Re-rubber / Re-cover George Wright table in Derby plus stretch bed cloth on Thurston metric table .

Today I have repeat business to our client in Derby last year I re-rubbered the metric Thurston table  and stretched this table’s bed cloth , over two days I will be re-rubbering and re-covering a full size George Wright table , and stretching a bed cloth on a Thurston metric sized table , today’s work was to do the re-rubber and the stretch , which we have now completed , tomorrow we will be re-covering the George Wright full size with Strachan 6811 tournament cloth .
here are a few photo’s of the re-rubber work .
Mick lint covered cushion rubber mick lint coming off
Above photo’s show the cream coloured Lint cloth that was fitted on a renovation of the table in 2006 it was also re-rubbered at the same time and a full re-polish of the table , this work was carried out by a fitter that I know , that works to the old methods of covering cushions where a Lint underlay was also fitted , Modern ways of re-rubbering is to fit 2 inch gaffa sticky tape to the top of the rubber after shaping .
The old method is a throw back to what some call Cushion stuffing , this was when no rubber was used on Billiard tables in the early 1800’s , the old method of cushion stuffing was to lay layers of felt in what is now rubber and cover it with a lint then cover with billiard cloth , and the person who did this was called a Cushion stuffer , My fitter Friend who did the last refurb in 2006 , still refers to fitting rubber as stuffing cushions  , I respect his views on this as he like’s to stay loyal to the old ways , and he also still use’s 3/8th tacks to fasten the cloth to the cushion where in nearly all of Billiard fitters for the past 30 to 40 years use staple gun’s when recovering cushions .

here via the link are photo’s of stuffed cushion section and various rubber designs used in the day , and what was to be the first type of cushion rubber used called strip or laminated rubber , you can visit the Norman Clare’s website  to read about the history of table fitting and equipment used .  here is the link to Norman Clare’s web site .   http://www.normanclare.co.uk/normans-lectures/billiard-table-cushions/

I like the fact that there are a few of the old teachings still being practised , and I can show in these photo’s and the Clare link the difference of modern covering of cushions against the old way .
My personal theory on Lint under covering is that the rubber is not being fully used as the double cloth covering absorbs some of the rebound value .Hence why the owners of the table asked for re-rubbering after just 7 years of the last rubber that was fitted .
mick re-rubber ready on board
As can be seen from the next photo , all that lint pulling off has released fibres into the air , and the camera flash is rebounding back off them showing up as spots on this photo.
You can see on the table my Glueing board with the new set of Northern rubber ready for glueing , also the cushions are ready for the blocks to be glued also.
mick corner cut to pen line mick corner cutt and rasp sanded undercut
Once Rubber has been glued the shaping of the pocket openings to template can be cut , then rasped and sanded smooth.
mick rubber date stamp july 2013 mick rubber covered with tape
The above photo’s show the Quality of rubber used , as always we use the best Northern rubber made in Retford Nottinghamshire,
and the other photo shows the cushion tape applied to the top of the rubber and the block , this tape is also bent over into the cloth retaining slip slot , to anchor the tape at the rear, and with the 2 inch tape also bonded to the top of the block and the rubber , when players sit on the cushion it helps keep the rubber fastened to the block , not that you should allow anyone to sit on cushions .
mick metric table restretch bed cloth
This photo shows the metric Thurston table , this was down for a re-stretch , the Metric table is around 1.5 inch smaller than a full size table , this was because they where going to use metric slates , but other firms voted against it , Thurston had around 100 sets of slate on order so had to make a few metric sized tables.
tomorrow I will be adding a few more photo’s of the re-cover on the George Wright Table .
and here they are , a cushion starting to be recovered , the marking out of the bed cloth and the finished table
mick recover cush mick centre line for marking out mick finished table

 

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