I purchased a Gabriel's 10-foot Sentinel pocket table roughly 2 years ago directly from Gabriel's, as I'd dealt with them previously over 15 years ago in purchasing all our 9-foot tables. It came with Klematch K55 cushion rubbers, which are touted to be as good or better than Artemis, and they do play very fast - very similar to my other Gabriels tables that all have Artemis cushions.
This past fall, I had a very reputable and well known pool table mechanic here, who extended the rails and tightened the pockets on all of our tables. He did the same on this table, as they'd previously had way too thick of pocket facings (2 facings totaling over 3/8"), as the table was used for a pro tourney in Europe before I purchased it. To do this, he had to remove the cushion rubbers. Since he reused the same cushion rubbers after extending the subrails, he needed to stretch the rubbers ever so slightly to get them long enough when he re-glued them back on to the subrail.
A few months ago and at least 5 months since the work had been completed on the table, I strangely noticed for the first time, one area of 3-4 inches above the headstring on the cushion nose on one side rail, that appeared wavy enough that it is clearly noticeable by the naked eye, when looking at the table. It looks like it is a little high in one spot, then low in one spot right next to it, compared to the rest of the cushion on the same rail.
Strange thing, as I run my thumb and fingers along the cloth, on the top of where the cushion rubber connects to the subrail, as well as on the underside of the cushion rubber where it connects to the subrail, it feels both on top and on bottom like the cushion rubber was/is perfectly installed and perfectly even with the entire cushion rubber along the entire length of the rail, on the top and bottom. Also, the cushion is not at all loose in that spot, which I'm very familiar with exactly how that feels, in allowing you to wiggle the rubber up and down, on the top and bottom of the cushion at that spot.
My question, particularly for our experienced installers on here, is whether it is possible for anything to have happened to that area on that one cushion rubber in the past few months to have caused this to become noticeable - which it previously wasn't? I'm doubting there was any abuse from a customer, as this table is kept covered up except when being used only by our higher level players. Only thing I can think of is if someone sat on the table rail/cushion in that one spot and smashed the rubber down, but if that was the case, you'd think I could feel something was off either on the top or the bottom of the cushion rubber, when feeling with my fingers, which I can't. It's also hard for me to think it could possibly be an imperfection in the cushion nose, as it was never noticeable by me over the previous 2 years, and I play on that table often and would have seen it if it had been there all along.
This one spot doesn't seem to noticeably effect the play / rebound of a ball coming off that part of the cushion, but just kind of bothers me, as I had never noticed this imperfection before. I don't know of any way to fix it other than to replace this one rail cushion next time we re-cover this table, which I think might be a little questionable as to whether the new cushion rubber would play exactly the same as the other 5 cushions, even though it would be the exact same cushion profile and manufacturer. Any ideas to what could have caused this and if there is any simple fix? - Thanks
This past fall, I had a very reputable and well known pool table mechanic here, who extended the rails and tightened the pockets on all of our tables. He did the same on this table, as they'd previously had way too thick of pocket facings (2 facings totaling over 3/8"), as the table was used for a pro tourney in Europe before I purchased it. To do this, he had to remove the cushion rubbers. Since he reused the same cushion rubbers after extending the subrails, he needed to stretch the rubbers ever so slightly to get them long enough when he re-glued them back on to the subrail.
A few months ago and at least 5 months since the work had been completed on the table, I strangely noticed for the first time, one area of 3-4 inches above the headstring on the cushion nose on one side rail, that appeared wavy enough that it is clearly noticeable by the naked eye, when looking at the table. It looks like it is a little high in one spot, then low in one spot right next to it, compared to the rest of the cushion on the same rail.
Strange thing, as I run my thumb and fingers along the cloth, on the top of where the cushion rubber connects to the subrail, as well as on the underside of the cushion rubber where it connects to the subrail, it feels both on top and on bottom like the cushion rubber was/is perfectly installed and perfectly even with the entire cushion rubber along the entire length of the rail, on the top and bottom. Also, the cushion is not at all loose in that spot, which I'm very familiar with exactly how that feels, in allowing you to wiggle the rubber up and down, on the top and bottom of the cushion at that spot.
My question, particularly for our experienced installers on here, is whether it is possible for anything to have happened to that area on that one cushion rubber in the past few months to have caused this to become noticeable - which it previously wasn't? I'm doubting there was any abuse from a customer, as this table is kept covered up except when being used only by our higher level players. Only thing I can think of is if someone sat on the table rail/cushion in that one spot and smashed the rubber down, but if that was the case, you'd think I could feel something was off either on the top or the bottom of the cushion rubber, when feeling with my fingers, which I can't. It's also hard for me to think it could possibly be an imperfection in the cushion nose, as it was never noticeable by me over the previous 2 years, and I play on that table often and would have seen it if it had been there all along.
This one spot doesn't seem to noticeably effect the play / rebound of a ball coming off that part of the cushion, but just kind of bothers me, as I had never noticed this imperfection before. I don't know of any way to fix it other than to replace this one rail cushion next time we re-cover this table, which I think might be a little questionable as to whether the new cushion rubber would play exactly the same as the other 5 cushions, even though it would be the exact same cushion profile and manufacturer. Any ideas to what could have caused this and if there is any simple fix? - Thanks
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. And everyone says....yes sir mr jimmy sir. 