We are getting phone calls and emails every day with enquiries for us to buy full size snooker tables.
If you would like to advertise you’re table PLEASE USE Photo’s taken by a digital camera , sending photo’s to us taken with a mobile phone even iPhone’s means extra work for us and we just do not have the time to spend at a PC separating and posting  photo’s from a scrolling photo display sent from a mobile phone .
We have a couple of people looking for tables at the moment one looking for a nice 9ft Table and another for a full size table.

We get inundated with people offering tables for sale but there are less people looking for one .
We match up the seller to the buyer and let them thrash out a price themselves , please take into consideration any work that may require doing to the table when fixing a price ,a table in pristine condition will sell more easy than one requiring work if they are priced the same .
For an example only , We have people asking for £1000 for a table that requires over £1000 spending on it in removal set up re-rubber and re-cover fees , and other sellers asking £1000 for a pristine condition table , which one do you think the buyer would choose to buy ?

We also get on a regular basis a seller who has to move a table on within say a week or two because of a house sale or club close down  , these tables will only go for low money no matter what the condition , the only other choice for these sellers is to try and give the table away free or pay a Firm like GCL Billiards to dispose of it.
GCL billiards do not buy tables themselves , the market has slowed down that much that only a hand full of full sized tables are sold every year , the costs of buying tables in and paying rent and rates on warehouse far out way the profit margin of selling tables therefore many billiard companies do not store or buy tables any more,

Even Thurston the top billiard company in the UK refuses tables every week because they have enough in stock to last a few years yet so why take in any-more.
We do have a Dry storage for tables which there is a charge for if anyone requires a table storing , we use a large dry warehouse for this with no DAMP and the table is insured, if you require a table picking up and storing then phone Geoff at GCL Billiards for a quote.
If you have a 9ft or 10ft  3/4 sized table these are a little easier to sell and often fetch more money than a full sized table. We also move American and UK pool tables.

Don’t forget it is FREE to advertise you’re table on GCL Billiards web site we have thousands of hits from all over including abroad.
Just take around 5 photo’s with a Digital Camera of the table from different angles ,  one of the complete table with all accessories included on the table , one of the leg , one of the scoreboard , one of the light , one of a ball in the corner pocket taken from above the pocket opening .

Please remember to use a proper digital camera and send each photo as an attachment , not as a moving slide show . No Mobile Phone photo’s please .
we also like to have a post code of where the table is and also a price you are asking , if you are not sure of the price we can advise on what is selling what is not and at what price.
other must have info is , the table location  upstairs in a cellar or basement , parking good bad ,  access for large van to back up with no overhanging low trees or obstructions etc .
A table involving stairs is much harder to sell then one that is on a ground floor with easy access and parking for a large van.

we do not get too involved with the buying and selling as we leave that to the Buyer and Seller Direct , but we ask both parties to try and use GCL Billiards as the Firm to move and set up the table.

one last thing although we do not charge for our advertisement , we would like as goodwill gesture a £25 admin fee when the table is sold using a GCL billiards contacted buyer.
this is to cover Mobile Phone and time spent emailing at night time back and forth to prospective buyers.
we are sometimes up past  Midnight attending emails in the for sale enquiring section.

Email c.large@btinternet.com with any photo’s and information you have if you require a free advert placement on our website.
the more tables we have on the site the more enquiries we get about the tables , people do not like looking in empty shop windows , if you have a table for sale place a FREE add you have nothing to lose , and all to gain if  one of the many who look in our for sale section likes you’re table , if it’s not in the shop window to start with it cannot be sold .
What do the buyers get from it , a Table direct from the seller with no middlemen fee,s and direct contact with a reputable time served fitter who can arrange the transport and set up plus any work the table may require .

The last two days we have been dismantling a full size Karnehm and Hillman snooker table  from a large Victorian type house in the Park Nottingham to a small village called Widmerpool some 10 mile away .
unfortunately  my camera battery had ran out for the first part of the move , we had to dismantle the table and take the 5 heavy slates down the first part of the stairs , this was a dog legged steep stair case with very little room for 4 men and the slate .
the second set of stairs was accessed through another part of the building through a rented out flat , this stair case was much wider but had 4 turns in it , this proved just as hard an operation as the not so wide staircase , in fact in terms of difficulty , in 38 years of fitting this one will score in the top 5 worst jobs for getting a table out of a house.
it took us over two hours just to get the slate’s down stairs and onto the van .
we then  wrapped all the wood work up in blankets loaded these on and then transported it the short distance to the new location in Widmerpool which was an old Barn conversion .
We then reassembled the frame and levelled it , the slates where then placed on top , and fine level adjustments made , the joints where sealed with car body filler and slates slightly sanded in so it became one faultless bed of slate with slate linings attached ready for the next stage the following day .
the following day it was decided they would go with the original faded cloth , and maybe have a re-cover after Christmas .
The one surprise was that the table cost the new owner Nothing apart from our fees for moving transporting and erecting  , the previous owner tried to sell the table , but because of it’s double upstairs location finding a new owner proved impossible .
GCL Billiards where not afraid to quote for such a hard removal , we are specialists having the right equipment such as  a slate slide and piano trolleys to make life so much easier when dealing with such heavy objects. the customer did provide two good men though to reduce costs .

This is the Karnehm and Hillman Buckingham model with tulip shaped legs in mahogany and scrolls in the frame work , the thing that stands out with all K&H tables is they have buttons on the cushions and frame where most modern tables have a slide , they are a very well respected table .
the above photo’s are of the table in it’s new location , all the furniture and plants have yet to be moved , the owner is putting 4 large chandeliers above and between those roof A frames .

