Installing rubbers video

[Slasher]

Any pro table fitters ever done a video of installing new rubbers ?

Thanks

[ryanah147]

Any pro table fitters ever done a video of installing new rubbers ?

Thanks

No, and honestly I dont think you will see a fitter doing it.
Talk about taking the bread and butter out of our mouths !!!!

[Slasher]

You must be a union man

[Geoff Large]

I agree with ryanah on this , the day my TV engineer lets me have a video on fixing the TV etc etc .

it take 4 years to train a fitter and another 4 to perfect it on low wages , only then can you realy call youreself a Billiards fitter . lets give all those early years up and let any Tom Dick or Harry take a living away from us .

I used to take old rubber off full size table and take them home with me and rerubber 9ft set of cushions in my home time with the old rubbers , then on monday morning have the senior Billiards fitter inspect and show me if I am going wrong . the same with recovering etc .

not being funny but most of us are paying a mortgage or putting money away for old age etc .
We are not going to jepordise that living by giving too many secrets away .
Rerubbering is one of the most skillfull jobs a fitter has to learn .
Don't expect even with a video to get anywhere near the perfection of a skilled fitter .

Best leave it to the experts .
it will last for around 20 to 25 years before another rerubber if kept in the right tempretures .

[Slasher]

lets see there are videos available on cue building, installing leather wraps, recovering cushions, installing tables etc but installing rubbers is somehow sacred??
Besides that there is not a fitter in this neck of the woods that I would let anywhere near my cushions and I can tell you there are no factory trained fitters within 5000 miles so what is it to you if I do it myself? I am a fast learner, good with tools and just need a few tips, don't wanna help, fine I will figure it out myself anyway.

[Geoff Large]

Problem being if a video was produced as a favoir then you can bet someone will copy it and sell on ebay .
There is a fitter ( note I said fitter and not Billiard fitter ) who sells a DVD how to recover a table and sells cloth with the DVD , not the best of methods in his DVD but close to good if you can understand his scouse accent ( liverpool ) maybe search google and find him to see if he will help in the production of Rerubbering a set of cushions , what damage is this going to do Billiard fitters as a whole , it could well take their livley hood away from them .
All for the sake of this fitter making say £10 per DVD and he sells 500 over a few years gross earnings from this is £5000 , if he showed no one then I bet his gross earnings on his fitting side would be higher than the £5000 he made from a few DVD's .
thats if no one copies the DVD he produced and then sells them for £5 each then £2.50p etc etc .
Before you know it , the whole job of skilled billiard fitting is being undermined by these Video's or DVD's.
No skilled Billiard fitters about because they have been put out of buisness , so very doubtfull if any Fully trained Time served Billiard fitter would just give away his trade and livelyhood so that a DIY person could have a go .
I know that Canada is a very large country and that in some cases Good billiard fitters would not be on hand emediatley in youre area .
but thats the cost of living in such a large country , my job takes me all around europe from the islands of Scotland to Switzerland and France /Portugal /Spain and even the Canary islands .
Producing a DVD or Video and I would prob be emptying Dustbins or working at B&Q diy wharehouse selling tools to people who want to try to RERUBBER their Billiard table .
and Iv'e lost count how many times I have had to put right a DIY job on rerubbering , to the point that the rubbers have to be scrapped and a new set bought again , not saying that some DIYER's can do a decent job of it , but say as much as 90% could not .
I am not saying you should not have a go , but if you want to do a profesional job of it then complete an aprenticship like me and other Billiard fitters who had to .

