Main Street Billiards (Mesa, AZ) getting their house tables "Diamond-ized" by Zak

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Main Street Billiards (Mesa, AZ) getting their house tables "Diamond-ized" by Zak

Main Street Billiards in Mesa, AZ is getting their 3 house tables redone by none other than Zak from Diamond. The 3 Gold Crowns are getting "Diamond-ized" and will play fantastic. The owner is very excited about the work Zak has done on the first table (see pictures below - Table 10). The other 2 tables will be done in the next week or two. Come down and check them out! Plus, be on the lookout for a new Friday night tournament once these tables are done in the next couple of weeks... Details to come.


mspic1.jpg


mspic2.jpg


Ray Robles
 
That's some really good news, Ray! Main Street is a great room with great owners. It seems that they've lost a lot of their business over the past few years, but I think that's mainly due to this poor economy and an overall decline in the surrounding area there. Things like that are no fault of the owners, and it's nice to see them doing something like this that I know the serious pool players can really appreciate. :thumbup:

Roger
 
Main Street Billiards is a great room.

I played in one of their big tournaments about 12 years ago.
I beat Tom "Deadeye" Neil, he was pissed.
He was so angry Ray told him to cool off or he would throw him out of the room.

Tom, scared the be-jesus out of me with his huge break.
I swear he broke better than Johnny Archer at the time.

I had been playing with my Danny Stout cue all week getting use to it.

In the first round I drew Tom.
I kept telling myself I had to run the first rack against him.
I won the lag, broke made a ball but was hooked on the one.
I was not happy, I had to run out against this monster.
It took me a long time deciding what I needed to do.

I told Tom, I can't beat you with this cue.
I went over to my Jack Justis case and pulled out my Ivory Jointed Joss West.

Walked up to the table and massied the one ball in, and ran out the rack.
Mission accomplished. The format was alternate breaks.

Tom got up and hit three balls on the break, ran out to the seven and missed the eight.
Ran the two balls and now it is 2-0. Got up made a ball and ran out 3-0.
I ended up winning 9-3, I was so scared it was unbelievable.
My heart was pumping on every shot, and my focus was on every shot, I have never seen the balls so well.

Tom was so pissed he said you got the eight !!!!

Played good the rest of the tournament and made it to the Hot Seat.
Guess who blazed thru the field destroying everybody, ole Deadeye.

I won the lag in the finals, broke and made the nine.
Tom still seething after his first day loss ran out to the nine and missed it in the jaws.
Got up and ran out a easy rack. I knew that Tom was angry and couldn't see straight.
So I started leaving him tough shots on purpose to get him out of stroke, it worked.
The more he missed the angrier he got.
A couple of good safeties and 9-2 later it was over.

Tom turned his back to me unscrewed his cue, and I said what are you doing, I got the eight !!!! :smile:

Yeah, I love Main Street Billiards, 4 1/2x9's, barbox, darts, good food, and good people.
 
Thanks for the positive responses. Bump to the top for those that may have missed this.

Ray
 
BarneyCalip said:
I played in one of their big tournaments about 12 years ago.
I beat Tom "Deadeye" Neil, he was pissed.
He was so angry Ray told him to cool off or he would throw him out of the room.

Tom, scared the be-jesus out of me with his huge break.
I swear he broke better than Johnny Archer at the time.

I had been playing with my Danny Stout cue all week getting use to it.

In the first round I drew Tom.
I kept telling myself I had to run the first rack against him.
I won the lag, broke made a ball but was hooked on the one.
I was not happy, I had to run out against this monster.
It took me a long time deciding what I needed to do.

I told Tom, I can't beat you with this cue.
I went over to my Jack Justis case and pulled out my Ivory Jointed Joss West.

Walked up to the table and massied the one ball in, and ran out the rack.
Mission accomplished. The format was alternate breaks.

Tom got up and hit three balls on the break, ran out to the seven and missed the eight.
Ran the two balls and now it is 2-0. Got up made a ball and ran out 3-0.
I ended up winning 9-3, I was so scared it was unbelievable.
My heart was pumping on every shot, and my focus was on every shot, I have never seen the balls so well.

Tom was so pissed he said you got the eight !!!!

Played good the rest of the tournament and made it to the Hot Seat.
Guess who blazed thru the field destroying everybody, ole Deadeye.

I won the lag in the finals, broke and made the nine.
Tom still seething after his first day loss ran out to the nine and missed it in the jaws.
Got up and ran out a easy rack. I knew that Tom was angry and couldn't see straight.
So I started leaving him tough shots on purpose to get him out of stroke, it worked.
The more he missed the angrier he got.
A couple of good safeties and 9-2 later it was over.

