I have been over to Derby to adjust the pocket openings on a riley Aristocrat
The old openings where 3.3/8ths at the fall which is too tight
My clients friends where reluctant to come round and play on his table .
This was the problem , these templates would not fit into the openings at 3.3/8ths at the fall
after carefully unstapling the cloth on the corner pockets I put the cushions back onto the table in the correct place , using a centre template to centre the side cushions up .
by carefully taking the staples out I peeled the cloth back to reveal the rubber openings
I then placed the corner template over this and traced around it , then cut the slivers of excess rubber away , around 1/16th each side .
the middle pockets where ok and fitted my centre templates perfectly
After trimming and rasping and sanding the angles , I carefully turned over and re stapled the cloth back on
this photo is of the under cut template showing a perfect fit to align perfectly with the slate fall
The corner template is now a perfect fit in all 4 corner pockets and a shade over 3.5 inch , the balls are much more inclined to fall now and the jaw rattle is reduced ,
a ball is a little forgiving when resting in the jaw and is inclined to fall in but only just , before they where almost impossible to fall in if slightly rattled on entry to fall , I have not made these openings massive like some club tables you play on , they are what I call just above pro size pockets by about 1/32nd of an inch .
the worst thing you can do is expect normal players to play on very tight pocket openings they will just walk away from that type of table as the game is no fun for them , by slightly opening the pockets up they will start to build more confidence and make higher breaks .
I have been adjusting a few tables recently to have slightly larger pocket openings . some require pockets openings at 3.3/4 wide but most go for 3.5/8ths , this one is between 3.5 and 3.5/8th .
The table finished and ready for play , the room that this table is locate at is above some industrial units in Derby , my client rents the room out to include all electricity , he has a toilet and fridge and tea making facilities.
It is one way of having a few mates round for snooker without having to wait or booking of a table as in a snooker club location .
so if you do not have room for a full size snooker table at home then consider renting a room like this unused office space above a normal running garage business which would only store rubbish in it .
It is a win win situation for both Garage owner and Snooker fanatic .
the work is fiddly and very time consuming as you have to take it steady and carefully cut and check before rasping and sanding , this is not a DIY job and you should refer to a qualified Billiard Fitter for this very experienced hands on work