None of the billiard fitters on this forum would even think about giving up their livley hood even in retirement they would still do the ocasional Recover rerubber table move etc.
I know of Billiard fitters who have reached retirement age and still work full time into their 80s .
how much would it cost to post/ship the cushions to a Qualified billiard fitter in canada for rerubbering ? as stated the table would only require a rerubber every 20/25 years if kept in good 60 deg F tempreture and above .
I think you should be searching Canada or members on here who have had good work completed on their table who live in Canada for recomendations .
at the end of the day 99% of people having a go at rerubbering would not come anywhere near the Quality and Acurracy of cutting those pocket angles , and its all done by hand , you get better as the years go on , I have rerubbered hundreds maybe over a 1000 tables in 35 years , but my method and accuracy of cutting those angles from the First set to the last set I did is very vast in marks out of 10 , my first try would maybe get a 1 for trying , after about 1 year I would be in the 5 or 6 marks out of 10 , I was happy when I could say thats a 9 /10 attempt , but I can say after 35 years I rate myself as 10/10 .could you honestley say you would get above 5/10 if you had a go youreself ? because the type of fitter who produced a DVD maybe even could not get that score himself .
Sorry if I come across Rude in my description of this , I do help as much as I can on this forum in say information on tables and what tables not to buy etc and what tables should be a good buy . but thats a far as I would go in helping forum members , the skilled part of my job is worth keeping to myself , and my junior years on low wages learning the Trade would then not be in vain , and other Skilled Billiard fitters on here would also agree with . :snooker:

[ryanah147]

Problem being if a video was produced as a favoir then you can bet someone will copy it and sell on ebay .
There is a fitter ( note I said fitter and not Billiard fitter ) who sells a DVD how to recover a table and sells cloth with the DVD , not the best of methods in his DVD but close to good if you can understand his scouse accent ( liverpool ) maybe search google and find him to see if he will help in the production of Rerubbering a set of cushions , what damage is this going to do Billiard fitters as a whole , it could well take their livley hood away from them .
All for the sake of this fitter making say £10 per DVD and he sells 500 over a few years gross earnings from this is £5000 , if he showed no one then I bet his gross earnings on his fitting side would be higher than the £5000 he made from a few DVD's .
thats if no one copies the DVD he produced and then sells them for £5 each then £2.50p etc etc .
Before you know it , the whole job of skilled billiard fitting is being undermined by these Video's or DVD's.
No skilled Billiard fitters about because they have been put out of buisness , so very doubtfull if any Fully trained Time served Billiard fitter would just give away his trade and livelyhood so that a DIY person could have a go .
I know that Canada is a very large country and that in some cases Good billiard fitters would not be on hand emediatley in youre area .
but thats the cost of living in such a large country , my job takes me all around europe from the islands of Scotland to Switzerland and France /Portugal /Spain and even the Canary islands .
Producing a DVD or Video and I would prob be emptying Dustbins or working at B&Q diy wharehouse selling tools to people who want to try to RERUBBER their Billiard table .
and Iv'e lost count how many times I have had to put right a DIY job on rerubbering , to the point that the rubbers have to be scrapped and a new set bought again , not saying that some DIYER's can do a decent job of it , but say as much as 90% could not .
I am not saying you should not have a go , but if you want to do a profesional job of it then complete an aprenticship like me and other Billiard fitters who had to .

None of the billiard fitters on this forum would even think about giving up their livley hood even in retirement they would still do the ocasional Recover rerubber table move etc.
I know of Billiard fitters who have reached retirement age and still work full time into their 80s .
how much would it cost to post/ship the cushions to a Qualified billiard fitter in canada for rerubbering ? as stated the table would only require a rerubber every 20/25 years if kept in good 60 deg F tempreture and above .
I think you should be searching Canada or members on here who have had good work completed on their table who live in Canada for recomendations .
at the end of the day 99% of people having a go at rerubbering would not come anywhere near the Quality and Acurracy of cutting those pocket angles , and its all done by hand , you get better as the years go on , I have rerubbered hundreds maybe over a 1000 tables in 35 years , but my method and accuracy of cutting those angles from the First set to the last set I did is very vast in marks out of 10 , my first try would maybe get a 1 for trying , after about 1 year I would be in the 5 or 6 marks out of 10 , I was happy when I could say thats a 9 /10 attempt , but I can say after 35 years I rate myself as 10/10 .could you honestley say you would get above 5/10 if you had a go youreself ? because the type of fitter who produced a DVD maybe even could not get that score himself .
Sorry if I come across Rude in my description of this , I do help as much as I can on this forum in say information on tables and what tables not to buy etc and what tables should be a good buy . but thats a far as I would go in helping forum members , the skilled part of my job is worth keeping to myself , and my junior years on low wages learning the Trade would then not be in vain , and other Skilled Billiard fitters on here would also agree with . :snooker:

Well said Geoff...

