10 yr Non pool player table mechanic, travels with his wife in their Benz high top van.
Works For the Diamond factory, does side jobs and complete room set ups for Diamond.
Ft Collins man.
Who is the BEST mechanic in the US????
- Thread starter Rospaw1966
- Start date
Works For the Diamond factory, does side jobs and complete room set ups for Diamond.
Ft Collins man.
This is true. I learned to do tables for this reason. A person with mechanical ability and some patience can often do a better job than a person with limited ability and/or limited pride in their work, regardless of their experience.
However, I will say that experience and care is needed for tables to play and look the best they can. I've covered a whole bunch of tables since I started, and I am still improving with each one I do.
If you have the $$$, and access to a real PRO, it's well worth it.
Glen Hancock, the Cobra, is the best. He re manufactured my Brunswick Anniversary with 42 balance points. Absolutely amazing table. Probably the best in the world. Too bad everyone that wants him can not have him set up their table. He is not rich but he is in demand. Dennis Whitaker, now in Sun City, Palm Desert, Ca..
I trained David in how to work on Diamond tables and in rebuilding rail. After which I recommended he work for Diamond. I spoke with Diamond, and they hired David to be a sub contractor for them. David still owns his own billiards business, and still sub contacts for Diamond. He's very meticulous in his work, and very patient. I still talk to David quite often. He has since bought his own 18 wheeler tractor and short trailer and spends a lot of his time delivering and setting up Diamond tables, and less time working on them.
JC
Coos Cues
Which is why I decided not to recover my own table this time around and hired someone better.
Sounds like a simple thing but in some locales hiring someone better than you can do a lot of things is no simple task even if you can afford it.
Here's my take on who's the best. First of all, 99% of all work done on pool tables is installer work, such as moving and setting up pool tables. Installing cloth, leveling tables, replacing cushions, all those things related to instalation work.
There's no schools or training available from manufacturers, so 99% of everything learned is on the job learning, but trial and error.
Installers fall basically in two categories, those who just get the job done and are ok with their work, and those that are not only getting the job done, but are also trying to learn how to improve their skills, either by self examination, or learning from others that they know do better work than they do, role models so to speak.
When it comes to being a pool table mechanic, or technician, that's a completely different story.
Table mechanics work with a different kind of mind set. They're not to worried about how long the job takes to get it completed, they're more concerned with making the table play better than it did when it was presented to them to work on.
Take Mark Gregory for instance. His biggest desire with pool tables is to not only max out their playability, but to build out the tables he rebuilds to look like an ART piece, and create a WOW factor when you look at or see one he's done.
Does that mean he does better cloth instalation work, or levels the tables he works on better than anyone else, no, absolutely not. When it comes to doing perfect installer work, Mark is not ALONE on that level of work, many others do the exact same level of work. I know of several installers on that same level. Marks rebuild and refinishing work is what sets him apart from most others, but then again, most others don't care about that level of work because its a feast and famine income. But, its also an obsession on Marks level, to the point that he really don't want to work on any other pool tables just to get paid, unless he's hurting for money. And even then, its only to make enough money to get back to doing his art work.
The problem with who's the best table mechanic in this country, is that there is no one best mechanic, because the best mechanics all differ in one way or another, they all have basically perfected different skill level specialties, when is what they get known for.
The public always sees and judges mechanics by looking at the finished product, and seldom ever see what goes into the effort of what it takes to build out that job, from how the cloth is installed, to how the staple work looks on the bottoms of the rails, to how the slates are leveled, and how and what method the bed cloth is installed and how the pockets are finished off, and the final look of them. All the public sees is the finished job, hears what others say about so and so, then votes on who they think is the best, YET, for the most part, when in need of a pool table mechanic, shop around for the best price!
I for one am hard to work with, have no since of time, which is why I don't even bother wearing a watch, and actually have a love, hate relationship with working on pool tables. But, I'm an excellent pool table mechanic, and no matter what table I accept working on, I'm always going to do my best work.
My specialties are thinking outside of the box, bringing about new ideas, and new ways if doing this work. While everyone else has always been content with Installing the bed cloths as they have learned how to, with no real method or pattern to achieve a repeatable outcome, I've always sought out better ways and repeatable outcomes, not being satisfied with just getting the bed cloth installed. Before I started sharing my knowledge openly, there was no one on the planet that could install cloth better than I could. But now look, there's a lot of mechanics stretch indexing the cloth before installing it. They're learning how to glue the cloth down, and not with the use of spray glue. The French fold in the pockets has really caught on, u see its use in lots of other peoples work and pictures now.
This industry is getting better, and I'm hopeful it'll continue to improve.
But who's the best, well thats all up to what the voter knows!
But I know lots of great table mechanics, far more than have been mentioned in this thread!
There's no schools or training available from manufacturers, so 99% of everything learned is on the job learning, but trial and error.
Installers fall basically in two categories, those who just get the job done and are ok with their work, and those that are not only getting the job done, but are also trying to learn how to improve their skills, either by self examination, or learning from others that they know do better work than they do, role models so to speak.
When it comes to being a pool table mechanic, or technician, that's a completely different story.
Table mechanics work with a different kind of mind set. They're not to worried about how long the job takes to get it completed, they're more concerned with making the table play better than it did when it was presented to them to work on.
Take Mark Gregory for instance. His biggest desire with pool tables is to not only max out their playability, but to build out the tables he rebuilds to look like an ART piece, and create a WOW factor when you look at or see one he's done.
Does that mean he does better cloth instalation work, or levels the tables he works on better than anyone else, no, absolutely not. When it comes to doing perfect installer work, Mark is not ALONE on that level of work, many others do the exact same level of work. I know of several installers on that same level. Marks rebuild and refinishing work is what sets him apart from most others, but then again, most others don't care about that level of work because its a feast and famine income. But, its also an obsession on Marks level, to the point that he really don't want to work on any other pool tables just to get paid, unless he's hurting for money. And even then, its only to make enough money to get back to doing his art work.
The problem with who's the best table mechanic in this country, is that there is no one best mechanic, because the best mechanics all differ in one way or another, they all have basically perfected different skill level specialties, when is what they get known for.
The public always sees and judges mechanics by looking at the finished product, and seldom ever see what goes into the effort of what it takes to build out that job, from how the cloth is installed, to how the staple work looks on the bottoms of the rails, to how the slates are leveled, and how and what method the bed cloth is installed and how the pockets are finished off, and the final look of them. All the public sees is the finished job, hears what others say about so and so, then votes on who they think is the best, YET, for the most part, when in need of a pool table mechanic, shop around for the best price!
I for one am hard to work with, have no since of time, which is why I don't even bother wearing a watch, and actually have a love, hate relationship with working on pool tables. But, I'm an excellent pool table mechanic, and no matter what table I accept working on, I'm always going to do my best work.
My specialties are thinking outside of the box, bringing about new ideas, and new ways if doing this work. While everyone else has always been content with Installing the bed cloths as they have learned how to, with no real method or pattern to achieve a repeatable outcome, I've always sought out better ways and repeatable outcomes, not being satisfied with just getting the bed cloth installed. Before I started sharing my knowledge openly, there was no one on the planet that could install cloth better than I could. But now look, there's a lot of mechanics stretch indexing the cloth before installing it. They're learning how to glue the cloth down, and not with the use of spray glue. The French fold in the pockets has really caught on, u see its use in lots of other peoples work and pictures now.
This industry is getting better, and I'm hopeful it'll continue to improve.
But who's the best, well thats all up to what the voter knows!
But I know lots of great table mechanics, far more than have been mentioned in this thread!