Tom turned his back to me unscrewed his cue, and I said what are you doing, I got the eight !!!! :smile:

Yeah, I love Main Street Billiards, 4 1/2x9's, barbox, darts, good food, and good people.
Click to expand...
Great story Barney. I think the Main St. your talking about was in Tucson where Tom is from, this one is in Mesa. I am glad they are doing the tables there, the house tables played funky kind of like how Skips played before Zak redid them all, the blue cloth is a great change too. As of late I have been playing at Skips, great place for me to practice especially being 5 minutes away. I know there are some one pocket fans at Main St. so I will get over there when the tables are all done and play a bit.

I sure wish Zak would get over to Kolby's and fix the Diamond there, it sure has seen better days but the rest of the tables have all been re-done, I think they are going to have Zak do the Diamond. One thing is for sure its great to have a top notch table mechanic in AZ, some of the work and poor shim jobs have blown my mind and if you play pool at all you know a good table from crap.
 
Table 10 is the one showed in the pictures above. This is a set of rails that were installed on that table not too long ago that were only recovered 2 or 3 times before. They are in really good shape, so no repair work needed to be done to them. I did recalibrate the rails to make the k55 Diamond Black cushions play their best, as well as fixing the angles of all the pockets. The GC pockets all range from the factory, and compounded with the last mechanic that extended the rails with rubber facings left the corners anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees too wide. After the angles are corrected, the subrails were extended to tighten the pockets, then neoprene was used instead of the rock hard facing material that was used previously.

After all the metal parts were powder coated, the skirts were stripped to bare wood, stained, then finished, the rails recalibrated, the slates leveled, and table covered, the table should be playing better now than it did when it came off the production line.

The rails I am working on now are another story all together. They have been rode hard and put up wet so to speak. They have been abused over the years to a large degree, and need major repair. Here are a couple pics for now and I can post some later as well if anyone is interested.

These rails are stapled out. The staples holding the cloth down are 3/8 long or more, and pull right out. The poplar doesn't have any holding power left.
IMAG0825.jpg

IMAG0819.jpg


This shows how far off the angles are. The angle shown on the protractor is 141*. The cut on this rail is probably about 147*
IMAG0816.jpg


The point of the cushion was too low so the previous mechanic added 3 layers of cloth and 2 thicknesses of wood to the bottom of the rail to try to raise it. It totaled almost 3/16 of an inch.
IMAG0829.jpg


But as you can see, the nose is still too low.
IMAG0827.jpg


Half the rails are also split in half from too large of feather strips being used. So after saying all that, the subrails are getting cut off completely, and rebuilt.
 
reverend said:
Table 10 is the one showed in the pictures above. This is a set of rails that were installed on that table not too long ago that were only recovered 2 or 3 times before. They are in really good shape, so no repair work needed to be done to them. I did recalibrate the rails to make the k55 Diamond Black cushions play their best, as well as fixing the angles of all the pockets. The GC pockets all range from the factory, and compounded with the last mechanic that extended the rails with rubber facings left the corners anywhere from 5 to 10 degrees too wide. After the angles are corrected, the subrails were extended to tighten the pockets, then neoprene was used instead of the rock hard facing material that was used previously.

After all the metal parts were powder coated, the skirts were stripped to bare wood, stained, then finished, the rails recalibrated, the slates leveled, and table covered, the table should be playing better now than it did when it came off the production line.

The rails I am working on now are another story all together. They have been rode hard and put up wet so to speak. They have been abused over the years to a large degree, and need major repair. Here are a couple pics for now and I can post some later as well if anyone is interested.

These rails are stapled out. The staples holding the cloth down are 3/8 long or more, and pull right out. The poplar doesn't have any holding power left.
IMAG0825.jpg

IMAG0819.jpg


This shows how far off the angles are. The angle shown on the protractor is 141*. The cut on this rail is probably about 147*
IMAG0816.jpg


The point of the cushion was too low so the previous mechanic added 3 layers of cloth and 2 thicknesses of wood to the bottom of the rail to try to raise it. It totaled almost 3/16 of an inch.
IMAG0829.jpg


But as you can see, the nose is still too low.
IMAG0827.jpg


Half the rails are also split in half from too large of feather strips being used. So after saying all that, the subrails are getting cut off completely, and rebuilt.
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing these pictures Zak. Please post the other pictures you mention once you are done... we'd love to see the progress of the work.

