Making my own pocket reducers

rherb

rherb

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I have been thinking about pocket reducers and I don't like the wire one and no one has or wants to sell their Barco leather reducers so I decided to fab my own. I used rubber gym mats and cut them to shape so you can still shoot rail shots without worrying about a wire and since they go all the way back you can still cheat the pocket and get action off the ball since they are rubber.

The cut out doesn't look great but I'm sure by the sixth one I will have it down. Also, since I dropped the rubber to go in the pocket it should allow me to do cutouts for the side pockets. I'll post pictures of that when/if it works.

Let me know what you think.
 

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Great idea, this may be a Xmas present to all of us :). Let us know how they hold up over time.

Dave
 
why not just add shims? Du you only want tight pockets at times? Personally I try to shoot into the centers of the pockets, lol. No matter the pocket size you know when you hit it well.
 
Great creativity... I think I will have to try your idea. Have you thought about covering them with felt? Great idea but the RED felt :yikes: Just kidding if you like it thats cool
Rep to you for the creative great idea,

Darin
 
Nice, it sucks that you couldn't find the bar-co's but it looks like you found away around it. I would like to see how they hold up. I'm sure I have friends that would love to incorporate these into their tables.
 
tryhonesty07 said:
why not just add shims? Du you only want tight pockets at times? Personally I try to shoot into the centers of the pockets, lol. No matter the pocket size you know when you hit it well.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is a family table and I'm teaching my grandson, so I wanted something removable would punish me for sloppy shots.
 
12squared said:
Great idea, this may be a Xmas present to all of us :). Let us know how they hold up over time.

Dave
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Hey Dave,

Hope you are having a great Christmas. Should hold up for a long time, I have these mats on the floor of my weight room and drop 45 Lb plates on them regularly.
 
I like the idea of pocket reducers for training. I do think though that when one tries to actually play with them that they change the game too much. Much is written about shooting center pocket all the time but if you watch the top players play you will see that they use the rails a lot when they need to for position. Pocket reducers take away this option.

I had a set of the ones with the wires and the wire was definitely annoying. I like the idea of using the heavy duty rubber mats. I can see that they would have enough resistance to withstand the balls hitting them and not get out of place.

I also think that this idea could be applied to games like one pocket where the handicap could be pocket tightness. Would be interesting.
 
Looks good, has the bounce backs increased on hard hits?

I wonder why table manufacturers don't supply pocket reducers?
 
Pocket Reducers

Clever idea. The poster who said these would also be good as a spot in one pocket had a great idea also.
 
ctyhntr said:
Looks good, has the bounce backs increased on hard hits?

I wonder why table manufacturers don't supply pocket reducers?
Click to expand...

I did a couple of test hits last night just cranking the cue ball into the pocket to see if I would get the rubber pocket reducer to move and it didn't. One thing it did do was bounce around a bit and popped out a couple of time, but again I was really getting on the cue ball to try to make the reducer move. I will try a couple of real shots today where I need some major draw and report back.
 
dr2112 said:
Great creativity... I think I will have to try your idea. Have you thought about covering them with felt? Great idea but the RED felt :yikes: Just kidding if you like it thats cool
Rep to you for the creative great idea,

Darin
Click to expand...

Hey man, it's burgundy :D. I don't think the felt idea would work as you would lose the friction of the rubber that keeps them in place.
 
rherb said:
Hey man, it's burgundy :D. I don't think the felt idea would work as you would lose the friction of the rubber that keeps them in place.
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You could probably glue some cloth to just the face of the rubber. Might work.
I like your idea. Do those mats come in different thicknesses?
 
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