Recommendations for Table Brush Set

[MDSPHOTO]

As with everything coming out of a pandemic, stock for quality table brushes appears to be very limited. The available options on Amazon all have tons of negative reviews from poor packaging damaging the bristles to brushes where all the bristles fall out and get stuck in the felt. Anyone have any recommendation for a decent brush set?

 

[philly]

As with everything coming out of a pandemic, stock for quality table brushes appears to be very limited. The available options on Amazon all have tons of negative reviews from poor packaging damaging the bristles to brushes where all the bristles fall out and get stuck in the felt. Anyone have any recommendation for a decent brush set?

Just use a vacuum.
A vacuum will remove the chalk instead of spreading the chalk around with a brush.

 

[boogieman]

I've tried 3 different brushes. One had nylon bristles, worked ok-ish but not great. 2 different brands (hell, they are all unbranded so who knows who makes them) of horse hair. They worked but shed like hell, especially at first.

The Simonis X1 works quite well for taking chalk dust off the cloth, but won't touch any actual dirt or pet hair. It's expensive but it does a good job for manually removing chalk dust.

I found an old fabric lint brush in a thrift store, the ones they used before the sticky rollers. Like this. I'm not endorsing that site, could be a total scam, just had a picture similar to the type I use. This works VERY well at pet hair or stubborn little lint and small pieces of crud. It's not a thing you would do the entire job with, but makes a great last pass.

As philly said, a vacuum cleaner works well. You don't want one with a rotating brush, you want to use the attachments for cleaning upholstery. The hand held Orecks work well and you can find them for a reasonable price used. Just be sure that the vacuum isn't super powerful or you can stretch the cloth. Don't just use the circular tube on the hose, use the attachments. The Oreck also has a nice crack tool that can get under the rails.

Ideally you would use a brush and vacuum once in a while, but the vacuum is so much easier than a brush that I'd rather use that.

 

[garczar]

Brushes were really meant for the old nappy cloth. Worsted cloth is non-directional and all brushing does is move the dirt around. Place i play uses a X-1 after people come off time and vacuum once a week. A lot of people knock the X-1 and i have no clue why. Could be they're using it wrong 'cause whenever i use it it takes a LOT of chalk/dirt off. You do a couple tables with it and take it outside and knock the dust out and clouds of chalk dust come off.

 

[garczar]

I've tried 3 different brushes. One had nylon bristles, worked ok-ish but not great. 2 different brands (hell, they are all unbranded so who knows who makes them) of horse hair. They worked but shed like hell, especially at first.

The Simonis X1 works quite well for taking chalk dust off the cloth, but won't touch any actual dirt or pet hair. It's expensive but it does a good job for manually removing chalk dust.

I found an old fabric lint brush in a thrift store, the ones they used before the sticky rollers. Like this. I'm not endorsing that site, could be a total scam, just had a picture similar to the type I use. This works VERY well at pet hair or stubborn little lint and small pieces of crud. It's not a thing you would do the entire job with, but makes a great last pass.

As philly said, a vacuum cleaner works well. You don't want one with a rotating brush, you want to use the attachments for cleaning upholstery. The hand held Orecks work well and you can find them for a reasonable price used. Just be sure that the vacuum isn't super powerful or you can stretch the cloth. Don't just use the circular tube on the hose, use the attachments. The Oreck also has a nice crack tool that can get under the rails.

Ideally you would use a brush and vacuum once in a while, but the vacuum is so much easier than a brush that I'd rather use that.

those sticky rollers are good to get stuff the x-1 won't.

 

[rexus31]

I use my shop vac with a 15" horse hair attachment to clean my table every 3rd or 4th use. It keeps the table clean and doesn't stretch the cloth with minimal blueing on the hands after playing.

 

[Lawnboy77]

I was ready to retire my brush and go to vacuum brush only, but with two cats who like to lay on the table when we’re not home I decided to keep it. The brush won’t remove the chalk, but it’s pretty good at cat hair removal. If you don’t have animals then I would say just use a vacuum with a brush attachment.

 

[lgherb]

Take a clean cotton t-shirt and a small bucket of water. Wet the t-shirt then thoroughly wring it out so it is only damp. Then roll the damp T-shirt over the cloth.

The damp t-shirt will pick up all of the chalk particles and debris on the cloth. You may need to periodically clean the t-shirt in the water and wring it out again depending on how dirty your table is.

Wait 45 minutes for the wool to dry.

 

[garczar]

Take a clean cotton t-shirt and a small bucket of water. Wet the t-shirt then thoroughly wring it out so it is only damp. Then roll the damp T-shirt over the cloth.

The damp t-shirt will pick up all of the chalk particles and debris on the cloth. You may need to periodically clean the t-shirt in the water and wring it out again depending on how dirty your table is.

Wait 45 minutes for the wool to dry.

Gotta vacuum first. Even better is one capfull of Woolite in a gallon of hot water. Same process tho.

 

[Geosnookery]

Take a clean cotton t-shirt and a small bucket of water. Wet the t-shirt then thoroughly wring it out so it is only damp. Then roll the damp T-shirt over the cloth.

The damp t-shirt will pick up all of the chalk particles and debris on the cloth. You may need to periodically clean the t-shirt in the water and wring it out again depending on how dirty your table is.

Wait 45 minutes for the wool to dry.

I started to read this as ‘take a well built gal and have her wear a clean t-shirt. Poor bucket of water over her and have her roll over the cloth… ‘

an aside: before brushing the table I put paper towels into each of the pockets. I then brush stuff into the pockets and then just remove the paper towels. I don’t know the brand of my brush however billiard table brushes are often available at the thrift store for a dollar or so.

 

[lgherb]

I started to read this as ‘take a well built gal and have her wear a clean t-shirt. Poor bucket of water over her and have her roll over the cloth… ‘

an aside: before brushing the table I put paper towels into each of the pockets. I then brush stuff into the pockets and then just remove the paper towels. I don’t know the brand of my brush however billiard table brushes are often available at the thrift store for a dollar or so.

I came ever so close to linking Frank Zappa's classic song "Wet T-Shirt Night".

 

[Charles Hartfield]

My recommendation would be the x-1. When I’m cleaning the cloth, I start with the x-1 as directed in the instructions to get out the chalk and get anything else with my shop vac. This has worked well for me.

 

[garczar]

My recommendation would be the x-1. When I’m cleaning the cloth, I start with the x-1 as directed in the instructions to get out the chalk and get anything else with my shop vac. This has worked well for me.

X-1 works great. Just have to keep it clean. Use a vac or just knock it on the heel of your hand.

 

[Hoogaar]

I have an X-1 - I never thought of vacuuming it to clean it. That works? Nice - I'll give that a try

 

[Nyquil]

As with everything coming out of a pandemic, stock for quality table brushes appears to be very limited. The available options on Amazon all have tons of negative reviews from poor packaging damaging the bristles to brushes where all the bristles fall out and get stuck in the felt. Anyone have any recommendation for a decent brush set?

I don't use brushes. Shop vac with "blind" brush works good for me can do the rails top and inside along the whole table with it.