience. I considered a 7' table, but all I could find were a couple of 7' Valleys. Looked at them; they didn't really get me excited. I'm used to more real estate to play on.

Need a light. Could use some suggestions there, too.

View attachment 676836
Click to expand...
16’1” is certainly tight on the length - even a 52” cue will only allow a couple inches of backstroke when the CB is frozen on the end cushion and you’re shooting up/down table, which happens often.

Considering your space limitations, I think I might have opted for a 7’ Diamond, although they are hard to find at a reasonable price, and the new ones are not only overpriced but likely close to a 1 year wait, unless you can pick up a tournament used one after a big tournament.
 
ChrisinNC said:
16’1” is certainly tight on the length - even a 52” cue will only allow a couple inches of backstroke when the CB is frozen on the end cushion and you’re shooting up/down table, which happens often.

Considering your space limitations, I think I might have opted for a 7’ Diamond, although they are hard to find at a reasonable price, and the new ones are not only overpriced but likely close to a 1 year wait, unless you can pick up a tournament used one after a big tournament.
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If I had access to a 7' Diamond I would have jumped at it. No other 7' table I'd want to own was available within 500 miles. If I ordered one new I'd wait 6 months or more. There was a nice Brunswick Ashbee that they wanted $4,750 for. Good table. Not a great table. The Diamond oversized 8 was $3,599 and a much better-built table: everyone here knows its pedigree. Still, I struggled with the decision for almost a week.

If the cue gets frozen on the rail and I want a bit more backstroke I grab the 48" instead of the 52". It happens sometimes too. I've played 20 games on it. So far, using the shorter cues for some shots doesn't bother me.

My grown daughter—5' 6" she is—plays on the table with the 48" cue and only switches to the 58" for long shots. I keep telling her to only use it when needed (the 48") but she likes the thing.

When I shoot with the 52" cue, my stroke doesn't suffer because my hand remains a bit in front of the butt. It's a bit light though, so I'll need to find a 52" 18oz to replace it. I do have to adjust my stroke with the 48" because I have to move my backhand inward just a little.
 
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Curtis at pockets in Tucson may still have one or two old lights from his 9s before he switched to LEDs. You can also probably find a build thread with the LED lights from Home Depot somewhere.
 
I bought my 9’ Diamond Pro new from Diamond in 2005. It came with the red label - so yours was definetely red label - Diamond didn’t start making the blue labels until somewhere in the 2010- 2015 date range - doubt if yours was ever modified to blue label. Glen modified my table to blue specs around 2012, but still has a red label - too hard to change that. My table always banked pretty well even in red label days - not as short as a Diamond 7’. The change to blue specs may have slightly changed it for the better. It plays and banks pretty true.
 
boogieman said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/billiards/comments/zsu5us

Saw this on reddit, looks like a good solution for not a ton of coin, the OP lists the amazon listing he bought them and the corner pieces from. They are dimable, he has them on the brightest setting for the picture.
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That's a very nice looking light. I was thinking maybe of framing out a holder for two of those Home Depot LED flat panel 4x4 lights. This light here looks a tad bit easier.
 
fiftyyardline said:
I bought my 9’ Diamond Pro new from Diamond in 2005. It came with the red label - so yours was definetely red label - Diamond didn’t start making the blue labels until somewhere in the 2010- 2015 date range - doubt if yours was ever modified to blue label. Glen modified my table to blue specs around 2012, but still has a red label - too hard to change that. My table always banked pretty well even in red label days - not as short as a Diamond 7’. The change to blue specs may have slightly changed it for the better. It plays and banks pretty true.
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This table is clean, like it could have come from the factory in the last few years. The thing that gives away its age is the wearing and patina on the red label itself. That alone tells me that the rails/bumpers are likely original. That is unless Diamond was taking old rails, modifying them, and then putting them back on tables again without replacing the label.

The other thing that tells me its likely original is the pockets. The corners are around 5.125" and the sides are about 5.25" at the mouth. Narrower at the throat. I believe I read somewhere that those were red label default specs and the blue label modifications came at a time when Diamond also narrowed the pockets.
 
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