Review of "Tap Mat"

Slate Billiards

Slate Billiards

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While reading posts on AZ I found an item called a tap mat. Link:http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=140846

I had always seen players tap the first two or three balls in a rack if they were not frozen. So I said to myself that this product may be perfect for me and I ordered one from Abe. When I recieved it I went to my table and with my son helping to hold the template in place I used a fine tip sharpie to mark the template for future taps. One ball at a time we placed on the cut out hole of the template began tapping the balls till we had them all done. Wow!!!! every rack was perfect all balls touching and did not matter if we racked 9 ball, 8 ball, straight pool. All balls were frozen perfectly. I will be using this in my pool room when it opens in September as well as at my home. I will post pics soon as I figure out how. I am happy with the product, and the end result of having tight racks every time. I hope he will continue to make more of these as I belive that they are a must have for anyone with a table of their own and that room owners should invest the little bit of money to have one as well.
 
I've wondered about these things. There's usually an argument about them. I've heard the euro tour uses these things and it's great. I also hear that even with the sardo tight rack, they expect you to "pre-tap" the balls into place.

The argument against them seems to be that you're making dimples in the cloth and that a slow rolling ball might fall into the dimple and cause a bad roll for the player. Or people argue that it's just bad for the cloth.

Personally, I think it's a tradeoff: A very very small risk of getting screwed by a little pit in the cloth, vs. the much larger risk of getting screwed by a less-than-perfect rack. I'd be willing to try these out, I HATE fighting to get a good rack.
 
Slate Billiards said:
While reading posts on AZ I found an item called a tap mat. Link: http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=140846

I had always seen players tap the first two or three balls in a rack if they were not frozen. So I said to myself that this product may be perfect for me and I ordered one from Abe. When I recieved it I went to my table and with my son helping to hold the template in place I used a fine tip sharpie to mark the template for future taps. One ball at a time we placed on the cut out hole of the template began tapping the balls till we had them all done. Wow!!!! every rack was perfect all balls touching and did not matter if we racked 9 ball, 8 ball, straight pool. All balls were frozen perfectly. I will be using this in my pool room when it opens in September as well as at my home. I will post pics soon as I figure out how. I am happy with the product, and the end result of having tight racks every time. I hope he will continue to make more of these as I belive that they are a must have for anyone with a table of their own and that room owners should invest the little bit of money to have one as well.
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Slate Billiards-- I am glad the template worked out good for you. As of now I do plan on continuing to make them. Thanks for your feedback/review! I look forward to seeing your pics.


CreeDo said:
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Personally, I think it's a tradeoff: A very very small risk of getting screwed by a little pit in the cloth, vs. the much larger risk of getting screwed by a less-than-perfect rack. I'd be willing to try these out, I HATE fighting to get a good rack.
Click to expand...

I agree with you completely, CreeDo. Tell you what... if you're interested in trying it out, I'll offer you a "satisfaction guarantee". If you're not happy with it, I'll give you your money back (less shipping). Offer is good to all AZB'ers.

Btw, I will also be donating $2 to AZB for each Tap Template sold.



Regards,
 
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i4pool, that's a cool offer. If I owned a table I'd take you up on it. I could try it at the local pool hall but I don't think I could sweet talk the owner into it :) If I get a table though I'll definitely grab one.
 
Tapping mat's

We have been using them in U.K for couple of years now and i would think eurotour has a patent on them...i know they first made them anyway whether they patented them or not i'm not sure.

I think they are great you get a perfect rack everytime..if using on brand new cloth you only need to slightly tap them and in the 2 years i have had my cloth being tapped i have had only a few occasions where the dents have affected a ball when rolled near it...but it doesnt change the direction if rolled over the dent at normal speed.

They are alot quicker than using a rack anyway and no arguments about whether they are racked tight or not.
 
ukpooladdict said:
We have been using them in U.K for couple of years now and i would think eurotour has a patent on them...i know they first made them anyway whether they patented them or not i'm not sure.

I think they are great you get a perfect rack everytime..if using on brand new cloth you only need to slightly tap them and in the 2 years i have had my cloth being tapped i have had only a few occasions where the dents have affected a ball when rolled near it...but it doesnt change the direction if rolled over the dent at normal speed.

They are alot quicker than using a rack anyway and no arguments about whether they are racked tight or not.
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The racking template was first used in a tournament in Alexandria on the Planet Pool (DC area) tour. AZB member alinco can vouch for that since he was was involved in running those turnaments. Santos Sambajon knocked the corner ball off the table a couple of times breaking warp speed on the very worn cloth, but managed to win anyway I think.

They were then used and official equipment in the three pro events of the Billiard Channel tour where Ralf Souquet bought several to take back to Europe.

Paul Potier trained APA volunteers to rack by hand for the matches in the Billiard Channel tournaments. At the first one in Florida, some players were complaining about the corner balls going in an thought it was because of bad racks, lol. Even Buddy Hall (beaten in the final by Kid Delicious who got his first pro win IIRC) didn't seem to know the corner ball was supposed to be dead. Before this everyone thought it was a bad rack when the corner balls shot in while breaking from the side rail playing 9 ball.

David Vandenburgh was the tournament director for the Billiard Channel tournaments and they racked the 9 on the spot after that to make it a little harder to make the wing ball. Ten ball is much better for good racks, not to mention 11 and 12 ball which could also be viable games for professionals with frozen racks imo.


United States Patent D433,724
Craig , et al. November 14, 2000
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http://patimg1.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=D0433724&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect2%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsearch-bool.html%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526d%3DPALL%2526S1%3DD433724.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2FD433724%2526RS%3DPN%2FD433724&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page
 
My experience with the Template.

I got mine a few weeks ago. It works perfectly for me. Every rack is nicely frozen. I have a rack outline and a center line from the spot to the foot rail. That helps me rack squarely each time, making it easy to let the balls drop into position. I looked for a tapping template for some time after I bought my table. I'm glad Abe has made these, I'm very happy with mine.

Ed Rannou
 
I play mostly straight pool and this template works so well that I only very seldom use the rack anymore. The cloth on my table is over a year old and all the balls tapped in very nicely.

I rate this product 10 out of 10.

Bill
 
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