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Today we have been up onto the Chatsworth estate’s in Derbyshire to recover a 7ft Billiard dining table in an holiday Farm let near Shottle .

The table Cloth had been ripped around Christmas in two places , the actual order was for a Pool table re-cover , it was not until they sent me a photo that I pointed out it was a Billiard table .
and when I arrived I found out it was a an old Burroughs and watts Billiard diner , but the top boards where missing , the lifters where still in position , but a couple of them had springs broken on them so it was played in it’s low position .

The table before the re-cover

It was a very well made table having large bolts in the cushions rather than the wood screws of it’s main rival manufacturer Riley

The old lifting mechanism , this uses a spring to flip the odd shaped metal object into a V slot on the side of the main body , a very odd design , one that Burroughs and watts came up with to try and steal some of the Billiard dining sales away from Rileys , there are not many of these type of B&Watts tables a round  , I spoke to another fitter today and he had only worked on one , this was the first of this type B&Watts  I had worked on . Both of us have been in the trade a long time so they must be rare !

a centre anti bow bar is fitted , this is to make sure the slate will not dip in the centre , I have come across this on many one piece slated tables , the centre wood is forced upwards when the nut on the threaded bar at each end is tightened .  I prefer my adjustable muntins !

The finished table , the Red  cover looks nice too !
a new set of pool balls triangle and brush , re-tipped the 5 cues and left them some chalk

There are many designs for Snooker or Billiard Dining tables , some having the wind up cranking handle to raise and lower to dining height .
One of the most copied is the Riley lift up sliding locking  bracket system , and on this table it was poorly copied .
the design incorporates 4 lifting mechanisms at each side end , these have a zig zag channel that a pin follows and rests in a top cup for the playing height  , when lifted again the pin is deflected to one side and allows the table to lower ready for dining height and is then ready for the next lift where it follows the zig zag channel again to the raised height .

Not a brilliant system and often jam’s even on the original one’s , but the copies jam all the time  , this table I was working on fitting the fixed height sub frame, was bought from a well known on line retail outlet in Preston  , the table we think was made in china , my client genuinely thought he was buying a good UK made table .

He only uses the table as a dining table at Christmas , otherwise it is in the up position for snooker play , the main problem being the Chinese had just glued wood planking to the underside of the slate and screwed the top end of these adjustable sliding brackets to that , when lifted a couple of times the planking just came off the bottom of the slate , making the whole design useless .
On the original Riley diner , there is two long anti bow bar beams and the sub frame all mortice and tenon jointed and SCREWED to the outside edge of the slate as well as glued to it so no chance of it coming off the slate when lifted up ,  the manufacturer thought that this diner was going to function well with just glueing planks to the under side , well I know two of these tables and both have fallen apart when lifted upwards .
So My advice was to make it a fixed normal height table and use adjustable height kitchen chairs for the one day at Christmas they use it as a dining table .

here are the photo’s of what we did .

We made a subframe the same dimensions as his frame and sprayed it gloss black to blend in with his piano black frame , you do not see much of this due to the overhang of the cushions , so it did not have to be polished to an exact match . You can see the subframe sitting on the lower frame .

Now here is the clever part , we positioned 4 cross supporting muntins that could be adjusted upwards to level the slate , this made for easy levelling of the table with not unsightly toe pieces sticking out from under the legs , we attached the subframe permanently to the lower frame using flat plates and screws , all I needed was a 13 mm socket and ratchet with small extension to go around and level the table , it was so simple to do , and the slate is supported very well with no dipping or bowing .

This is the rubbish we took off the slate , well I say took of it actually fell off . the bag of brass adjusters , I have advised my client to sell these on ebay as a set of 4 for around £50 , they will be OK for a 6ft that has them missing or damaged , but they do not work on a heavy 8ft slate , in fact they are copies of 6 or 7ft lifters , the 8ft ones should be a bit wider than these .

a photo taken from under one end of the new adjustable muntin supports , the lower x members ones are the lower frame tie bars , click on the photo for a larger photo .

The finished table , with brand new re-cover in Strachan 6811 tournament 30 oz , it plays very true , better than some thicker slated tables , the owner is delighted with the result of turning his not so good Billiard /diner into a fixed height table that plays true and accurate .
the old cloth was a thick club cloth , playing on the 6811T is a different game to playing in the rough.

