Category Archives: News

Looks like April May and june are going to be Busy

We have had two enquiries for work to do in two large snooker clubs and I have just had confirmation to go ahead and do this . one of the club’s having another sister club not too far way too .
We have mainly UK pool tables to do in one club and a couple of snooker and a few American pool tables. this is in east Midland area .

The other club requires 7 Full size snooker table recovers and a couple of uk pool and also american pool .
It’s sister club will require work later in the year as i have already carried out three recovers at this club within the last 9 months . Both these clubs in the south midlands area .

We have had an influx of work recently which involves re-rubbering the cushions on full size tables , and these are all separate job’s we have taken in
one set of full size for a job we have coming up in clitheroe  , another in Ashbourne , another in Cambridgeshire, another in Derbyshire .
Re-rubbering is one area that I really have to use my knowledge and skill of time served Billiards fitting , many DIY people think they can take this job on , and I have seen some awful attempts trying to replicate the skilled work of a Time served billiards fitter.
To the point that the rubber is scrap after the DIY attempt , and the person then phone’s me up to do the work as they just have not had the training to do this skilled work  , I was taught by three Fitters to re-rubber , I used a bit of all their methods and skills  and added my own part into that learning too .
I allow a full day to re-rubber a set of cushions , I may get time if  I have more than one set in the workshop to glue another set on to give me a head start the next day if I have two sets in to do , but I like to re-rubber one day , leave overnight and re-cover the cushions the following day .

If I am doing the re-rubber work on the table then I can get better results in accuracy as working in the workshop away from the slate you have to rely on measurements and not visual accuracy as seen in the above photo.

The undercut is just as important as the radius

a set of Northern rubber  being glued on the glueing board before attaching to cushion block

A set of cushions that have just been re-rubbered and the angles shaped to size , they are now ready for the skilled part of hand rasping and sanding to final accuracy of pocket opening and undercut.

all northern rubber will carry a date of manufacture on , in the form of a white printed stamp mark , there is also moulded raised lettering on the under L shape the words Northern rubber
 Avoid low quality chinese rubber in red or black , this has a canvas backing and no Northern rubber lettering on it .

Above a  right way and a wrong way to undercut the rubber , which would you choose ? both done by billiards fitters , one who just rushed it . Click on the photo’s to enlarge to get a better view.

From first cut , to undercut , to hand finishing by rasp and sanding , and the type of quality of rubber used
If you require your snooker table cushions re-rubbering , then contact Geoff at GCL Billiards for the skilled work that it takes to carry this out . 07753466064 or email c.large@btinternet.com

Work is piling up and due to a little illness I am 3 days behind in my schedule.  Today is my 60th birthday, but that did not stop me from taking more work on.  A dismantle of table in the cotswolds, the owner having just sold his house for £4.75 million.  And what a place it was with indoor swimming pool, Cinema room, Gym room and snooker room, and that was just in the basement which had a lift for access, so we were very thankful having the lift to get the slates back upstairs.  I have worked in some very nice places but this one is going to stand out as the best designed one that I have worked in, smack in the middle of the Cotswolds, with plenty of land around it.

You can see from this video tour in German  of how the house was built in the cotswolds and the vast size of the plot and house  , it will amaze you , and what you see above ground there is even more space under the building where the games area was also located . the House was made in Germany and erected in the cotswolds . the owner is Igor , who you can see in the video in the Brown jacket , an nice guy to meet , he is now downsizing , he informs me that the house is now sold to a very young person in his mid twenties , who is in the sports supplement business for weight lifting .
Sadly he is more into weight lifting than snooker and wants the entire snooker and ground floor area to house his vast Keep fit machine collection .  even though there already is a Gym area most of us would be proud of !

The Riley Viceroy loaded , this is a very heavy table with good thick welsh slates and solid oak frame and solid oak  inner frame , they do not make them like this anymore.
Note that we put the slates beyond the back axle , We do this because it would be illegal to have them sitting on the back axle as the weight limit on that axle is just 1 ton = 1000 kg  , although the carrying capacity is over 1650 kg , the load has to be spread around , if we where caught with the above axle weight load limit exceeded it could be a very expensive fine and points on the Drivers license.
we like to get as much forward of the rear Axle as possible .
for years we used to load with slates at the rear for ease of loading and unloading , but where advised it was the wrong way to load because of weight distribution not even  , so having taken this advice on board we now load to be legal . it is much better to drive with weight forward of the axle , and less wear on suspension  and steering , so good for the Vehicle.

