It's fcking awesome, buy it.
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long version:
Took about a week to get here, not bad. Mailing pack was a bit curved to fit in my mailbox, so I sandwiched the racks in a heavy book to straighten 'em out. The material is an extremely thin rigid plastic that reminds me of stuff called Sintra. Think of a credit card, but like 1/16th the thickness. It's as sturdy as you could ask for something so thin.
It lies pretty flat on the table, but at one point the bottom of the 10 ball rack (where there's no ball) stuck up off the table a bit. The 10b rack is designed with an extra hole that probably is used to anchor the rack temporarily while you arrange the balls. I flipped the rack over to solve this.
To answer probably the biggest concern... yes, it can barely affect the roll of the balls, but it's really rare and shouldn't be a concern. You have to hit one of the holes for this to happen and they are awfully small holes. I've seen it flip up a bit when a ball rolls over it, and on a draw shot I actually knocked it sideways an inch. Part of this may be that it arrived a little warped. But after most breaks (esp. 9b) you can lift it easily without moving balls.
The way it works is to anchor the balls in diamond shaped holes in the rack. They are positioned perfectly so that the balls are not only touching, they are actually "leaning" into each other a little. You just roll a ball into the hole and it falls into place and doesn't want to move. When you get down to placing the last couple of balls, you can gently knock into the upper 6 balls and they just settle right back into place.
Every ball is absolutely frozen. In over 10 years of playing, I seriously may have never seen a 100% frozen rack before tonight. There isn't a hair of space between any balls anywhere. That applies to both 9 and 10b racks. And you can use the 10b rack to make perfect 8b/rotation racks also.
The first time I broke 9b, I was a little excited because I have struggled so much with making the wing ball. I thought I had a terrible inconsistent break. And I didn't make a ball on my first break, I hit the head ball like half full and lost the cue ball.
Then I made the wing ball 10 times in a row.
With any reasonably controlled hit from, say, the edge of the box to the side rail, you WILL make the wing ball as long as there's no major issue with the cloth or balls. It's automatic, just a simple frozen combo. You can hit it anywhere from gentle bunt speed to Warp Factor Shane. Out of 20 breaks, I missed 3 times and they were all clearly my fault... I was trying carlot's cut break and sometimes overcut the head ball. And one time I got a little too cute and just didn't hit hard enough to reach the pocket. I would probably bet on making it 100 times in a row.
The 9 ball does not move. It maybe crept down an inch on some breaks. You are never gonna sell out a golden break with this rack. It would probably make a good prop bet to give someone 100 tries to make one, or to even move the thing outside the diamond.
With the 10b break, I found a spot where both of the balls behind the 1 are heading for the side. I was able to make one of them about 40% of the time, the rest of the time they were just a smidge off. I got them to drop on a couple of 8b breaks too. I'll study some of my videos to figure out where I'm supposed to be breaking.
Bottom line: works perfectly as advertised. Well worth the money. Very portable and simple to use. I might even take this over a sardo, delta, or diamond.
The only possible reason you might not want to use these is... I can see players in a high level tournament or gambling match saying that a rack that stays on the table during play is unacceptable. But for regular matches with your buddies and cheap sets, I think everyone should just shake hands and agree to use these puppies always.
Oh, ony minor complaint: They don't make these easy enough to find. If you forget it's called the magic BALL rack and just google for "magic rack" you may not find the link the buy it. Which is:
http://www.pro9.co.uk/html/theproshop/main.php?P=product&pid=RACK0008
---------
long version:
Took about a week to get here, not bad. Mailing pack was a bit curved to fit in my mailbox, so I sandwiched the racks in a heavy book to straighten 'em out. The material is an extremely thin rigid plastic that reminds me of stuff called Sintra. Think of a credit card, but like 1/16th the thickness. It's as sturdy as you could ask for something so thin.
It lies pretty flat on the table, but at one point the bottom of the 10 ball rack (where there's no ball) stuck up off the table a bit. The 10b rack is designed with an extra hole that probably is used to anchor the rack temporarily while you arrange the balls. I flipped the rack over to solve this.
To answer probably the biggest concern... yes, it can barely affect the roll of the balls, but it's really rare and shouldn't be a concern. You have to hit one of the holes for this to happen and they are awfully small holes. I've seen it flip up a bit when a ball rolls over it, and on a draw shot I actually knocked it sideways an inch. Part of this may be that it arrived a little warped. But after most breaks (esp. 9b) you can lift it easily without moving balls.
The way it works is to anchor the balls in diamond shaped holes in the rack. They are positioned perfectly so that the balls are not only touching, they are actually "leaning" into each other a little. You just roll a ball into the hole and it falls into place and doesn't want to move. When you get down to placing the last couple of balls, you can gently knock into the upper 6 balls and they just settle right back into place.
Every ball is absolutely frozen. In over 10 years of playing, I seriously may have never seen a 100% frozen rack before tonight. There isn't a hair of space between any balls anywhere. That applies to both 9 and 10b racks. And you can use the 10b rack to make perfect 8b/rotation racks also.
The first time I broke 9b, I was a little excited because I have struggled so much with making the wing ball. I thought I had a terrible inconsistent break. And I didn't make a ball on my first break, I hit the head ball like half full and lost the cue ball.
Then I made the wing ball 10 times in a row.
With any reasonably controlled hit from, say, the edge of the box to the side rail, you WILL make the wing ball as long as there's no major issue with the cloth or balls. It's automatic, just a simple frozen combo. You can hit it anywhere from gentle bunt speed to Warp Factor Shane. Out of 20 breaks, I missed 3 times and they were all clearly my fault... I was trying carlot's cut break and sometimes overcut the head ball. And one time I got a little too cute and just didn't hit hard enough to reach the pocket. I would probably bet on making it 100 times in a row.
The 9 ball does not move. It maybe crept down an inch on some breaks. You are never gonna sell out a golden break with this rack. It would probably make a good prop bet to give someone 100 tries to make one, or to even move the thing outside the diamond.
With the 10b break, I found a spot where both of the balls behind the 1 are heading for the side. I was able to make one of them about 40% of the time, the rest of the time they were just a smidge off. I got them to drop on a couple of 8b breaks too. I'll study some of my videos to figure out where I'm supposed to be breaking.
Bottom line: works perfectly as advertised. Well worth the money. Very portable and simple to use. I might even take this over a sardo, delta, or diamond.
The only possible reason you might not want to use these is... I can see players in a high level tournament or gambling match saying that a rack that stays on the table during play is unacceptable. But for regular matches with your buddies and cheap sets, I think everyone should just shake hands and agree to use these puppies always.
Oh, ony minor complaint: They don't make these easy enough to find. If you forget it's called the magic BALL rack and just google for "magic rack" you may not find the link the buy it. Which is:
http://www.pro9.co.uk/html/theproshop/main.php?P=product&pid=RACK0008
I find they don't even take longer once you factor in time spent dicking around with traditional racks to get the balls right. If you're playing really casual games or practicing... you can also factor in time spent reaching for the rack. You can just leave it on the table 50 games in a row, assuming nothing nudges it.