There is a well respected table mechanic who works on most of the coin-op tables in the region where I live. Everyone speaks highly of the quality of his service, price, and materials. One of his regular customer's is a friend who had the rails replaced on his table, as the old ones were dead and had lost most of their elasticity. The mechanic told him that he would take these old rails and let them "rest" for a year and then they would regain their elasticity and he would then replace them on the original table. He has since done just that. I have never heard of this before and am suspicious of this practice as it seems more like a scam to shuffle around old used rails. I don't want to see customers taken advantage of. BUT. I'm no table mechanic. I don't know. Has anyone else ever heard of this practice? Is this legitimate?
Rail rubber
- Thread starter daveb
- Start date
Call the Cobra.
Wrong forum. Your answer will be in the mechanics forum where the experts reside.
I send my rails to florida every year. They come back not only rested but tanned!!! This is a bunch of B.S. this is a common practice among vendors in the coin op industry. They can walk in with a set of old covered rails,throw a bed cloth on and be done in 30 minutes. It is done as a cheap time saver. You are just getting the guys rails he did a couple days ago and thats a fact! I think he may have been just jerking your chain!
I agree.
That is funny about sending them to Florida....... I totally agree. New is new and Old is old. That vendor is jerking your chain.
That is funny about sending them to Florida....... I totally agree. New is new and Old is old. That vendor is jerking your chain.
Sounds kinda fishy to me.
He may be a good mechanic but he is definetly a con artist.
Rubber is a highly elastic material composed of long-chain polymer or copolymer materials crosslinked to one another by a process called vulcanization. There is a constant decrease of elasticity of rubber due to the modifications of its chemical structure during the aging time. Gradual additonal cross-linking occurs which increases hardness along with other property changes. To say that "resting" restores elastic properties is nonsense.
Rubber is a highly elastic material composed of long-chain polymer or copolymer materials crosslinked to one another by a process called vulcanization. There is a constant decrease of elasticity of rubber due to the modifications of its chemical structure during the aging time. Gradual additonal cross-linking occurs which increases hardness along with other property changes. To say that "resting" restores elastic properties is nonsense.
That's kinda what I was thinking too.
Thanks. I suspected as much but it pays to be sure before bad mouthing someone's business practices.
business practices
Yes vendors are in Business and generally not real pool players or at least more into making money than providing good equipment. A new set of rubber for rails uninstalled cost upwards of $ 250 for a bar box. I have actually seen Vendors take used cloth off a table at a upscale establishment and reuse it at a lesser Venue by turning it upside down. Vendors are more into how fast they can recover a table than how good. Getting the Better cloths was a job until vendors found out it lasted longer. Leagues have helped with the quality of Bar Box maintenance. League offer a much needed week night clientele and demand better quality equipment. League Venue owner tell their vendors, do it right or find another venue.
BTW Do others see their venue as not changing cloth as often now because of the Economy?? Seems to me there are a lot of worn cloth these days.
I can't imagine $250 unless it's Kleber or Artemis or some such, which few people would be putting on a bar box.
google.... google....
Artemis, $185 for 9-foot sets. Championship $95. Velocity $79. "Standard" $69. Mueller's offers sets of K-55 or K-66 cushion rubber for $21 in quantity. Anyone who would re-use rubber has to be really, really cheap.
Bob
I was in a table builders shop just this last week to visit him. While we talked he kept on working on gluing rubber on the wood frames that bolt to the Valley Bar table. He had in fact made the wood frames and the finished product with Cloth was to be retailed to Vendors and other Table people. He told me a set from Chinese manufactured cost $ 240.00 but only had to be bolted to the table. He planned to beat that price and had a big enough demand to of made jigs for increased production.
Now maybe our price difference is in fact raw rubber to finished rails.
we have several members on here offering valley or any other coin op rails from 120 - 200 for a complete set.
Secaucus Fats
Banned
It's a legitimate crock of horse sh*t.
Scruffy
I don't even own a table so I am only going by what my friend who builds tables tells me. Yes he sells his in about the same price range.
But back to my main point of vendors who only care how cheap they can maintain a table. Even at $ 120 that is more money than they want to spend. But then consider the Economy and no one is setting the world on fire making money right now. I am seeing more tables that are past recover time. I also know of a Regular Pool with 9 ft tables in the next town that is hurting and not may but will go under very soon unfortunately.
I totally agree with you. We battle cheapness everyday!lol. Rooms have definitely been stretching their recover times and even requesting less expensive cloth.
My friend Kerry in NM builds Valley replacement cushions and rail blocks complete called Ridgebackrails for $125 a set, or $110 for 2 or more sets for vending companies or mechanics, and these cushions are the best on the market today for Valley/Dynamo coin-op tables. Cushion rubber don't come back to life as Scruffy said...it gets replaced, then thrown away:grin:
fsarfino
♔ ♕ ♖ ♗ ♘ ♙
Just wanted to say thanks for the late night laugh. :rotflmao1: I know that this was not the point of your post but it sure was funny