gman_tx said:
Looks like it is functional. It also looks to be well constructed.
Hmm...
SDF
Looking for the best Pool ball rack
- Thread starter tjlmbklr
- Start date
Looks like it is functional. It also looks to be well constructed.
Hmm...
SDF
Read This Post Its A Good One...
years ago when I got my centennial balls, i went on a mission to find the perfect rack, when I found a store that had the brand I wanted-I cant remember the brand-I took in MY set of balls and tested every rack, theyu had about 12-15 of them, and I was checking to see if all the balls especially the front 6 that were touching the rack in 9B, were all frozen together on all 3 sides, alot of times the 1 ball will freeze fine but the 2 balls between the 1 and 9 will have a gap between them thus the rack is a slug(most common problem when rack shopping), so with 15 racks and 3 possible directions it took me over an hour to find the best possible one ,its dead perfect on 2/3 sides and the 3rd side is almost perfect, its a wood rack i've had it 8 years and it is still perfect, you have to test a rack, because the brand I bought only 3-4 of them were any good of the 15 or so I tested and it was a expensive brand-its a white wood, the tollarances are very important, but its not something you can buy online if your seeking perfection. my rack looks old, worn because it is but it is still perfect on 2/3 sides ans great on the 3rd side, the balls roll to the front and every ball is touching every ball-even with all 15 balls in 2/3 directions. I waslys rack them with the 2 points in front-the 2 good ones the 3rd is ok,
awalys look at every ball when you push them into the rack if the ALL the balls arnt touching its a bad rack(unless your testing with balls that are worn down a bit) but with new balls they must touch, you'll find that finding a good rack is more work than finding a good cue or anything in pool, cues, tables, lights, chairs, balls, etc are easy the rack isnt because when they make them not alot of thought goes into them, by who ever is making them thus you get all different shapes that wont rack a solid rack leaving all balls toughing, especiasly th 2 balls behind the apex ball ther awalys seems to be a gap.
I saw some for $250 made of pruple heart cocobolo etc and the gaps between the balls were so bad you would never move the balls with a great break, they just made pretty looking racks. its tough to find one, when I get back to america I'll look ant mine and post the brand.
years ago when I got my centennial balls, i went on a mission to find the perfect rack, when I found a store that had the brand I wanted-I cant remember the brand-I took in MY set of balls and tested every rack, theyu had about 12-15 of them, and I was checking to see if all the balls especially the front 6 that were touching the rack in 9B, were all frozen together on all 3 sides, alot of times the 1 ball will freeze fine but the 2 balls between the 1 and 9 will have a gap between them thus the rack is a slug(most common problem when rack shopping), so with 15 racks and 3 possible directions it took me over an hour to find the best possible one ,its dead perfect on 2/3 sides and the 3rd side is almost perfect, its a wood rack i've had it 8 years and it is still perfect, you have to test a rack, because the brand I bought only 3-4 of them were any good of the 15 or so I tested and it was a expensive brand-its a white wood, the tollarances are very important, but its not something you can buy online if your seeking perfection. my rack looks old, worn because it is but it is still perfect on 2/3 sides ans great on the 3rd side, the balls roll to the front and every ball is touching every ball-even with all 15 balls in 2/3 directions. I waslys rack them with the 2 points in front-the 2 good ones the 3rd is ok,
awalys look at every ball when you push them into the rack if the ALL the balls arnt touching its a bad rack(unless your testing with balls that are worn down a bit) but with new balls they must touch, you'll find that finding a good rack is more work than finding a good cue or anything in pool, cues, tables, lights, chairs, balls, etc are easy the rack isnt because when they make them not alot of thought goes into them, by who ever is making them thus you get all different shapes that wont rack a solid rack leaving all balls toughing, especiasly th 2 balls behind the apex ball ther awalys seems to be a gap.
I saw some for $250 made of pruple heart cocobolo etc and the gaps between the balls were so bad you would never move the balls with a great break, they just made pretty looking racks. its tough to find one, when I get back to america I'll look ant mine and post the brand.