Just to add to your post. When I served my apprentiship it was 10 years before I was allowed to tackle re-rubbering. My boss told me that he would teach me 85% of the job, but the other 15% was on a `need to know basis`and at that time according to him `I didnt need to know`. Any rubbering / re-blocking was done when I was out of the workshop. His purpose for that was, should I decide to leave him and branch out on my own, I would not have had the full training, and would be no better than `The Scouse Scally`
There has been an instance about 15 years ago where a pool table operator decided he was a trained Billiards fitter, he did 11 tables in my region... We were called in on 7 of those tables to right the `butchering`he had done.

Ask a Chinese Restraunt owner to give you his recipe for Curry Sauce and he`ll chase you out of it with a meat cleaver, or ask an Italian Terrazzo contractor for `his mix`of the Terrazzo and youll have the Mafia knocking on your door.

No, rubbering to a Billiard fitter is SACRED, and long may it stay that way.

A quote from John Ruskin a long long time ago :

"There is hardly anything in this world which someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and people who consider price alone are this mans lawful prey"

Read my signature... `When you but cheap, you buy twice`

[Slasher]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Secret.../dp/0716020548

http://www.plasma-television-repair.com/?id=jestineycs

Knock yourself out.

The point is 99% of people are not going to do their own rubbers, and for the few that will like you said it is a skill that needs to be learned by experience.
So what does it matter if you learn from a video or on the job, lots of educational material is done this way it still needs the effort to learn it.
And the bonus for you is you get to repair all the botched jobs and take pleasure in saying I told you so.

[Geoff Large]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Curry-Secret.../dp/0716020548

http://www.plasma-television-repair.com/?id=jestineycs

Knock yourself out.

The point is 99% of people are not going to do their own rubbers, and for the few that will like you said it is a skill that needs to be learned by experience.
So what does it matter if you learn from a video or on the job, lots of educational material is done this way it still needs the effort to learn it.
And the bonus for you is you get to repair all the botched jobs and take pleasure in saying I told you so.

But it would be better in the first place not to have a botched job to put right , I prefer working on a job that has no cowboys or DIY person working on it previously , sadly that is about 50% these days .
and a Firm will charge more to put right a botched job than working from good work in the first place .
I also hope you are going to use the Best rubber on youre DIY job , because anything else is just a waste of time and effort .
There is no subtitution for hands on tuition from a Master to an aprentice who is going to continue the teachings of the work as his future .
Good luck in tracking down a DVD or Video from a time Served Billiards fitter for Rerubbering .

Geoff

[Slasher]

having spent many years in the UK and the billiard industry and seen first hand the work of many expert table fitters I can tell you the standard around here is shocking.

[Slasher]

If any table Qualified fitter fancies a cheap holiday in Beautiful British Columbia I will put them up for free* for two weeks, *just help me with the new rubbers

[philip in china]

I totally agree. Even with a heavily used table the actual cost of recovering, rerubbering and any other maintenance is miniscule. Also I bet even the best table with an amateur recover or rerubber wouldn't play well. You just can't learn that sort of skill by watching a video a few times.

[cazmac1]

I think most people who can afford a full size table and a room to put it in are more than likely to have an expert to re-rubber or cloth a table. Most trades are well documented and have videos explaining how to do things step by step.
It is madness to think by making a video of your trade would some how lead to a load of cowboy table fitters popping out of the wood work.
If I was going to become a cowboy tradesman I could think of a lot more profitable trades to rip off (sorry lads no disrespect intended). If slasher wants to have a go at putting new rubbers on his own table I can't see why someone shouldn't help him out and make a video. I can't really see anyone mass producing it and selling it on eBay as been suggested, and just think when it all go's wrong you can charge extra to put it wright.

[cazmac1]

If any table Qualified fitter fancies a cheap holiday in Beautiful British Columbia I will put them up for free* for two weeks, *just help me with the new rubbers

Now theres an offer that you be mad to turn down.

[Slasher]

Funny thing is, you go on an American pool website and the mechanics love to share tips, techniques, photos and offer advice. I just got my cushions and cloth and will get this done pretty soon, now where did I put my chainsaw