The Best Table I Ever Played On Is ....

haha . . . .

$4000 in repairs

i love tournament blue

never had the pleasure of shooting on 760 before, i'd probably have to swing my cue at half speed.

the pocket openings look real tight, although the shelf doesn't "seem" too go too deep so you still may be able to bang some balls in off angle and still get away with it.

i can see that shelf of the wall in the back, does that get in the way of frozen rail backswings sometimes?

nice table!
 
Rich93 said:
The best table I ever played on is my 29 year old Gold Crown III, but it's only played that good since yesterday.

This week Glen, aka Realkingcobra, rebuilt my 29 year old Gold Crown III and made it my dream table. He narrowed the pockets by extending the subrails, changed the pocket angles, put on Artemis Intercontinental cushions and Simonis 760 Tournament Blue cloth and leveled the table as much as the slates allowed. The pockets are tight but fair, which is what I asked for. Some pics are below.

Finding a mechanic who really cares about his work is difficult - at least I've found it to be. I knew Glen's reputation and have been on his waiting list for a while but really didn't expect him to ever get to me. However, the stars were aligned last week. I found that his reputation is all true - this guy won't leave until it's the best that can be done with the table. In my case, with a GCIII in good shape, the best is just about perfect.

I feel like some average guy who needed a heart operation and Michael DeBakey flew in to do my surgery. Thank you Glen.

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Rich,

Looks GREAT. I'm leaning towards the Tournament Blue when I recover next. I haven't experienced the problems you have with 860. The original 860 I used was the HR variety. It played great and wore well for about 8 years in my basement. In 2005 I replaced it with regular 860 and it plays the same. I keep a dehumidifier running almost constantly between late May and October. It actually has a setting for 40%RH that I haven't really checked for accuracy but it's removing about 1/2 gallon per day in the peak of summer. BTW, my home is not air conditioned.

Your right on about Glen's work. I've never heard a negative comment and I'm sure we would hear something if a customer was unhappy. My mechanic is the same way, very meticulous.

best regards............Paul
 
kano said:
$4000 in repairs

i love tournament blue

never had the pleasure of shooting on 760 before, i'd probably have to swing my cue at half speed.

the pocket openings look real tight, although the shelf doesn't "seem" too go too deep so you still may be able to bang some balls in off angle and still get away with it.

i can see that shelf of the wall in the back, does that get in the way of frozen rail backswings sometimes?

nice table!
Click to expand...

The 4,000 in repairs is what Glen said it costs to turn a Valley into a Diamond. It cost much less to do what Glen did for my GCIII. The Artemis cushions are $275 from Diamond. The Simonis 760 was the normal price. And Glen's labor charge was very reasonable.

The slate is the original from Brunswick. Its shelf is not as deep as a Diamond, and I'm thankful for that. If you hang a ball in the corner of a pocket about as deep as it will go without falling, about 60% of the ball is visible as you sight from the rail. With a Diamond it's about 40% (see Greg Sullivan of Diamond on this subject http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG9CqK95U2E).

The back shelf doesn't interfere with the stroke, but the side shelf sometimes does if you have the cue ball up against the rail and you're shooting at a 90 degree angle from the rail. The room is tight on these frozen-to-the-side-rail, 90 degree shots, but I can still shoot without a shorty cue and it hasn't really bothered me because it comes up so seldom.

I shot on new 860 recently and my 760 doesn't seem faster. Maybe a little. But the 760 won't slow up as much as 860 over time, per what another poster quoted Ivan Lee of Simonis as saying.

I love the blue also. Glen talked me into it, and I'm glad he did.
 
The highlight of watching Glen work on my table was to see him install the bed cloth with his gluing method. He glues the cloth to the side of the slate on one side with his special contact cement, then goes to the other side and stretches it, a bit at a time, until you think it's going to rip (but it doesn't). When he stretches it, he S T R E T C H E S it. It helps, of course, to be the world's strongest human, but, per Glen, much weaker guys can also do a very good job using his method.
 
Rich93 said:
The highlight of watching Glen work on my table was to see him install the bed cloth with his gluing method. He glues the cloth to the side of the slate on one side with his special contact cement, then goes to the other side and stretches it, a bit at a time, until you think it's going to rip (but it doesn't). When he stretches it, he S T R E T C H E S it. It helps of course, to be the world's strongest human, but, per Glen, much weaker guys can also do a very good job using his method.
Click to expand...

Glen rebuilt my friends Gandy this week. It was a "nightmare"... I believe I heard him tell someone on the phone. I know he worked his butt off.

I also got to watch him stretch the cloth and I couldn't believe how strongly that glue held. After applying the glue and letting it set up properly he grabbed the cloth with welding pliers... i.e. Vise Grips with jaws about 3" wide, then he braced his feet and leaned back while pulling with arms as big as the average guys thighs and then just rubbed the edge of the cloth and it stuck tight after having stretched the cloth unbelievably tight. No staples except in the pockets. The hundreds of staples usually seen, one on top of another all the way around the table.... not there! None of them except a few in the pockets. Dammedest thing you ever saw. :thumbup:

To say I was impressed would be a huge understatement. Really an incredible thing to watch.

My friend now has an old Gandy that plays like a new Gabriel. Glen does incredibly good work with no detail left undone. I think he has pictures he'll be putting up soon.
 
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