Simonis & Humidity?

jaetee

jaetee

rack master ;)
Silver Member
I was told yesterday by my league team captain, who has a 9' table at his house with Simonis 860 on it, that he regrets not having the cloth glued to his table. He said his was tacked, and as a result the cloth is more affected by temperature and humidity despite being indoors in an air conditioned home. If I recall correctly, he said it behaves more stretchy and slower when humid.

We live in Florida.

As I am purchasing a table and will be having one built & covered soon, I was wondering if anyone here has similar experience and can elaborate?

Should I make sure to have the Simonis glued? The table is going to sit in its place for a long time when it's finally up and I want to make the right decisions for consistent play and longevity.

Thanks in advance for responses....
 
If you're talking about having it glued down on the surface of the slate, I'm pretty sure that's a bad idea. Properly installed Simonis (by Mark Gregory of PerfectPockets fame) is doing fine on my 9 foot table in a temperature controlled basement in Georgia.
 
Stapled {tacked} on my Olhausen in SC. I would think that gluing would be a nightmare to recover{and that's putting it mildly!} and I've never heard of anyone doing it.
 
Pushout said:
Stapled {tacked} on my Olhausen in SC. I would think that gluing would be a nightmare to recover{and that's putting it mildly!} and I've never heard of anyone doing it.
Click to expand...

The billiards, hot tubs, and camping supply warehouse type places glue down cloth on their tables... like perimeter glued vinyl flooring installation. You can tell when those guys recover a table, because the residue that they don't scrape off accumulates at the pocket shelves and causes slow rolling balls to stop or roll out.
 
Last edited:
Pretty sure RKC has been doing glue downs for quite some time now and it is a very much accepted method. As far as a difference in play between properly installed cloth using those methods, I would head to the Ask a Mechanic section.

Personally, I would think that either method would play the same if they were properly installed but there must be a reason why a mechanic would use one method over another.
 
PaulieB said:
Pretty sure RKC has been doing glue downs for quite some time now and it is a very much accepted method. As far as a difference in play between properly installed cloth using those methods, I would head to the Ask a Mechanic section.

Personally, I would think that either method would play the same if they were properly installed but there must be a reason why a mechanic would use one method over another.
Click to expand...

I thought of RKC and his glue method, but I figured it was not exactly the same as what the OP was advised to have done. You're right; glue or staples hold the cloth when properly installed in a similar manner and shouldn't play markedly different.
 
jaetee said:
I was told yesterday by my league team captain, who has a 9' table at his house with Simonis 860 on it, that he regrets not having the cloth glued to his table. He said his was tacked, and as a result the cloth is more affected by temperature and humidity despite being indoors in an air conditioned home. If I recall correctly, he said it behaves more stretchy and slower when humid.

We live in Florida.

As I am purchasing a table and will be having one built & covered soon, I was wondering if anyone here has similar experience and can elaborate?

Should I make sure to have the Simonis glued? The table is going to sit in its place for a long time when it's finally up and I want to make the right decisions for consistent play and longevity.

Thanks in advance for responses....
Click to expand...

First of all, tell your mechanic I said he's full of shit and has no idea what he's talking about. Secondly, my glueing method is the mortal nuts when it comes to installing bed cloth vs using staples, but there is no such thing as cloth coming loose if either method is used correctly, as I stapled the bed cloths down years before I perfected my glue down system. Fact is, your mechanic don't know what he's doing, so its much easier to blame the Simonis cloth for not being right, than it is to admit he don't know how to properly install it.

Glen
 
When I change the cloth on my table, I use a good spray adhesive along the edge of the slate where there's no staples (on my table, there's no where to put staples except near the pockets) The staples are at the pockets, it keeps it secure but the adhesive keeps it taut. I also live in Florida, its Simonis 860 and its in an out building that isn't climate controlled. No issues.
 
Last edited:
Spray glue sucks as it'll never hold as tight as staples do, and my FB10 glue method holds much tighter than staples do.
 
realkingcobra said:
First of all, tell your mechanic I said he's full of shit and has no idea what he's talking about. Secondly, my glueing method is the mortal nuts when it comes to installing bed cloth vs using staples, but there is no such thing as cloth coming loose if either method is used correctly, as I stapled the bed cloths down years before I perfected my glue down system. Fact is, your mechanic don't know what he's doing, so its much easier to blame the Simonis cloth for not being right, than it is to admit he don't know how to properly install it.

Glen
Click to expand...

What he said... Lol I'm just an amature and I know the guy who told you that bs don't know enough to know to he don't know nothing :) lol rkc has forgotten more then most know.
 
Thanks for all of the comments and info.

RKC - It was not a table mechanic that gave me the info, it was my league team captain who had that to say about his own table at home. Someone else worked on that for him, I don't know who.

I've decided that Tony Crosby will be doing the move and install for me. When we spoke, he said re-using the existing cloth is not a problem, but we didn't talk about stapling vs. gluing. The conversation with my team captain (which inspired this thread) came after I had already spoken with Tony and made preliminary arrangements. I will discuss with Tony at the time and go with whatever method he feels most comfortable with as he seems to have an excellent reputation as a table mechanic in the Tampa Bay area.

The link to Simonis was very helpful, too. Reading that web site and how it makes a point to put the smooth side up made me realize that the table I am buying probably does have Simonis on it. I am pretty certain it was simply installed upside down... You can see the diagonal Simonis weave pattern through the very fine fluff. I had never seen the "wrong" side of Simonis before, only the smooth side.

Now I'm not sure if I will keep the existing black cloth and have it installed the right way around, or switch to brand new tournament blue cloth. The current black cloth looks to be in outstanding shape, just that it's upside down and is not playing as fast as is could. If the other, proper side looks clean (why wouldn't it?) I may be able to save myself almost $300 re-using the black cloth. Money is an issue...

Either way, I have some new tournament blue Simonis on the way and will have it available to make the best decision when I have everything in house and Tony on hand.

The lighted cue case, light fixture and base of the table are all black, and the table has tiger striped, natural colored maple all around the rails. Looks really nice.... I actually think black cloth would look more coordinated, but I'm also concerned about how black sucks up light. Blue would definitely be more pleasant to play on for longer periods of time and that will probably be the ultimate deciding factor.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top