Once again we are asked back by this select club with two tables to renovate the playing surface of the 2nd table after just 3 months of renovating the 1st table .
This club is a 50 members only club having just two tables and positioned right in the centre of Burton on Trent .
Table 2 before the renovation of cushion rubber , new cloth and new nets and leathers .
cushions where stripped of cloth and rubber and new UK manufactured northern rubber is the cushion rubber of choice , the best Cushion Rubber in the world for English type billiard tables .
not low cost Chinese imported rubber only the best for my clients , No come backs when useing this rubber it lasts a lot longer then the low cost imported rubber .
cushion stripped of old rubber ready for glueing .
rubber glued all 6 in one go on my glueing board
a bit dusty from cleaning the slates off , the table is ready to have it’s new bed cloth fitted .
the cloth of choice being Strachan 6811 tournament cloth 30 oz .
cloth ready to tack
Bed cloth fitted ironed and marked out and the start of fitting the steel block cushions back on
both the tables are fitted with Burroughs and watts steel block cushions .
but this table is a little older than the other table 1
the old normal cushions have been reused to make up the cushion frieze surrounds
you can just make out under the veneer they have fitted the shrunken bungs in the old cushion bolt holes then covered over with veneer to hide , age and drying out has shrunk the bungs .
side cushions have 5 bolt holes , but the cushion fixings to the back of the steel cushion only have four so they had to make some alterations to the old cushions to make them fit the steel cushions
bungs fitted in old holes then re-drilled out to fit the steels is the way they went
these cushions are slightly longer than the other set of steel cushions on table one .
the other side of that cushion and you can plainly see the smaller bolt hole bung and the new hole further along .
These cushions would have had Billiard brass finger top plates fitted , they have also replaced the entire capping of these cushion to hide the fact that they had these finger plates on and replaced the pocket plates with normal hidden fixed bolt type.
Every table has it’s story and it is little things like this that I can read and explain to clients what work or modifications has been carried out to this pre circa 1895 Burroughs & watts tulip legged table to have the more modern Burroughs and watts patent steel cushions fitted around 1896 onward’s .
You can actually see the difference in capping depth when you look at both tables , table one has thicker wood capping depth and the pocket plates are set further back as they have used new cushion frieze on that 1896 made fluted legged table .
there is actually 1 inch more ball travel over the net from slate fall to hitting the leather of the pocket plate on table 1 to table 2 .
I was asked to try and get table 2 pockets the same as table 1 , I have achieved this at the fall but towards the back it is slightly tighter on table 2 due to different steel cushion lengths , and also centre pocket plate width , and because they used the old cushion surrounds of standard cushions to make this table up to Steel cushions in mid the 1890s .
Table 2 now finished new nets and leathers and new rubber and larger pocket openings .
and new bed and cushion cloth 6811 tournament Strachan all wool cloth .
and the table is now being played on after checking and slightly adjusting the level
I also checked table 1 too .
the balls where just put on in that order for a practice session that one member wanted to do , that is why the reds are all over the place and not around the normal Black and pink area.
I have instructed that both tables will be due a re-stretch of bed cloth around 12 months from fitting .
so I have arranged to visit next August / September 2017 to carry this work out .
I also noted that the cloth tack lining is a little worse for wear , so have also recommended we change the tack linings for new when we do the re-stretch .
they are the original tack linings from 1896 ! so they have lasted a few re-covers .