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I think that the idea behind sardo and chamelon is solid, all racks should take the human factor out so that it's impossible to even accidentally give the other guy a bad rack.
As I understand it, the sardo pushes balls down, and also together... is the 'together' a separate action or is the act of pushing them down also going to lock them together?
And the chamelon just pushes them together but not down. If the sardo really can put divots in the cloth then this seems like a sensible alternative.
Is it possible the sardo is just being used incorrectly by some people? They're putting more weight into it than is necessary?
As I understand it, the sardo pushes balls down, and also together... is the 'together' a separate action or is the act of pushing them down also going to lock them together?
And the chamelon just pushes them together but not down. If the sardo really can put divots in the cloth then this seems like a sensible alternative.
Is it possible the sardo is just being used incorrectly by some people? They're putting more weight into it than is necessary?
Don't know for sure, but...
I read somewhere that part of the initial setup of a Sardo involved tapping the balls into position, as aligned by the rack. (along with marking the table for the indexing points)
$29.99 for that custom V rack is not out of line. Anything hand-crafted and assembled well enough to be both stable and square is going to cost a few bucks. I also like the open back idea, but I think it could be made more sturdy by simply making it triangular, but larger to allow more room for easy removal. Dropping an "open", or "V"-shaped rack might 'spring' it. Cool idea though.
The biggest joke in racks? The ones that are shaped like a 9-ball rack. They are worse than useless, because when you try to lift the rack away, you find that the tolerances are so close that it's hard to do so without touching a ball. I've seen some TV matches that used them, and the ref was having a lot of trouble. I'd rather rack by hand.
Ken
(edited for clarification)
CreeDo said:
I read somewhere that part of the initial setup of a Sardo involved tapping the balls into position, as aligned by the rack. (along with marking the table for the indexing points)
$29.99 for that custom V rack is not out of line. Anything hand-crafted and assembled well enough to be both stable and square is going to cost a few bucks. I also like the open back idea, but I think it could be made more sturdy by simply making it triangular, but larger to allow more room for easy removal. Dropping an "open", or "V"-shaped rack might 'spring' it. Cool idea though.
The biggest joke in racks? The ones that are shaped like a 9-ball rack. They are worse than useless, because when you try to lift the rack away, you find that the tolerances are so close that it's hard to do so without touching a ball. I've seen some TV matches that used them, and the ref was having a lot of trouble. I'd rather rack by hand.
Ken
(edited for clarification)
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I took the el cheapo 9 dollar rack from Dick's and placed about 5 layers of electrician's tape slightly above center on two sides.
My buddies who are more into recreational pool have a way of pushing the balls forward but not tightenting from the sides, hence the tape to insure a tight rack.
Works like a charm and now I get a tight rack everytime. All they have to do is push the balls into the rack and the tape forces the balls tohether.
Not putting down anyone's rack, I just look for the cheap easy way.
Oh Yeah, I placed chair glides on the bottom of the rack so they know which side is up. Chrome gliders do not harm the Simonis 860 cloth. I would prefer ball bearing but simply won't spend the money.
My buddies who are more into recreational pool have a way of pushing the balls forward but not tightenting from the sides, hence the tape to insure a tight rack.
Works like a charm and now I get a tight rack everytime. All they have to do is push the balls into the rack and the tape forces the balls tohether.
Not putting down anyone's rack, I just look for the cheap easy way.
Oh Yeah, I placed chair glides on the bottom of the rack so they know which side is up. Chrome gliders do not harm the Simonis 860 cloth. I would prefer ball bearing but simply won't spend the money.
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that sounds like a really good idea. It seems like someone could make a rack that, instead of having hard sides that cinch closer together through some mechanical action... have sides that 'give' a bit (some soft plastic?) and have padding on the inside, so a person can just push the balls together by squeezing the sides.
Forgive my ignorance, but has anyone invented something like this?
http://www.jessescornerpocket.com/rackthing.jpg
The bottom piece could be separate (or attached loosely), unlike the chameleon rack which seems to have some spring plunger arrangement. The bottom would also be maybe a little padded.