The end shot of the finished table , the sub frame just cannot be seen unless you are down on your knees , so no one is going to know it is there .
Under the table is the table top which is in sections and just covers the table ready for dining off , we recommend you have a plastic sheet to cover just in case someone spills wine and it goes down the gaps onto the cloth .
I have seen all sorts of spills on these type of tables from Gravy to water , so a good cover is a must , and maybe one of those heat pads that is put under the table cloth too .

all you would have seen before is a gap and 4 brass lifting brackets , I think the best way of designing a billiard diner is to have a fixed height diner then use adjustable chairs  , or high chairs , they only need to be around 3 inch higher .

We where contacted a few months ago to dismantle an american 8ft pool table in a downstairs room that had water problems and required re-tanking .
We dismantled the table and got the call to reassemble after the room was made water tight .
We noticed problems with the table on strip down , the bolts in the cushions do no align up and a couple where missing the feet had not been screwed in and secured making levelling almost impossible,  and one cushion having just one bolt in .
the slate also had problems the corner pocket falls had been re-cut by someone , The supplier from new  apparently !

Here are a few photo’s of the table as we dismantled it a few weeks ago .

the above photo’s on take down , notice legs Formica is cracking !

Hammer marks in Formica finish by first re-covering from supplier. there where several cushions with these marks in , caused by the hammering in of cushion retaining slip and not placing the wood tapping block on the slip only , unacceptable workmanship.

Large Chip to end of capping , this flipped off when we took the cushion retaining slip out and we re glued it back on

We upgraded the clients table with a no added charge upgrade for better quality cloth , we prefer to use Strachan Super Pro worsted cloth on american pool tables
The main reason is the burn marks on nylon from impact of balls , is not so pronounced with this worsted mix fibre cloth , and it forms much easier around those deep dish centre pockets , and is made by the No 1 Cue sports cloth manufacturer Strachan at Stroud in the west of England .

The finished table in Strachan super Pro Royal blue , our thoughts on this table is that the customer’s had a raw deal when they bought this table for £2500 Brand new , the table was set up wrong had bolts missing , the outer pockets and frame work where loose with gaps in , and the slate falls are shocking , the slate also had residue of Green cloth before the original red , making the slates second hand and not brand new , the bolt holes for the cushions where slotted , in my opinion the slates where not originally for this table and had been sourced from a second hand other make table and used on this supposed to be Brand New table .

I really feel for the Clients , they have now owned the table for over 10 years so any complaints to the original supplying firm is not going to get much of a response .

We like to think we improved the table , making sure all cushions where secure and no gaps between each pocket plate or lower shroud. and we repaired those loose feet to make levelling easy to do .

We do get these badly manufactured  tables to put right or improve from time to time , and tomorrow we are fitting a sub frame to a 8 ft dining snooker table that has faulty lifting system , visit the GCL Blog  site later this week to see how we are converting this table to a fixed height table by making a sub frame with 8 levelling points with adjustable cross members .

 

Last week we had a few Pool tables that we own and have out on contract hire, and the time had come up for their major work of a re-cover  .
We regularly maintain our hire tables to make sure our clients have a good table to play on at all time’s
We have two different types of contract hire where we re-cover and visit the table in a year , or re-cover twice and  service visit within a year  , we have site’s where there is not much use and others where there is plenty of use .

We sometimes even have to remove the manufacturers over spray before attempting to put new cloth on the slate as was the case on this table having it’s first re-cover from Brand new

If this over spray was not removed , the ball on slowing down to the pocket fall would suddenly roll off or stop , we use hand spread contact adhesive on all our UK pool table re-covers , this makes sure that the glue applied is put on the slate where we want it to go , unlike spray on glueing where you have no control of over spray unless you mask the area off .
and we mean the whole area , ball rails as well , this is why we do not use it , it may be quick but it is not as good as contact adhesive .
we take our time on re-covering and clean all table parts and check for level , sometimes the cabinet Bow’s  in the middle and we have to take the slate out and pack up the centre of the slate by stapling cloth strips to the main long central slate support bearers .  A common problem with most make of tables .

