Table Mechanics
- Thread starter rjb1168
- Start date
Uhhhh...I do:wave2:
Great to hear, I would think all mechanic's would check them. It's often thought to be a dead rail by barbox players.
I think the problem is a lot of times, it's not a mechanic that's recovering the table...it's someone who works for a vendor. The guys in my area don't check them at all. It's frustrating as hell to play on tables with missing spots, mismatched or wrong rails that all play different, coin mechs that don't work right, balls that don't return right, loose corners, tables out of level, etc. Those tables are so easy to maintain, but the vendors around here don't take the time to take care of them even though they're in the location once a week to collect the coin drop anyway. I'd love to fix them up, but I guess they've got their hourly guys they pay to do a half-assed job.
You're kidding...right?:rotflmao1:
I'm using 12 7-foot Valleys at my place. My installer is a former vendor who did it his way for years. He's a great guy but he doesn't know why I spend the extra for all new Ridgebacks vs just getting one or two sets of Pelicans. I am the one fixing gulleys, mechanisms etc. in between recovers.
My point ... it is the pool hall owners responsibility to make sure things are done right even if he leases or splits the tables. Now if its a bar with one or two tables thats a different story. I have yet to see a Diamond at the local biker bars.
My point ... it is the pool hall owners responsibility to make sure things are done right even if he leases or splits the tables. Now if its a bar with one or two tables thats a different story. I have yet to see a Diamond at the local biker bars.
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Even though it seems like it would only take a few minutes to fix that stuff many times the room owner or bar owner is not willing to pay for the extra time it takes. And as explained above many coin op vendors couldn't care less as long as people keep putting money in the machines.
There shouldn't be an extra charge to tighten the casting bolts up, even if you have to look inside the table to find them and put them back in, that's a part of recovering bar tables. Cleaning out the inside of the table, as well as leveling the table is also included in the job, as well as cleaning off all the old spray glue build up.
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Not kidding, The place I play apa 9 ball out of has 16 valleys and
half have missing corner bolts. They are probably in the bottom
of the table, 4 of these tables are covered with simonis 860 with
3 out of 4 missing a bolt.
there's an old saying:
never try to teach a pig to march.
its a waste of time and annoys the pig.
As it applies to the "missing bolts" scenario, I might, myself, try to have a conversation with the owner about the bolts...
How they not only serve an actual purpose, but they also show that you actually give a shit about the people who come there to play, and pay your salary....
...but...
sometimes its like teaching a pig to march.
never try to teach a pig to march.
its a waste of time and annoys the pig.
As it applies to the "missing bolts" scenario, I might, myself, try to have a conversation with the owner about the bolts...
How they not only serve an actual purpose, but they also show that you actually give a shit about the people who come there to play, and pay your salary....
...but...
sometimes its like teaching a pig to march.
i was teasing you, i use to recover the tables in 328 bars every year in washington state, that's just a little over 1,000 bar tables a year, i've seen the loose and missing casting bolts to many times to count
I don't think the problem is that the owner isn't willing to pay for it. I think problem is the "mechanic" isn't willing to take the extra time to do the job right. Again, most of the time, it's not a mechanic that's doing the work, it's someone from the vendor. Not all room owners know enough about the work to know what the mechanic is taking short cuts on. Some are just bar owners that trust that the guys responsible for maintaining the pool tables are doing so properly.
I cover a couple 9' tables in a bar with 5 vendor bar boxes. The bar manager called the vendor one day to complain about loose cloth on 3 of the bar tables before a small city tournament. The guy from the vendor didn't even come out to look at the tables. He just told the manager that it was just humidity and there was nothing they could do about it. The manager called me to ask if that sounded right, so I asked if the cloth on the 9' tables in the same humidity was loose too. ;-)
When I went up after close and restretched the cloth for the owner, I got an additional 4" of stretch!!!! So is that laziness or ignorance? Either way, the guy that covered those tables the last time wasn't someone who takes pride in his job and takes the time and effort to do it well. Needless to say, several of those corner casting bolts were loose too.
THANK YOU!!!! Pay attention vendors and CL installers- There have been some THICK layers of glue on tables I've encountered- drives me nuts to see threads from 3-5 diff felts and colors in it!