Forgive my ignorance, but has anyone invented something like this?
http://www.jessescornerpocket.com/rackthing.jpg
The bottom piece could be separate (or attached loosely), unlike the chameleon rack which seems to have some spring plunger arrangement. The bottom would also be maybe a little padded.
JoeW said:
Cheap or not, tape lets you fine-tune the rack any time it needs it, (to compensate for ball wear, for instance) and can be done to any rack. There's nothing like it to get those second two balls to lie together.
You're better off with chair glides, they offer a lot more surface area to your cloth. A ball bearing sounds like a great idea, but it would track your cloth eventually. Note that the races that ball bearings run in are not flat, they are curved to fit the balls, increasing the load-bearing surface, reducing wear.
Ken
This isn't a rhetorical question but being a straight pool player and not really liking 9 ball much I may look at things differently.
I wonder why anyone would want to search for the perfect rack in 9 ball. Unless you are going to be playing in a bubble, racks are very different and poor from room to room, shoot, from table to table in any given room.
For my money, I'd think it better to have a bag of racks and blindly pick one out like a lottery number before a game of 9 ball. I think that would better prepare my game for competition than the rack from heaven would. No?
I wonder why anyone would want to search for the perfect rack in 9 ball. Unless you are going to be playing in a bubble, racks are very different and poor from room to room, shoot, from table to table in any given room.
For my money, I'd think it better to have a bag of racks and blindly pick one out like a lottery number before a game of 9 ball. I think that would better prepare my game for competition than the rack from heaven would. No?
Sweet Marissa said:
What's really great is when a ball rolls slowly over one of those "craters". Oops! No biggie, just get some new cloth.
Marissa, who drew that picture in your avatar? I like the look of the real you much better.
gman_tx said:
I like it, looks cool. Someone cares about poolplayers.
Fatboy said:
Good advice here. Thanks.
Has anyone had any experience with the Master rack? I believe it's still kind of new and it uses the same kind of thought process as the Chameleon where side pressure is applied from protruding "arms" (for lack of a better description). I saw a vid about it on YouTube ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bOGrCj4t-s ... and it looks like it might actually work. The only thing is, it retails for about $60 so it is a little on the steep side.
jay helfert said:
thanks Jay, I put alot of effort in that post, all racks are different, its hard to find a rack that will get the first 6 to touch on all sides because the tolarances arnt considered with the rack builders "its just a rack" mantality, when infact its as important as a level table or a good cue etc, funny thing is I have the worst break ever. but going to a billiards supply store with "your "own set of balls is the best way to get a perfect rack, it might seem silly but you only need to do it once and mission accomplished, you just cant buy a rack by name/brand it MUST be tested. You'll be amazed at the differences from rack to rack, I got one thats good on 2/3 sides and that took a while, I wanted a exptic wood one they looked so nice but, a plastic rack worked better. Never underestmate the value of a quality rack.
fatboy
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bell said:
The Diamond may be a great rack, its too heavy, if it ever drops on the table there's a good chance it could/would cut the cloth, plus they are too dam heavy to hang on some table lights.
Wood Works made the best, tongue & groove racks out of maple, rounded corners and edges, owner's a good friend of Vivians, think they were about $35 20 years ago.
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I like it simple, easy to travel with, plain, won't break, or get sticky:
http://www.pooldawg.com/product/8-ball-rack-heavy-duty
and at $6.00 how can you go wrong?
http://www.pooldawg.com/product/8-ball-rack-heavy-duty
and at $6.00 how can you go wrong?
Sweet Marissa said:
I disagree; partially.
After you put the divots in the table, the balls on that cloth can now only be racked with the Sardo rack.
A local pool room was hosting a few IPT qualifying events. They changed all their cloth and set up their tables for use with the Sardo racks, so that everything could be up to "IPT Tournament Standards".
However, when the tables were not being used for IPT events, they didn't use the Sardo racks. (IE: So that the social Friday and Saturday night teenage crowd would not break them.)
Once you tried to use the "standard" type of rack it was nearly impossible to get the balls to sit right and freeze to eachother.
This room has since recovered all tables and gotten away from the Sardo racks.
-Dave