The finished table ready for another season of Pool . We use Best quality Strachan 6811 on all our Pool table hire re-covers .
an upgrade from the original Strachan club cloth that was on it from new . Only the best for our Hire tables  and our Clients !

If you are thinking of getting  a hire table into your premises and you are located close to Nottingham and Derby say within a 20 mile radius   then choose the best firm to supply it and maintain it , we limit our area because we like to keep a good maintenance program , by not having to travel miles to get to our hire tables you can be assured our Hire service is spot on .

You may note that we are also Cue sport table specialists and have no interest in Gaming or juke box hire , we are the best because we know what we are doing on your hire table , unlike most Leisure hire firms we are time served Billiards fitters and recommended by the NBSA as competent fitters within the cue sport industry .
So it may be the case that you are dissatisfied with your leisure firms table hire and maintenance , it may be that you are tied in with the Fruit machines , just ask your Area manager if you can get a specialist hire firm in who would not poach any gaming machine hire rights and would make sure that the table is properly maintained  , we have a couple of hire tables out in managed pub’s  which this was the case . the hire firm where not skilled in the art of good cue sports table maintenance and we where allowed after the none stop complaints from Customers and Managers of the pub’s that they could not have a decent game of pool on loose cloths out of level and old falling apart tables , and we where allowed to hire a table out to them without upsetting the Main Machine operator as we are not interested in the gaming machine hire .
Our aim is to just have a small round of pool tables out there and make sure they are well maintained , we have set a limit of 40 to 50 tables to hire out only , make sure you are one of these well cared for Clients , by contacting GCL Billiards for your pool table hire and maintenance . Our hire rates start at £15.00p per week  for the superb Winner supreme 7×4 pool table as used in major UK tour tournaments around the UK and preferred choice of thousands of Pool players .

Photo’s below are the type of tables we hire out although most go for the satin black version as used on Pro tour’s , there maybe a few that opt for the Supreme Prince table which is a more traditional turned leg version in mahogany we some times stock these and we have a couple of these out on hire , but we prefer to stick to one design of the Superb Winner , They are the same table’s  inside it is only the cabinet design that differs , and Prince tables have a larger span between those turned legs and tend to sag in the middle , another reason why we prefer the winner model.

All delivered and set up ready to earn money .

 

today I have been in Derbyshire at a small club who have a very old cox and yeman full size table .

over the years the cushions have been patched up over and over again , this i think is the last time we shall get away with just recovering the table as the woodwork now has major issue’s

the table , starting to re-cover the cushions


as can be seen from above two photo’s the cushions over the years ( Before my time ) have been hacked around a bit and replacement modern but old type top plates fitted because there is no wood for the concealed original pockets to locate to .

The finished table , with cloth wraps right around the back of each cushion to hide the rotted wood , then screw on back panels no one is none the wiser as to the seriousness of the rotting crumbling cushions . I have suggest they budget for new or decent second hand cushion s to be fitted with new concealed pocket plates , the table is very good for level having good Welsh slates at 2 inch thick , this is something the secretary has taken on board and will now budget for over the next two years , so hopefully the cushions will be scrapped and new ones fitted in the future. Believe it or not these are not the worse case of cushions I have had to re-cover .
THESE WHERE because they still had the two pin pocket plates on which where not supported and sagged down , you can see the above photos that some sort of rebated metal had been put under the pocket to support the plates these had been removed and top plates fitted with new wood cushion cappings , in my opinion not the correct thing to do

this table is 1/2 inch wider than a normal 6 foot 1-1/2 inch table being 6ft 2 inch , this will cause me a few problems when fitting new cushions , as the end cushions will have to be 1/2 inch longer or have more rubber left at the cut of openings at each end to make up for the wider pocket opening , also the pocket plates will have to drilled closer into the table .

thank fully it is dead on 12 foot long slate which is normal.

they have a nice old Life pool scoreboard by Burroughs and watts on the wall which has had some restoration around  10 years ago

the original cox & Yemen badge had been put on the outside panels of the cushions .

