wax bulge under table cloth

wigglybridge

wigglybridge

14.1 straight pool!
Silver Member
i've got a GC II that has been moved twice for me. after the first install it was up for about 8 months, and then stored for year, then put into the condo i'm now renting, downstairs in a basement on a concrete floor.

the same guy did the install both times: the first time, no issues, this time it was fine for 4 months, and then maybe because of temperature swings (it gets down into the 40's down there at night, and then i turn on a wall heater and it goes up to the 60's over a few hours), a ridge has formed along one slate seam. fortunately, i play entirely 14.1 and it's at the head of the table where there's not so much action. but it's enough of a ridge that balls rolling across it make an audible "bump". i'd guess it's maybe 1/32", and extends across the middle 2' of the table.

the table will only be up for another 2-3 months before i have to move again, and the cloth (Simonis 860) is not going to make it through being removed and put back down a 3rd time.

is there anything i can do to smooth it out without disassembling?
 
We had the same experience with a cheaper table (Presidential Billiards), but it's probably more than just the wax -- the slates have probably shifted.

Like yours, we could hear an audible "thump" as a ball rolled over it. A slow-rolling ball would shift direction if it hit it at a narrow angle. It also caused a white "wear line" in the cloth.

Jerimy Chambers did our re-cloth and said it was probably due to humidity changes warping the two longitudinal stringers. He came back, worked a little magic (that did involve nearly complete disassembly) and we haven't had the problem since (but the building also installed a better HVAC system).

I'd post over the Ask a Mechanic sub-forum for a solution.
 
thanks, yes, i'm sure the slates shifted, which is what pushed the wax up into a little ridge. the humidity in the room is pretty steady in the low 30's, but as i said, the temperature swings a lot, and the heater blows almost straight onto that seam -- and not the other one, which is ok -- from 4' away in the wall.

i'm not looking for a permanent solution -- the table Will be taken down and re-assembled in a few months -- but a quick fix that will get me through until then, when it's going to be new cloth time, anyway.

i did post over in Ask a Mechanic, but thought i'd also try here, since there's more traffic, and people maybe willing to suggest goofy things that a mechanic would laugh at... ;)
 
Had the same thing happen on my garage table last summer. Mechanic came out, pulled the staples along the both sides of the long rail where the seems are, the reached under the cloth and scrapped the excess with a putty knife.

Didn't have to remove the whole cloth and re stretch, just stretched the spot that he opened (enough to get his arm in there.
 
I had the same problem with my Gold Crown - it's caused by too much wax in the seam between the slates which expands and contracts with the temperature. I used a warm clothes iron to flatten the wax before playing - not good for the felt but it will provide a quick fix until you can have some of the wax removed.
 
Wax

Years ago I had a similar ridge problem caused by exposure too the sunlight.

If u can do as the last post said that is good.

Another option is to 'tap' the wax. It's soft and you can minimize the heights of the ridge. I used to tap one ball with another to flatten the wax. Tap softly!

With patience. It can be reduced.

Msrk griffin
 
socket

Had the exact same problem.The temporary fix I used was to find yourself
a half inch drive socket, (3/8 will do, just use a the biggest one you have) roll it over the raised wax with as much pressure as you need. Worked like a charm with no ill effects to the cloth.
 
You may be able to shim the lower slate up from under the table with a wood wedge and a light tap.

This has happened to my GC also, (slate that is ... never felt it was wax) anyway the best cure so far before installing the cloth is to use a playing card or something similar between the slates in three spots ... side, middle . side. and glue it with superglue and a dab of accelerant to speed the drying process. No more slate shifts.

Ask in the mechanic's forum ... they know the technique better than I do.
 
>>Had the exact same problem.The temporary fix I used was to find yourself
a half inch drive socket, (3/8 will do, just use a the biggest one you have) roll it over the raised wax with as much pressure as you need. Worked like a charm with no ill effects to the cloth.<<

i love this idea! sounds like the right scale of "fix" for the temporary problem -- and my socket set is in the next room!

i'll give this a try first to see if it's good enough for the purpose -- then escalate if needed.
 
wigglybridge said:
>>Had the exact same problem.The temporary fix I used was to find yourself
a half inch drive socket, (3/8 will do, just use a the biggest one you have) roll it over the raised wax with as much pressure as you need. Worked like a charm with no ill effects to the cloth.<<

i love this idea! sounds like the right scale of "fix" for the temporary problem -- and my socket set is in the next room!

i'll give this a try first to see if it's good enough for the purpose -- then escalate if needed.
Click to expand...

That's the best answer, but I use 2 deep well sockets with a board on top of them and roll them back and forth like a like a steam roller back and forth.
 
Wax vs bond the forever debate. I just redone my 4.5x9. I used wax last time. Before then, bondo and so on. The wax tends to change over time. I use pure beeswax. When I lifted my cloth this time and stared to remove the wax i could see it had become slightly brittle. My seams are very tight between each slate, less than .010" clearance. I used bondo this time. And now that i have been back and forth between wax and bondo for over 40 yrs. I will always use bond. It is simply more stable.
 
3andstop said:
You may be able to shim the lower slate up from under the table with a wood wedge and a light tap.
Click to expand...

This is the fix I'd recommend trying first. Ironing could ruin the cloth if there's lots of wax in there, and if the slate has shifted you're still gonna have one side higher than the other no matter how much you roll the wax out.

I had it happen to mine several times (installer used Durham's water putty instead of wax) and carefully wedged them flat again. When we finally took the cloth off I was surprised how little they were out. Didn't seem like more than a few thousandths off, but it definitely affected the path of a slow moving ball.
 
i did what Clamb and Glen suggested, and rolled it out with a socket, and that did a good enough job to get me through the next couple of months. there is still a tiny ridge there, but the ball no longer makes any noise going over it. if i roll a ball slowly at an oblique angle across it, it does diverge a little bit, but it doesn't seriously effect shots that i'm making across it.

and as i said, i'm a straight pool guy from the word go, so if i'm spending much time at that end of the table, i'm doing something wrong and deserve whatever i get!
 
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