When installing (or reinstalling) slate on a heated carom table, should the slate be allowed to warm up before leveling the pieces and sealing the seams with wax? It might be inconvenient to do since it takes 12 hours or so for the heater to get the slate warm, but if the slate is installed, leveled, and sealed while it is cold is there a chance the slate will expand when heated and ruin the seam?
Slate Installation on Heated Carom table
- Thread starter Gongmyo
- Start date
Table
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No good is going to happen when the heater warms up the wax and softens it up.....? Carom table seams are so smooth sometimes it required no filler.
Is their a filler present in the seams now?
Rob.M
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No good is going to happen when the heater warms up the wax and softens it up.....? Carom table seams are so smooth sometimes it required no filler.
Is their a filler present in the seams now?
Rob.M
You never use any wax to fill or smooth seams on heated carom tables. Bondo or epoxy fillers only. You can apply the bondo when the slate is cold and you should have no issues with the seams after the slate heats up.
Keep in mind, the heat is designed to be run at 10-15 degrees above the ambient temperature of the room. IE. if the room temp is 70 degrees average, the heat should be set to 80-85 degrees.
The, heating elements that produce the heat under the slates can produce local area temperatures of 120 degrees plus. That is more than enough heat to soften or melt most of the billiard waxes on the market. The slate acts as a heat sink and will even out in temperature over time. The heating elements themselves, vary in wattage, spacing, efficiency and BTU ratings. Play it safe, use Bondo.
Jay
Keep in mind, the heat is designed to be run at 10-15 degrees above the ambient temperature of the room. IE. if the room temp is 70 degrees average, the heat should be set to 80-85 degrees.
The, heating elements that produce the heat under the slates can produce local area temperatures of 120 degrees plus. That is more than enough heat to soften or melt most of the billiard waxes on the market. The slate acts as a heat sink and will even out in temperature over time. The heating elements themselves, vary in wattage, spacing, efficiency and BTU ratings. Play it safe, use Bondo.
Jay
heated slate
absolutely the slates need to be heated before it is leveled and covered. the slate expands when heated. believe me from experience.
absolutely the slates need to be heated before it is leveled and covered. the slate expands when heated. believe me from experience.
If you had a problem setting a billiard table up cold, you did something wrong. Do you think billiard table are packed into tournaments, set up but not leveled until the slates are at operating temperature? Slate don't expand and contract like wood does, so cold or warm make no difference.
im going to agree with rkc,FROM EXPERIENCE
when mr yura set up MY gabriels table they were cold, well it was a pretty hot day but the slabs were not heated to temp
it takes a day nearly to warm up the 2-3/8 thick granite slate
and havent had a problem
when mr yura set up MY gabriels table they were cold, well it was a pretty hot day but the slabs were not heated to temp
it takes a day nearly to warm up the 2-3/8 thick granite slate
and havent had a problem
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I had my table installed on a cold day in a cold room, 45'-50'. I didn't turn the table heat on for a couple weeks and when I did the table acquired some drifts in to the corners and the balls started to hop a little on the seams. Upon further inspection I noticed that about half the leveling bolts weren't even touching the slate. So I gently tightened them all up a touch more than finger tight. I guess that could have moved the joints also. Anyway, George Ashby told me the slates needed to warm up before leveling due to the expansion of the slates. I just took it as gospel coming from him.
George came over last week and tuned my table up and he said its playing " by the numbers" now.
It plays excellent, unlike me.
I'd like to see someone measure the expansion of the slates....LOL....it's BS.
I can't measure it but I can do a back-of-the-envelope calculation.
For a ~10' table, if the temperature goes from 32F (0 C) to 77F (25 C), the slate will lengthen by about 0.6 mm = 1/32 inch*.
*I used a coefficient of thermal expansion for slate of 9 x 10E-06/ degree C, 25C temperature change, and 3-meter (9.8') slate slab.
For a ~10' table, if the temperature goes from 32F (0 C) to 77F (25 C), the slate will lengthen by about 0.6 mm = 1/32 inch*.
*I used a coefficient of thermal expansion for slate of 9 x 10E-06/ degree C, 25C temperature change, and 3-meter (9.8') slate slab.
Ok, if you insist....then how much does the steel frame expand as well? FYI...I've never set up a billiard table that had slate seam problems or out of level problems after the slates were heated. Do me a favor will you, find out from any billiard table manufacturer if they recommend the slates be heated before leveling because I'm still calling out BS.
0.6 mm of expansion is very small and my calculation supports your statements, it doesn't contradict them. Distributed over three slates this amounts to a change in length per slate equal to the width of 2 human hairs. Seems insignificant to me.
And to further support the idea that thermal expansion of slate is a non-issue, I redid the calculation using a temperature change from 68F to 82F, which is more reasonable and the range that Jay proposed. Total increase in length over the full 10 foot table is 0.2 mm. 1 human hair is 0.1 mm wide.
I promise I won't make any more calculations :smile:
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