I am fully booked out for April , and I am hoping for a little slack as the weekends are getting involved with my work too .

But hey that’s life one minute your slack then the next your too busy , still got to get my investment back for the van , so removal of snooker table’s is one area I am looking to increase work in .

We have moved a few tables for clients either buying or selling snooker tables using Ebay as the selling format .
some of these people also include GCL billiards in the advertisement as a Billiard firm that specialise in the art of dismantle , Transport and re-erection of the table.
As well as our own web site which we let sellers use to advertise their tables as another way of getting their table to the Market , we also recommend they use ebay to give a double prong attack of selling.
You cannot put a direct web site link or email link to GCL Billiards in the advert on Ebay , but you can put GCL Billiards and the telephone number 07753466064 , for any buyer to get a quote for relocating the snooker table .
And for example here are a few photo’s of tables on ebay from 99p to just under £500 that are currently for sale as we speak .

This one located in sheffield from 99p start price.

This one in Lichfield from £100 start price

this one in nottingham from £200 start price

A titan table with what looks like steel block cushions on it from just £400

here is one I dismantled for a Client in chilwell nottingham from £450

and one in York for £500 or swop for pool table .
Any of the above tables and any other you wish to choose from the selling pages of Ebay , we would be happy to quote for any Table relocation
Geoff Large is a  Billiard fitter with 40 years personal experience , not a made up of say 10 years from one fitter and 20 from another and two at 5 years to get to 40 years as some firms like to tot up to mislead their experience , but 40 years time served for one fitter .
We have experienced labour too to help us move tables , and the right Vehicle to also load neat and well wrapped up , we also offer a bubble wrapping service if the table is not being set up for a while so as to store all parts dust free and also to protect against damage .
we can also store in heated Dry warehouse in nottingham through our own storage agent Jonills removals which also includes Insurance .

A table being stored on site for a client , from main house to lock up container in his own Garden .

in the container , stacked nice and neat

A table loaded onto Van , all polished surfaces are protected by blanket wraps

This Van is the correct size to carry 1658 kg load , Legally , there are many vans out there that are actually overloaded and illegal  when carrying Full size snooker tables and all tools plus up to three people.
the long wheelbase version of this medium wheelbase actually carries less weight, it is things like this that Geoff has taken on board to make sure GCL billiards are within the law when out on the road carrying full size snooker tables . A set of italian slates weigh 1000kg , welsh around 11oo to 1200 kg depending on thickness , a Burroughs and watts steel block cushion with steels and three men and tools is about up to the legal limit with around 50 kg to spare .
It is important things like this that GCL billiard take on board to make sure your treasured snooker table arrives safe and sound .
So recommend GCL billiards for any Ebay Snooker table sale, and your table just may get more enquiries knowing that they do not have to look and search for a table fitter when one is at hand and mentioned in your advert , and we have many happy ebay buyers who have used us to relocate their table.

Link to ebay Full size snooker listings

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR3.TRC1.A0.H0.XFull+size+snooker+table&_nkw=Full+size+snooker+table&_sacat=0&_from=R40

I have been very busy recently offering a re-rubber service of pool cushions .
Many pool tables have the red rubber which quickly turns soft then rock hard and starts to crack .
the problem is the red dye in the rubber makes the rubber turn by Ozone attack , black rubber tends to resist Ozone deterioration much better
you can read more about Ozone rubber deterioration here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_cracking

Although the red rubber on this clients set of cushions had not gone Hard , they had started to lose their rebound value .
the old set of Red/pink s been taken off , the new set of rubber glued shaped and end pads refitted , ready for a new re-cover in Royal blue Strachan super pro pool cloth .

an example from a past re-rubber , the red rubber is that hard and stiff it is like a piece of wood , the black rubber is floppy ,
click on the photo to enlarge to see that the red rubber is also cracking

another set of cushions stripped of rubber ready for the new Black rubber to be applied.
If you have a table that has lost it’s bounce or the cushions feel hard , it may be that just one or even half of one cushion has gone hard .
You have to replace all 6 cushions as the other 5 will not be far behind .
Contact Geoff at GCL billiards for a complete refurb of your pool cushions and cloth .

