Loose cloth

M

Matty_8

Registered
I just did my first recovery on my home table this weekend and it looks like I didn't stretch the championship tour edition cloth enough. If I run a finger with some pressure across certain parts of the bed it pushes the cloth up from the slate.

What is the best process to tighten it? I was thinking:
1. remove staples from one long side
2. pull tight
3. re-staple
4. repeat for other side
5. repeat for both ends
6. re-do corners (pockets)

Any tips on how to go about this would be much appreciated. I have not trimmed any of the cloth off yet, but I did cut slits in the pockets as well as holes for the rail bolts.

Thanks
 
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Someone with more experience may chime in, but I would say, it's probably back to the drawing board.
 
Without seeing in person just exactly how it was installed to begin with, it will be hard for anyone to give a definitive answer. I/we could tell you "sure go ahead", but if it wasn't installed correctly to begin with (which I suspect the case here) you may not end up with acceptable results. In almost all cases, you would have to at least remove the rails and cloth fastener to further stretch the cloth.

Depending on what brand and line of cloth you used, keep in mind cloth will more than likely relax and loosen up a bit over time, some brands more so than others. So when installing keep that in mind when pulling and stretching your cloth. You'd be amazed at how going from a low to high humidity environment can make the cloth loosen up if it's not originally installed correctly. One can stretch cloth in low humidity that feels pretty tight, only to have the humidity jump real high and now you have what feels like loose cloth. Proper stretching during installation (and a de-humidifier) will eliminate most of this issue and stretching amounts can/will vary by cloth brand and material used.

If your knuckles are bleeding from rug burn you're probably stretching it enough, if the cloth tears then you're more than likely over stretching. It's not rocket science, but there is an art to it.

Also, if it's a worsted cloth make sure to keep the thread grain as straight as possible, or you'll have slow rolling balls roll off-line giving the illusion of an unleveled table (assuming the table is level to begin with).

I'm not a professional table mechanic, just a hobbyist. So take my thoughts and opinions with a grain of salt.

Dopc.
 
Dopc said:
Without seeing in person just exactly how it was installed to begin with, it will be hard for anyone to give a definitive answer. I/we could tell you "sure go ahead", but if it wasn't installed correctly to begin with (which I suspect the case here) you may not end up with acceptable results. In almost all cases, you would have to at least remove the rails and cloth fastener to further stretch the cloth.

Depending on what brand and line of cloth you used, keep in mind cloth will more than likely relax and loosen up a bit over time, some brands more so than others. So when installing keep that in mind when pulling and stretching your cloth. You'd be amazed at how going from a low to high humidity environment can make the cloth loosen up if it's not originally installed correctly. One can stretch cloth in low humidity that feels pretty tight, only to have the humidity jump real high and now you have what feels like loose cloth. Proper stretching during installation (and a de-humidifier) will eliminate most of this issue and stretching amounts can/will vary by cloth brand and material used.

If your knuckles are bleeding from rug burn you're probably stretching it enough, if the cloth tears then you're more than likely over stretching. It's not rocket science, but there is an art to it.

Also, if it's a worsted cloth make sure to keep the thread grain as straight as possible, or you'll have slow rolling balls roll off-line giving the illusion of an unleveled table (assuming the table is level to begin with).

I'm not a professional table mechanic, just a hobbyist. So take my thoughts and opinions with a grain of salt.

Dopc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. The rails have not even been re-installed yet, so that's not a problem. And I am completely ready to remove the staples and re-stretch, I'm just wondering what the best process might be, i.e. one side at a time, or what?

I installed championship tour edition, following this instructional (which is the same table I have as well):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqovNYX0E3A#t=7m
 
Table

Matty_8 said:
Thanks for the reply. The rails have not even been re-installed yet, so that's not a problem. And I am completely ready to remove the staples and re-stretch, I'm just wondering what the best process might be, i.e. one side at a time, or what?

I installed championship tour edition, following this instructional (which is the same table I have as well):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqovNYX0E3A#t=7m
Click to expand...

-

Installing worsted pool table cloth is tricky, It takes a lot of working with worsteds to know what's going on to be able to install it to optimum performance. Championship 3030 tour edition is one of the trickiest to work with due to the amount of stretch it takes. At this point I can say that my hats off to simonis- the only manufacture that suggest doing it- realizing that stretch indexing the cloth is extremely important for consistent accurate results...and a lot of practice.


Rob.M
 
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I'm not a mechanic, but the guys at the place I play just did this to 4 tables that were installed about a year ago. The cloth had loosened somewhat and they wanted to tighten it.

I have no idea if what they did is universally accepted, and just because they install tables for a living doesn't mean they are doing it right. But what they did is similar to what you are describing, even simpler:

- undo table, rails, etc. (you are already done with this step)
- remove staples from one side
- restretch cloth, restaple, and redo affected corner pockets and side pocket

They never touched the ends or the other side. I guess you could make the argument that if you stretched both sides it would be more even and keep the grain more even, but perhaps after you stretch one side there wouldn't be much give for stretching in the other direction anyway. And can't speak to the logic of not stretching in the other end to end direction. I can tell you the tables didn't bunch up like you describe when they were done.

My table at home is like this as well, was watching them and I almost get the feeling to try doing this to my table - almost. Wasn't that much work but I suck at stuff like this. I still have a Brunswick light I bought last year that I need to figure out how to remove my existing cheap light and install the new one without messing it up or stepping on the table and popping the slate etc, will see how long the light stays leaning against the wall... :)

Scott
 
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