I've played on Table 10 a few times now and I absolutely love it. Your work is immaculate... nice work!

Ray
 
Fast Lenny said:
I sure wish Zak would get over to Kolby's and fix the Diamond there, it sure has seen better days but the rest of the tables have all been re-done, I think they are going to have Zak do the Diamond. One thing is for sure its great to have a top notch table mechanic in AZ, some of the work and poor shim jobs have blown my mind and if you play pool at all you know a good table from crap.
Click to expand...

Lenny the solution to getting ZAK to Kolby's is simple, GREEN. Not Simple Green the Cleaner.
 
BigCat said:
Thank you for sharing these pictures Zak. Please post the other pictures you mention once you are done... we'd love to see the progress of the work.

I've played on Table 10 a few times now and I absolutely love it. Your work is immaculate... nice work!

Ray
Click to expand...

Here are a couple in progress pics. The rails are ready for cushions and facings now.
IMAG0839.jpg


IMAG0842.jpg


IMAG0845.jpg


IMAG0841.jpg
 
May I ask...

How does the cushion become to low in the first place, and the mechanic has to add shims under the rail? I have seen this before, both locally and here on AZ. I've seen layers of tape under the rails locally.

I can't imagine its the wood rail, correct? That would mean either the wood rail was too thin leaving the factory, or someone over the years somehow made it thinner by planing and/or sanding? Maybe on a junk table the rails were made wrong, but the table in the pic and the local tables with shims under the rails I have seen were all GC's.

Is it that the cushion was replaced at some point, and the mechanic glued it on too low? If so, wouldn't there be a big gap between the top of the cushion and the wood rail?

I'm having a hard time understanding how this can happen at all... I would appreciate being enlightened.

Thank you.
 
The cushion doesn't become low on its own. It is a usually a combination of originally wrong from the factory, mechanic mounting them incorrectly, or the wrong profile of cushion used all together. I do not know why these cushions were SOOO low. It could be a bad batch of cushions from the factory. All I know now is they are fixed CORRECTLY, and will be playing great.

The holes milled in the new wood are access holes to get to the floating nut plates in the rails.


Here are a few more pictures.

Cushions and facings on ready for cloth.
IMAG0854.jpg


IMAG0856.jpg


IMAG0855.jpg


IMAG0851.jpg


IMAG0849.jpg
 
PoolSharkAllen said:
Are Main Streets in Tucson and Mesa part of the same chain of pool halls? The last time I played at Main Streets in Tucson a few years ago, the pool tables were in extremely poor condition so I now play at Pocket's when I am in town.
Click to expand...

Believe a guy name Bob own both at once, believe Main Street in Tuscon is no more. Bob became very ill, and sold what was left to another guy.
 
PoolSharkAllen said:
Are Main Streets in Tucson and Mesa part of the same chain of pool halls? The last time I played at Main Streets in Tucson a few years ago, the pool tables were in extremely poor condition so I now play at Pocket's when I am in town.
Click to expand...

Main Street in Tucson has been closed for about 2 years now. It didn't have the best equipment towards the end. Bob Jackson owned Main Street in Tucson, but became very ill and had to step down. It was never the same after that and then closed shortly after.

The Main Street in Mesa was also owned by Bob, as well as a guy named John, at one point, but is now owned by someone else. So they did start both Main Streets but neither have a stake in the Mesa location now. There were only ever 2 Main Street locations and they weren't really a chain... just happened to be owned by the same people a long time ago.

Ray
 
Last edited:
Zach does amazing work and we are very lucky to have him here in the Valley to fix up so many great rooms!

We are all very lucky to have rooms in Glendale, Chandler and Mesa with tables that play as true as any in the country!

I hope all the rooms make this wise investment in his abilities!

(Kolby's, Metro, Bullshooters, River City, etc..... Give him a call!)
 
stuckart said:
Zach does amazing work and we are very lucky to have him here in the Valley to fix up so many great rooms!

We are all very lucky to have rooms in Glendale, Chandler and Mesa with tables that play as true as any in the country!

I hope all the rooms make this wise investment in his abilities!

(Kolby's, Metro, Bullshooters, River City, etc..... Give him a call!)
Click to expand...

Now the trick is to get him to come down to Tucson and do tables 1 and 10 at Click's. Talk about tables in NEED!

I actually spoke with Chris, the Assistant Manager there and gave him Zak's contact information. After seeing this thread I just emailed Alan, Manager the link to the thread.
 
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