Two days work this Friday and Saturday to complete a re-rubber and re-cover of a full size snooker table in Loughborough, we have been really busy and this job has been on hold until this week as we could just not fit it in , so we put a Saturday into the job to complete it .
The table is a Riley square leg that the owner bought with the property , the last recover was done in very poor unstamped no brand cloth , the slate joints where showing through the cloth , and the table was out of level , the pocket leathers where also worn and showing brass pocket plate that the balls where getting chipped as they where striking the pocket plate.
First job was to strip down the table and inspect for any faults , there where two that stood out , no6 cushion has a loose cushion rubber block and the slip was nailed in making the block come away from the cushion body , a loose rubber block will cause a dead spot on the cushion and the slate joints where bad , we removed the rubber and screwed the block back onto the cushion body , then we re-rubbered the table using Genuine Northern rubber made in Retford Nottinghamshire .
as you can see the two photo’s above , the block has a gap at the rear of the cloth retaining slip rebate slot , after the gap is now closed up as we screwed the block back on to the cushion body using 2 inch screws every 8 inch .
the above two photo’s of the re-rubber in process , the blocks have been stripped of all rubber and the new rubber is being attached using good quality contact adhesive , the next process was to cut the new angle at the middle and corners from a template for 3.5/8th wide at the fall , and to undercut but leave a flat face on the rubber into the pocket opening , we take great care in getting the rubber to be smooth and flawless on the pocket openings . the single staple is just a precaution to stop the rubber coming off the block in the back of the pocket opening as we part remove the rubber to tuck cloth behind it , we then use a 2 inch cloth tape to stick to the top of the rubber and the block , this will help keep the rubber inplace when players sit on the cushion , which they should not do but it happens.
The new angles have been cut and the cushions re-covered , a ball in the corner opening shows the distance of the space between the jaws which is 3.5/8ths at the fall , the new pocket leathers will now protect any new set of balls that our client wishes to use.
the slate joints on strip down had a large step from one slate to the next , after levelling this was reduced , but was still a problem on one half of the joint , so we feathered the joint with car body filler , when sanded down this gave a perfect slate joint , and now no slate joints will be visible in the cloth , it was that bad before that ball would roll down the joint rather than over it . the table is now playing very well and the level is very good , as is the speed of the Strachan 6811 tournament grade cloth .
The finished table , our client spent a good amount having the table renovated to this standard , He used to go down the snooker club to play , but now will save a few £s playing at home , the average spend per visit to a snooker club is £30 per person for a nights session of snooker and drinks @ £6 per hour , say twice a week in winter once in summer , so around £45 per week x 52 = £2340 , a pack of 20 beers from a supermarket is £15 x 52 = £780. looks like our client is going to save himself a few bob.