This week we where contacted by Derby county Academy and training Ground Admin.
The job was a Re-cover of 7×4 Slimline Supreme Prince pool table in the players Canteen area .
on strip down we found that the Cushion rubber had gone rock hard which results in no bounce in the cushion.

here in the first photo, you can see that the top cushion is starting to crack and the rubber is very hard to the touch , 4 cushions where like this with the other two going the same way .

We re-covered the main slate bed in Strachan pure new wool cloth , and took the cushions back to our workshop for new rubber to be fitted and shaped , the next day we had a re-cover of pool table in Mansfield then we returned to Derby county Academy to fit the new rubber cushions back onto the table .

I must say the set up at Derby County is very good , the academy training ground  has very good facilities , I did not let on that I had been a Nottingham forest fan for all my life as where my Sister and Brother’s , but they can at least let me off that as our Father was a Ardent Derby county fan , living on the Nottingham / Derby border you had to choose one team or the other,We chose Forest but my Dad always listened to Derby on the Radio , he was Blinded in a car crash when he was 26 and lived until he was nearly 83 , I do not watch live football any more but do follow all local teams including Mansfield and Nott’s County and Kimberly Town who I used to play for over 20 years ago.
I now watch Live Ice Hockey , and have been a season ticket holder at the Nottingham Panthers since the 1980’s .

We where given the go ahead to start the maintenance of three Full size snooker table’s near Derby last week .
Starting off with one Re-cover in 6811 tournament Strachan cloth , and two re-stretch bed cloths at a later date to be arranged .
the Establishment is a very old Institute , and the inside is like going back in time with it’s Victorian looks .
the table we where working on last week was a Riley in oak , it has had some very shoddy work carried out on it in the past and the cushions are split along the grain of the oak capping’s near the corner pocket plates , on closer inspection we found that large screws had been inserted from the end of the cushion to hold the pocket plate flat lug plate in position , this we think has split the capping surround even more .
We recommend some second hand cushion sourcing at a later date to rectify this problem , in the meantime just a re-cover was required with two replacement nets .

as you can see it was ready for a re-cover as the end cushion was starting to split it’s cloth covering.

this the finished table ,as you can see it was rather dusty from the old chalk dust coming off the old cloth , this floats around and reflects the flash and shows up as spots on the photo as it reflects the flash of each dust particle.

This is an old Burroughs and Watts 8ft Billiards table , this institute was established around 1900 , it would have been a very busy club in it’s day from 1900 to around the 1960s
To find a smaller table like this still in it’s original placement from that time is like finding it in a time warp , you can see they have enough room for three full size but could not get another one in so decided to have a 8ft sized one .
Note all those old cue cases on the wall , this is how it used to be back in the day each member keeping his own cue at the venue in a tin plate cue case hung from a hook on the wall , I have known some very nice collectable cue’s found in cue case’s like these  from such club’s as this one , I have known all 4 walls be covered with such cue cases .

Today I have been over to a mate’s club local to me in Stapleford Nottingham , to install two Winner supreme Pool Tables .
I picked one of these tables up for them last night from Lincoln that they bought off Ebay , and what a cracker they got almost as new , but I had to change the cloth over to Green on both Tables  , the other one was in Red and was very dirty , but this table was only 2 years old and had the newer Die-cast Chrome corner pockets and the newer Black Pearl finish which replaced the Black Ash Finish  around 2 years ago.
the club is going to host some tournament’s now they have 4 Winner supreme Pool tables .
By taking out some seating area to make the pool area larger they still have plenty of cue room around all 4 tables , in fact quite a bit of room !
when stripping down the tables I found that one had excessive spray on glue residue , especially  around the pocket area , if this is left in place then a ball rolling towards the pocket can suddenly slow down on the cloth as it approaches this residue .
GCL Billiards do not use spray on glue when attaching their cloth to the slate , we use hand comb spread contact adhesive , this makes a good bond and the cloth cannot peal off , this happens very often with the spray on glue , cloth will start to come away from the slate normally around the pocket fall areas .
We use acetone or a solvent to take the old glue off the slate , you can see what a difference this makes to the slate , a good clean level slate will perform much better , and because top class tournaments are being played here , we had to get the tables spot on , but we always take this care and attention for any table we do .
If you want you’re table recovering correct get GCL billiards in , we take our time to make sure the work is done right and the customer is happy .
take a look at the following photo’s to see how we went about doing this work in sequence
cushions covered and fitted / removing old glue with acetone / Slate cleaned and lightly sanded to remove dust and fluff . / preparing for New cloth to be glued old cloth is used to protect upper surface as we glue /  New cloth fitted 6811 gold grade Strachan /  tables being levelled  / level is now spot on , slates are perfect now they have been cleaned before fitting of cloth .

the two tables that where both bought off ebay at very good prices , one came from London which the club owner collected, and the other from near Lincoln , the London table is less than 2 years old , it has a different finish to the other three black tables on site , that finish is called Black Pearl and will be the main match table  , this table also has the upgraded chrome corner plates which are metal , unlike the older models which have chrome plastic corner plates and Black wood-grain ash finish , it is easy to spot these newer tables look for raised lettering on the corner plate on the metal type and no wood-grain in the black finish and imprinted lettering of the plastic plates .

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 .

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 .

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.

Once Rubber has been glued the shaping of the pocket openings to template can be cut , then rasped and sanded smooth.

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 .

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

c