Silicone spray on table and balls

S

seven

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I saw an article on the internet on using silicone spray on a billiard table and billiard balls. Anyone know where I can find this? or give me some information on how its done? maybe some info on what others do to make a unheated worn cloth table play more like a heated one.
TIA
 
Didn't you start this one once before?
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=56404&highlight=silicone
You can get silicone spray a lot of places - hardware stores,etc. It's used for some hobby stuff like:
http://www.shuffleboardfederation.com/supslicsilsp.html
Not sure if they're all the same type. I think there's light and heavy duty or something like that.

I've been using it on my table for about a year and it works well. If you put it on the balls, it wears off and the action changes. I vacuum then use a damp towel in one direction on the table. Then I flip it and spray the towel, then wipe down the cloth with the silicone side down. Some people spray the table lightly instead, I believe. Seems to me like that might get uneven results, but I could be wrong. Generally you don't need to do it every time you do a good cleaning. You can overdo it and the table gets too long. Best to start lightly and see how it plays, maybe add a little next time,etc.
 
seven said:
... Bob Jewett said that he wouldnt spray silicone on the table. why not?
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If you can get a uniform coat of silicone on the cloth, and it's your own table, then there's not a big problem. If you compete and that makes your table closer to the equipment you will compete on, I think there's no problem.

But I was playing in a tournament and my opponent asked me before the lag which ball I preferred. I told him yellow, and he proceeded to get out a bottle of silicone and a cloth and greased up his cue ball. Fortunately, the room had another set of balls that was not partly greased.
 
Bob, I bet I can name the player. He did the same thing at our annual Elks event two years ago. We have large signs now saying nobody but event referees can clean balls.
 
I'm down here in New Zealand on a one year trip and unfortunately the only tables I've found are in a Korean four-ball place that charges 20 NZ dollars per hour. The good news, though, is that their unheated, eight-foot tables play miles better than I first thought they would. My time in south Florida was spent learning on heated Chevillotes, Verhoevens, Wilheminas, etc., so I'm surprised I haven't had to adjust my play very much on these tables. Google doesn't tell me much about them, though - they say Miraton on the sides, and they're full-on carom tables, not at all like the converted Gandy you'll occasionally see in the States.

Anyway, the guy irons the tables daily after spraying them with something from a can I haven't identified. Also, he hits the balls with metal polish immediately after I hand them back in. I'd ask what he sprays with but I don't know a lick of Korean other than to ask for sam gu (? - three balls) or sa gu(? - four balls).
 
I just sprayed silicone on my outdoor garage table. It works a charm. I wiped it with a rag to even it out and wiped the rag along the rails and pocket edges.
Instant tournament conditions. It takes much less effort to draw the ball, and swerve is reduced considerably.

That is, presuming the tournament has clean balls and pretty new cloth.
 
Pockets??? We are talking about carom tables - the ones with NO pockets! No disrespect intended, just thought you should know that this is the forum for Carom Billiards, not pool.
 
jimshovak said:
Pockets??? We are talking about carom tables - the ones with NO pockets! No disrespect intended, just thought you should know that this is the forum for Carom Billiards, not pool.
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Oh, I found the thread by search. lol I didn't realize it was the Carom forum. I would have put my helmet on if I had known. :p

Colin
 
eze123 said:
Didn't you start this one once before?
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=56404&highlight=silicone
You can get silicone spray a lot of places - hardware stores,etc. It's used for some hobby stuff like:
http://www.shuffleboardfederation.com/supslicsilsp.html
Not sure if they're all the same type. I think there's light and heavy duty or something like that.

I've been using it on my table for about a year and it works well. If you put it on the balls, it wears off and the action changes. I vacuum then use a damp towel in one direction on the table. Then I flip it and spray the towel, then wipe down the cloth with the silicone side down. Some people spray the table lightly instead, I believe. Seems to me like that might get uneven results, but I could be wrong. Generally you don't need to do it every time you do a good cleaning. You can overdo it and the table gets too long. Best to start lightly and see how it plays, maybe add a little next time,etc.
Click to expand...
What he said.

Use sparingly. A very old cloth simply needs to be replaced. You can get some improvement with silicone but there's nothing like new.

I also use the damp cloth mentioned and more or less drag it accross the table. I use a med size hand terry cloth towel. I've seen it sprayed in the air and let the droplets fall on. Works ok.

I don't think you need to apply it to the balls they'll pick it up when you play.

The obvious drawbacks to Silicone are 1) It attracts dirt. 2) More dirt slower table, in theory anyway. Advantage other that slide is the cloth will simply last longer due to less burn marks unless you don't clean the balls to like new luster.

A crude test for slide: Place a CB on the center spot. Hit the center diamond on the short rail with max english. Your 3rd rail contact point should be around 1/2 diamond from the corner on the short rail.
 
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