I have been out to a Private house near Melton Mowbray today to dismantle a 9ft Titan snooker table
Our client bought the table Brand new 7 years ago and it has not been moved at all in that time.
The only reason it is being dismantled is because of a new Carpet going down and some plaster work to one wall .
Now I have seen some speed fitting cowboys in my time but lets just look at the photo’s to see what this fitter did wrong and what he missed out of the build .

All looks well from above during dismantle , this is a 5 section slate bed 9ft table by Titan of Liverpool and branded as a Titan table
I have worked on this design of table many times in 9ft and 10ft to full size table. I have seen identical tables from Riley and also imported chinese tables that look identical

Not long into the dismantle and I have found the first cowboy speed fitting attempt of stapled on cloth , Bed cloths on snooker tables should always be tacked on with 5/8th sized cloth tacks
note the screws sticking through the tack lining wood !

the reason those screws are showing through the wood of the tack lining  is because of the  very thin 3/8th inch thick board cladding wood used as a wood tack lining . tack linings are normally 5/8th by two inch .

cloth off and two slates removed and we find the most shocking part of this speed fitters work , NO CROSS MEMBER and NO center slate muntin’s

Looks like this fitter left the center cross member back at the warehouse , and just put the bolts in so the customer would not know the difference without looking upwards underneath he would never know.

All the slates off and you can now see the frame has no inner woodwork , this is very shoddy workmanship .

As an example this is a 8ft table with what should be in the center of the frame , a bolted in cross member and adjustable muntin’s
these support the slate and keep the frame solid and not rocking .
I would like to say I have never come across such shoddy work before , but I am afraid I have witnessed another table set up without these cross member’s or adjustable Muntin’s .
here is photo’s of that table that was set up without muntins but has the cross members  , also note it is the same type of table with those reeded legs

we are due to go back in a few weeks time to set the 9ft table back up. I will make a new center cross member and make new muntins plus fit 4 adjustable brackets .
Photo’s will follow when we carry this work out .
If you require quality workmanship when having a table set up without the risk parts deliberately missed out like this one or badly fitted slate tack linings and stapled on cloth,
as I say to all my clients and to the fitters who complete such shoddy work the Camera never lies.
and if I see this shoddy work I will expose it .
I would also like to say one of the cushions was very loose and the customer was complaining of a dead cushion rebound . we will of course always hand torque up bolts after using drill driver .

Today I returned a set of cushions that I had spliced a bit of wood on one cushion end to repair a large piece that had come out from a previous re-cover by another firm and a large tack that forced it out .
This was a table that had seen some serious play over the years in an Army Officers mess .
The Oak orme and sons table had splintery wood that was really bad .
So after splicing in the new bit of oak , I decided to help them out by giving the cushion capping three coats of varnish FREE of charge while I had them in my workshop  , I would have had to touch up the new spliced bit of oak so decided to give all the cushions three coats to seal in the flaking oak wood work and stop splinters getting into trousers when rubbed on the side of the table.
Now the Finnish is not top class because if they required a total re-polish of the cushions it would have cost them around £300 extra so free is free and I am sure they appreciated the gesture of three coats of ronseal satin-coat varnish
I just Dark oak stained and used wire wool to fine sand the varnish between coats , the grain was very coarse and it did the trick and sealed in the woodwork.

the square spliced bit of oak inlaid into the top capping of the end cushion, the previous fitter had used a large tack to tack the cloth to the end of this capping and had split the wood , I use very fine staples which do not damage the woodwork

this officers mess has two tables , the second one also requires a re-cover which I hope to get the work for later on if they like the work that I did to this table.

although I was working to a tight budget for this table , I managed to squeeze into the work a new set of leathers
The varnished wood is not my usual top quality re-polish but I only did this to seal the wood in and help them out , I had other work on so three quick coats of ronseal satin coat was all the time I could give to this job for FREE.

all set up level and ready for play

I have had to replace one cloth due to it being ripped and now another in the space of just a few days of the opening of this local club.
I did not carry out the re-covering of any of the tables in this establishment , but I have found two reasons why these cloths are very easy to rip while playing snooker
first reason , the tables where re-covered around 12 months ago way before the club actually re-opened, so are due for a re-stretch of bed cloth , the table cloths will slacken off over a 12 month time period and are due to be stretched .
but the other reason is more alarming in that the fitter who carried out the re-covering of these tables have not put enough tacks in ,
the spacing down the side of the tables are 10 to 12 inch apart which is shocking work and would cause the cloth to be slack from the first few days as the cloth will have not have enough tack down places to make sure the cloth stays tight ,
I am not going to name names of which firm carried out the re-covering 12 months ago , but here are a few photo’s of why the table cloths are slack and ripping easy from cue stabbing.

