as rubber ages, the rubber gets harder, the durometer increases over time. when you do put new cushions on that arent so old you'll notice a huge difference.. if you want to fix it for now, yes unstaple the cloth , provided someone hasn't spray glued it on,, then you can remove the rubber, clean it and the rail and re-glue it.. loose rubber will deaden the rail so a ball traveling at a fairly slow speed will hit it and not rebound very well at all.
this website states the "shelf life" for ( natural) rubber to be 3-5 years,
Not even rubber lasts forever. Find out about the ageing and degradation process of rubber, its shelf life and various other factors that can cause an impact.
www.walker-rubber.co.uk
Your table is proof they can function longer.. Its just been steadily deteriorating at an unnoticeable rate. covering the table might help preserve it as oxygen and ozone and sunlight help it deteriorate.. putting the pool table in a cool dark place is not practical.
I've seen nice looking , good tread but old tires separate all around the side wall and almost come right off the rim , twice! because I pushed their limits, That's dangerous.. imagine if you had a set of tires as old as your table,, would you use them, probably not.
some plasticized rubber like compounds , they are actually sold as "rubber" but real authentic Brunswick rubber wasn't a plastic material.. If you are old enough you might remember tires used in WW2 and how old tires like that crumbled over time. the formulations for tires changed over time.
the plastic like compounds, lie that of an Oring are not porous when you feel them they arent; grippy like real rubber, I'm sure you've seen what happens if a rubber band is left in a drawer, it turns to hardened rubbish. its all cracked and lost it's flexiblity and strength.. what you want is real rubber not a synthetic compound. it has better bounce characteristics. Id be wary of offshore stuff.. I saw a lot of things advertised as "rubber" that were in fact "synthetic rubber"
I restored a 1961 brunswick , a small table, the rubber then was small , unobtainable too.. so I modified the rails( trimmed about 10 mm off ) to take 3/4" rubber,, You would not believe the difference. now it plays like a new table.
if you glue rubbber back , watch the contact height , it should be around 63 or 64% of the ball size, too high it drives the ball downward, makes gutters, won't bounce so well, too high and balls start hopping off the table.
If that were my table I'd just replace it myself and put new rubber, but that's a slippery slope, how is the cloth?
at the ends of each run of rail, there should be a "facing" made of about 1/8" rubber sheet
you are probably in the US and Im in canada but anyway here is a page that shows the rubber. Id spring for the brunswick superspeed myself , some others may have recommendations.. I bought the thinner rubber from a pump supplier that gets it fresh in 3 foot wide rolls..
I'd carefully glue on the new rubber and then put the cheeks on , I use a grinder to trim it, I have a 220V angle grinder running on 110 so it goes a lot slower speed, with a grindstone that rubber turns to dust.. you cna;t sand it.. nt really.. you can with a small belt sander.. It easy to mess up and go too deep so I'd go carefully, I use an angle grinder lots in my job so I can use one aquite accurately.. a dremil may do, you can use a very sharp knife but it's hard to take a second cut and the rubber tends to spring away causing inaccuracy, then a very thin accurate trim is hard to accomplish.. some use a knife and you can often see how the cheek and rail dotn meet nicely, you need to trim the cheek to the rail profile, I'd leave it 1 1/6 long and fine trim carefully with a grinder.
if you want o change pocket size, heres the time you can use thicker rubber , some buy the cheeks and double them..
id also note that near the pockets, the ball can hit the end of the rail rubber and if it has "top" then the ball can launch, Id not how yours are before removing anything... you may find there is a bit there you think is vertical but it may have an abngle.. so what I;d do is make thick card- stock templates so you dont loose any dimensional proportion unless you decide to make changes.
when balls enter pockets the cheeks may not be parallel but may be a but "splayed" that influences how the balls act when you have a near miss,, if you change that you may also change how the pockets react and if the ball is thrown out or accepted more easily.. so Id make cardboard templates of pockets and any changes made should be because you choose to nt because you can;t remember how they were.. other than that there is olots on google, videos showing how to recover rails and there are soem tricks to stretch the fabric.. some cloth has more stretch and give than others.. I think if you go into the faster modern cloth that may be a factor to consider..
Im pretty good at making things and making things fit so I did my own, some should hire it out, depends how comfortable you are. if you dont damage the rail you are only gambling some materials so I'd encourage you to go for it if you feel on doing that sort off thing just wath every video you can find first and take an average of different points and ideas.. If you like you can send the rials out and have it done for you. I didnt find anything hard to do myself I just did research before I dove in..
heres a website just for reference, make sure you get the right profile if you buy new rubber and you can research suppliers.
Pockets, Leg Levellers, Parts...
canadabilliard.com