Today I had an email asking what type of table is this and had I seen one before

Now the only type of game I  have seen that is like this is Indian carom , which is played with pucks in place of balls , I think this is a ball version of that game being 3ft by 3ft .
the Original puck type Indian carom table is a bit smaller

apparently you have to put a powder on the board to make the pucks travel and glide with ease .
as can be seen a board with four pockets or holes at each corner and a star in the centre , I have seen one of these in a house where I was recovering a 7ft table ,
they used a small mace stick to push the pucks ,

although I think you can use your hand to flick the puck too .
I thought this maybe of interest to readers of our blog as to unusual board games played like a Pool or snooker table .

Has anyone any information of the larger Ball version of this game in the first photo ?

Today I started off in Leicester , a High end Car Dealer outlet required their 6ft Slimline Supreme Prince pool table recovered from Black to Green .
The table had the usual glue on top of slate which had to be cleaned off before any recover could be done .


Above two photo’s of Glue residue with black cloth fluff still in the old glue , and the next photo we had washed it off using Acetone .

With the slate being cleaned of all old Glue on top of playing area , the new cloth is laid out on top of the slate ready to glue

The New cloth has been laid on , the old cloth used to protect the new cloth from any new glue spills ,
**Note we do not use spray on glue , but Contact adhesive . Spray on glue is not the way to re-cover pool tables , if you see someone using it on sited tables then Buyer beware
they will get over spray on the slate top and on the Ball rails and all inside of the table , a sign of  a speed fitter
this table took just two and a half  hours to re-cover a speed fitter may have done it in half the time before moving onto the next unsuspecting Customer !

And we took every Staple out of the cushion’s , speed fitters just take a few out of the end of the cushion , and that’s on a good day !
Sometimes they do not take any out at all .

slate completed ready to mark out and Iron , Speed fitters do not Iron !

the finished Table , this is the slimline Prince model , same top surround and slate and cushions as the more expensive coin op table you would see in Pub’s, but at a lower price.

after this work , I went back to Long Eaton to fit a brand new set of cushions to a 6ft Winner supreme table , and also upgrade the Supreme Plastic gully rails , as the table was 13 years old and on it’s second set of gully rails now fitted with no 3 set fitted .

The super 6 coin mech is much better than the ESD 5 slot type which you can pick up at a very low price , we always recommend fitting the best super 6 coin mech to commercial pool tables they are much better built and last far longer , we make sure our own Rental tables are fitted with them as their is less chance of breakdown . they are around 3 times the price of the ESD but you get what you pay for .
So armed with the coin mech , I then visited a local Pool club to fit a new Coin mechanism set on £1 play . Then back to the office to update the web site blog and also look at work for next week , tomorrow I am recovering a full size snooker table at a British Legion in Derbyshire .
Work is coming in steady , we are not too busy in March  yet  , and hope to fill the gaps in the coming days and weeks , so if you have a Cue sports table that  may require work  , contact Geoff at GCL billiards for a quote .

 

 

Another pool table recover and what a mess under the cloth , you could see a ball rolling down the cushion turning off very bad , the culprit was over spray by cowboy Pool table recoverer .

I always use spread Contact adhesive , and apply it with a toothed glue Comb , I never go anywhere near the playing area with glue .


As you can see from the two photo’s above the spray on glue is proud of the slate and well in front of the cushion overhang
A ball will be rolling all over the place when it has to go over this , why do they use it ….SPEED you get what you pay for ,
they maybe £10 to £20 lower priced than GCL Billiards Quote but this is the result , they take around 1hour sometimes even less to recover a pool table , sometimes just Exchange  old cushions  allready recovered over and then a quick spray on with the glue and bond the cloth on , 15 minutes to cover a slate bed !

The finished table a DPT Ascot .

they are too busy trying to break records to see how many tables they can recover in a day , They are not going to do a good job
I sanded most of the glue down and then used Acetone to remove the most stubborn , before completing the recover , the slate will have no foreign muck under the cloth for the ball to
roll off now .

another job I did  few weeks ago showing Acetone being used to remove Glue over-spray , just look at the old glue being removed ,
if this was not done would the ball suddenly stop when approaching the pocket slate fall ?
And the outcome would be an expensive recover that is not right and they always say when we are in the area to put it right ….don’t get caught out !
Use GCL Billiards as the first choice , we only do two tables a day one in the morning one in the afternoon or three if in the same room and we offer discount’s for multiple table recovering.