Hi new to the forum with my first pool table. Picked up this Gibson for what I thought was a great deal {$700} which included the Brunswick Centennial balls, the matching cue rack, and a couple cues. Researched as much as I could on setting it up and the balls roll perfectly straight but the action seems slow. Previous owner said the Simonas 860 cloth was only a couple years old but not sure if they weren't correct or if putting it in the attic for a couple months was too humid for it. Hope to find someone trustworthy in the Houston area to re felt and set it up. Talked to a local billiard store that seemed nice but was more interested in buying the Gibson and selling me a new Olhausen table than helping me get it set up. Also any suggestions on how to tell if the rails are still good or should they be replaced while its getting re-felted? One last thing, the table is in great condition but a few small areas on the top part of the rail have small dents like someone dropped the ball on the wood. Is there any way to fix this? Will steam make it pop back out without damaging the finish?
NEWB with a Brunswick Gibson
- Thread starter Tonyt915
- Start date
I always thought this was a beautiful pool table, kind of a modern update on the Anniversary.
Yes, wish I knew more about it before I bought it. We just bought the house a year ago and in the process of remodeling everything in a mid century modern theme. Was really wanting an older GoldCrown but when I saw this one come up for sale on FaceBook of all places and they said they would take $700 I jumped on it before researching it since it fit the theme.
Maybe it's the pictures, but the cloth looks a bit too nappy to be the fast Simonis. How tight the cloth is stretched also affects the speed, and if it has been brushed well or is dirty. Can't tell if the fuzz if on the cloth or from the image compression.
Make sure the balls are clean.
For rails, if you are not sure if they are good, find a few good players and see what they think. Any B or better player should be able tell if the rails feel "right" or not.
You can make a home-made tester also to see how far they rebound, make a ramp for the cueball, measure how far it travels over the cloth and also rebounding off the rails, if there is a pool room in your area with good tables, compare your table to that.
Make sure the balls are clean.
For rails, if you are not sure if they are good, find a few good players and see what they think. Any B or better player should be able tell if the rails feel "right" or not.
You can make a home-made tester also to see how far they rebound, make a ramp for the cueball, measure how far it travels over the cloth and also rebounding off the rails, if there is a pool room in your area with good tables, compare your table to that.
I agree, that was the first thing that popped into my mind, that being it doesn't look like Simonis cloth. And if you cant go across the rails at least 4.5 times by just throwing the ball really hard the rails are probably bad. The good thing is that new rails/cushions aren't that expensive. You can probably get new rails installed and new Simonis 860 for around $800-$900 or so. Makes your entire purchase around $1,600 and you have a great table that will last a lifetime.
r/DCP
Cloth had Simonas 860 printed on the back side. Stretched it back to the same as when it was removed but this was my first time ever to assemble a table so not sure if it was as tight as I could have pulled it. I can pull my hand across it pushing down and can't feel any slack in the cloth. Tried rolling the ball hard against the rail and pretty consistent with about 2 hits on each rail and stopping close to the middle
That looks pretty good for the rails and cloth speed. I use a bit of the same standard for cloth tightness as for fat checking, you should not be able to pinch it much between your fingers LOL
If you roll it slower, the cueball should bounce out to close to the same distance you started from, I paid attention to the slower last bounce in your video, and the amount it bounced out for the speed it looked like it was going looked OK. That is of course going by what I have experienced with good rails and the video, there are plenty of other factors there like exactly how fast you tossed the ball and if video distorted distance enough to make it harder to judge. But it does look OK to me. Can you do the 3 rail shot at pretty slow speeds? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4dv9ekF3FY On a "normal" speed table for modern standards, you should be able to get this shot at pretty slow speeds. In the video, looks like about %30 of full power is being used and it's going in easily.
Maybe try this shot http://www.trickshottim.com/shot_tutorials/7_rail_kick LOL
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Yea that is why it's a good idea to have someone that has been around places check how it plays. Go to the pool hall, make some friends and invite them over for a game. From your setup I doubt many would say no. A lawyer pool buddy I know has a table at home that he invites people over to shoot at every so often, usually a partners small stakes (10-20 a set) evening of matches.
Also make sure all rails rebound at about the same speed.
Roll a ball into every inch of the rails to see if you find a dead spot. That would likely be from someone sitting on the table and breaking the glue line between the rubber and wood. So don't ever let A-holes sit on the table.
Otherwise if it's a bit slow because of rails or cloth, so what? Live with it for a while. Some are slow, some are fast and I know of one in WV that had so much beer spilled on it that the cloth had uphill folds at each corner pocket. There was no such thing as pocket speed except the sides.
And if you do find a dead zone, think of it as home table advantage.
BTW, that's a beautiful table. The dings by that corner look like some kid used the table to hammer on a project, and missed. Or someone had anger management problems. There are wax pencils in woodworking stores to fill in the dings but that works best with dark wood.
Otherwise if it's a bit slow because of rails or cloth, so what? Live with it for a while. Some are slow, some are fast and I know of one in WV that had so much beer spilled on it that the cloth had uphill folds at each corner pocket. There was no such thing as pocket speed except the sides.
And if you do find a dead zone, think of it as home table advantage.
BTW, that's a beautiful table. The dings by that corner look like some kid used the table to hammer on a project, and missed. Or someone had anger management problems. There are wax pencils in woodworking stores to fill in the dings but that works best with dark wood.