A new client that was let down from their usual Billiards and snooker contractor not showing up .
We where very pleased to get this local club into our portfolio of local club’s for regular work .
We know the importance of securing local work before moving onto work further afield .

The table is a Karnheim & Hillman tulip leg manufactured around the late 1980’s .

There was a problem on this table , in that the slate joints would not align up good , we had to feather the slate joints to make good for no joints to show through the cloth .
We achieved this by skimming the joints with soft sand car body filler , then sand with a block of wood to feather the filler to a fine edge .
just like what a car body restorer would do if you had a dent that was pulled out , he would fine fill then feather sand the edge into the bodywork for a seamless finish .
Above you can see the filler has been applied and is now curing before it was sanded out .

The finished table , Brushed and ironed and not a slate joint in sight!
The committee where delighted as they have had a problem with the slate joints for years with no solution to a fix .

They where that delighted that they bought two Peradon fitted Dust covers from me .
I also pointed them them in the direction of New lighting which they bought direct from the wholesaler and then got me in at a later date to help put them up .
the new lighting uses 4 x 58 watts high frequency tube lights = 232 watts per table . and just £2 per tube if one went
The old lighting , which where recessed spot lights 8 per table and 150 watts a screw in bulb  =  1200 watts per table and the bulbs where £7.50p and not available locally .
As you can see the saving on electricity was Huge  at nearly 1000 watts used per table more , it was like having an Electric fire on !
the cost of the new lighting and labour to fit will be clawed back in saved Electricity within a year easy .

This week started off with a Pool table recover for a special needs childrens day centre .
The staff where highly delighted that I was able to recover their very old Second hand pub Pool table .
The table although past it’s best did scrub up well .

Today I made the second visit to finish the work I had started a few weeks back .
Our client had a water pipe burst and the entire house on all three floors where affected.

a few weeks ago we visited the clients House to dismantle and store on site a 8ft snooker table , we also recovered the cushions on take down to make our return visit go much quicker.
I got the approval from the Insurance Company after sending the quote to proceed with the work .
The carpet fitters had fitted a new carpet and today we where to assemble and fit the new cloth .

The empty room

One major improvement that we recommended was to fit adjustable brackets for the under supports to make sure they supported the slate
we left out the central dowel supports and cut the dowels off them to re-use as floating supports .
We then fitted 4 adjustable muntin brackets over the top of the dowel holes in the inner frame wood work  , so we could adjust the slate support upwards in the centre of the table .
This added work will improve the table and make any slate sagging very easy to adjust back out . All tables should be retro fitted with these type of brackets , for a low outlay it guards against slate saging and makes for easy rectification if it should occur , by simple 1/4 turn of each bolt the slate is eased back upwards until accurate Level again.

the client paid for the brackets work as an extra which will make sure the slate bed will not sag down in the centre .

as can be seen the two centre bearers are now fitted before the 3 section slate is put back on the frame .

The finished table with New Strachan 6811 Tournament cloth fitted and the improvement of adjustable slate bearers.

Our client was a bit concerned that we would not travel to leeds to do the work , But I did explain that GCL Billiards are located at junction 25 of the M1 and only 75 minutes away .
apart from a little added cost for fuel it was no different to doing one 30 minutes away.
but we also travel much further , GCL billiards have done work from Cornwall to Scotland and in mainland Europe.

we are Insurance company approved having carried out work on Cue sports tables for a few insurance companies to full satisfaction of client and insurance company  , and carry the NBSA approval also.

so if your table has had  a mishap and you have to claim on your house Insurance for work on your Cue Sports Table  please ask for GCL billiards to quote direct to your insurance company .

we supply full letterhead quotes and invoice’s .