Newbie questions

J

jw_928

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Background: I finally moved into a house that can marginally fit an 8' table, (one pole), so of course, I rushed out and bought a used table on eBay before finding this site. So now I have what turns out to be a marginal table and when I paid to have someone pick it up and install it in my house he couldn't finish due to some issues.

Issues:
1. Its not the highest quality table and the the slate does not have any wood attached.
2. Someone sprayed glue on the playing surfarce to attach the felt!
3. The wrong screws were used to attach the slate to the supports.
4. The center piece of slate is not touching the frame in the center of the slate.
5. I'm going to try and do this myself.

Questions:
1. Is it important to assure that the frame is square before tightening up the bolts that secure it?
2. The table has two lengthwise supports with two cross members. On top of these supports are pieces of hardwood. Not all of these supports were even with each other. Is it ok to unscrew the supports, add a shim, and then retighten them?
3. Beeswax, bondo, superglue, water putty, plaster of paris? I'm leaning towards beeswax unless I can get a better recommendation.
4. When glueing the felt, do I only apply glue to the vertical edge of the slate, or do I apply some glue underneath the slate and wrap the felt around?
5. When stretching the felt, is it more important that the stretch is even, or does it have to be as tight as possible?
6. What can I use to remove the glue from the playing surface?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go.

Thanks in advance,
John
 
jw_928 said:
Background: I finally moved into a house that can marginally fit an 8' table, (one pole), so of course, I rushed out and bought a used table on eBay before finding this site. So now I have what turns out to be a marginal table and when I paid to have someone pick it up and install it in my house he couldn't finish due to some issues.

Issues:
1. Its not the highest quality table and the the slate does not have any wood attached.
2. Someone sprayed glue on the playing surfarce to attach the felt!
3. The wrong screws were used to attach the slate to the supports.
4. The center piece of slate is not touching the frame in the center of the slate.
5. I'm going to try and do this myself.

Questions:
1. Is it important to assure that the frame is square before tightening up the bolts that secure it?
2. The table has two lengthwise supports with two cross members. On top of these supports are pieces of hardwood. Not all of these supports were even with each other. Is it ok to unscrew the supports, add a shim, and then retighten them?
3. Beeswax, bondo, superglue, water putty, plaster of paris? I'm leaning towards beeswax unless I can get a better recommendation.
4. When glueing the felt, do I only apply glue to the vertical edge of the slate, or do I apply some glue underneath the slate and wrap the felt around?
5. When stretching the felt, is it more important that the stretch is even, or does it have to be as tight as possible?
6. What can I use to remove the glue from the playing surface?

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I go.

Thanks in advance,
John
Click to expand...

John,
I hate to tell you this pal, but learning how to assemble "for the first time" a very, very good table is challenging enough, but...there is no way of walking you through the steps of setting up a table that would be a challenge for someone that has set up maybe a 100 tables or more.

Glen
 
I understand what you're saying and I'm not asking for all of the steps, just a couple of questions that need answering. My theory is that I won't be hurting anything by trying myself and even though the installer had probably done hundreds of tables himself, I didn't appreciate what appeared to be skipped steps.

At the very least, I would assume that some of the experts here have encountered some of the issues I listed and might be able to answer the specific questions I asked.

Thanks again,
John
 
A few suggestions

As RKC implied, there are many details peculiar to your table that we cannot know here on the net.

> Ensure the frame is in the optimum position relative to your space before any assembly begins. Measure clearances carefully.
> Ensure frame is both square and level before mounting slates. Slates are then levelled to square and level frame.
> I always pre-stretch my cloth by applying it to the completed bed simply tacking it here and there to set a firm stretch in all directions. I let it remain for a day or two. That your cloth will glue, you'll have to come up with a method to pre-stretch if you find this suggestion useful.
 
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