A photo taken from under the table , we found only a few tacks on the side of the cloth and these where spaced out 10 to 12 inch apart , the cloth would become very slack between these tacks

As can be seen I did this to every table and found the cloth to be alarmingly very slack to the touch , so much that if you rub your fingers down the cloth it rucks up in front of them as pictured in the photo.

This photo of one of the re-placed cloths , showing my tacks are anchoring the cloth down every 5 inch at least , in this case every 4 inch .

this is what will happen if a cloth is not tight enough , I know this can happen even on very tight cloths but it is very rare , tight cloths tend to just result in a cue stab
Slack cloths almost always end up with a L shape rip like this one
I am sorry to say for this club Manager who has successfully ran another club and also played snooker for many years , that the clubs tables are in need of every table cloth re-stretching ASAP
Without the table bed cloths being tightened back up due to not fitting tight enough by putting enough tacks in and also the time scale of re-cover to opening the club of 12 months , these snooker table’s are going to all end up with torn bed cloths.

We have re-visited the Baulkline snooker club just up the A50 from Derby
This time we re-covered the other table to bring it up to a good playing standard for a competition that they are running in July.

Myself stripping the cushions of old cloth and carefully removing the cloth retaining slips.

this two table venue is something different , rather than the noisy music and loud banter you get with multi tables clubs this is run on quietness being the main object ,
A more relaxed way to play snooker or billiards , the tables are bookable on line .
Very warm in winter the club has excellent heating system

The finished table , both tables have now been re-covered in Best West of England Strachan Tournament 30 oz cloth

Not many people know this , but it is recommended that you have the bed cloth re-stretched tight after 12 months of having a new cloth fitted.
the reason is to speed the table up as a tight cloth has extra speed over one that has slackened off a bit
the other reason is cue stabs can cause a L shape rip in slack cloth , the cue tip can dig in and ruck up loose cloth , tight cloth tends to glance a cue tip off with the only damage being done is some nap removal but no rips.
here is a table we have just re-tightened the cloth on after 12 months.

Can you spot the unusual design on the end cushions of this table ?
The answer is 8 bolts instead of 6 , not many of these tables around
the manufacturer Padmore’s of Birmingham used to state you get a better bounce from 8 bolted end cushion rather than the normal 6 bolted type.

Padmore’s are now incorporated into Thurston after Clare’s of Liverpool , Padmore’s of Birmingham and Thurston of London algimated ,
today they have used the oldest name within that group to trade under which is Thurston’s

This Full size snooker table is located in a village hall near Burton on Trent Staffordshire
by having the cloth re-tightened the table is now playing faster and the level was also checked and adjusted.

I have been over to Derby county training Ground complex to re-cover and supply some balls and cues .
They have two pool tables the main one is for the players this table was having problems with the ball runs inside the table being broken
I replaced all 6 ball runs and this has now sorted the missing balls inside the table scenario.
The cloth they chose was in Club colors of Black.
The whole complex was being given a new coat of paint and the cabinet of this pool table was also painted black , it used to be light Oak finish

The black cloth is not one that is normally asked for , but we did supply the club with two packs of Black chalk , this is because if they carried on using blue or green chalk the cloth would have looked a mess.

White walls Black doors and carpet with matching black table and Black Strachan super pro speed cloth .
we could have supplied a white ram logo in the cloth from our Artscape cloth supplier but we did not have time to organize this for them due to they required re-cover in short space of time  , but maybe next time ,
Artscape cloth is not low cost though as the extra work of imprinting designs doubles the price of a re-cover .

We have just re-visited another local club that have GCL Billiards maintain their cue sports tables
it was not long ago that I was here recovering 3 other pool tables so the 4th one has been brought up to a good playing standard too.
Stapleford cue club has been trading for many years in Nottingham and Derby shire border .
they have a regular clientele and many pool teams play out of this club and they expect the best cloth and tables to play on .
There is a very good ambiance about this small /medium sized club , many large clubs just do not cut the mustard , in winter there is good heating and in summer Air conditioning
Bar meals are available too .

the finished table , re-covered in Strachan 6811 cloth all the pool tables are tournament,standard Supreme winner the choice of Professionals .

we do not do half a job , we also vac out all the dust in the cabinet under the slate

The cabinet is now also clean inside ,

We also wash down the ball rails , this stops balls sticking inside the table .

and we then check and adjust for level
I have been visiting Stapleford cue club repairing and maintaining the cue sports tables for over 30 years .