Rails in wrong position? Nap of cloth wrong direction?

[seb1899]

I am still adjusting from playing a 5 x 10 to my current 6 x 12 and am having a hard time of it but what the hey practice makes perfect right?

My Riley table has the original cloth; bed and rails and I think the rails are not in their original position. The 'nap' on the rails is running from the black end (American foot vs British head) to the 'D' end and when I had my previous 5 x 10 recovered this is opposite. Standing at the black spot(facing the 'D') the nap is running right to left and at the 'D' end Facing the Black spot it is Right to left as well). Does it matter on the end rails?

I would think the rails originally had the nap running from the D end to the Black spot so by moving them clockwise the nap would be correct.

Does it matter where the side rails go or are they interchangeable or should they be marked? As it sits now I seem to 'jaw' a lot of balls on the right corner facing the black and the right corner (green side). If I line up 3 balls frozen to the rail and shoot hard the other corners allow the force but these two often reject.

Should I bother repositioning the rails or just play with it and take this into consideration when I recover in the future

[Geoff Large]

youre table's cushions should be numbered from 1 to 6

from the D end that is no 1 , to the left of the D is no 2 and 3 , the spot end ( Black ) is no 4 , then 5 and 6 .

the nap on cushions 1234 should be from right to left , the nap on 5 and 6 should be left to right .

Swop the side cushions over , as it apears youre two end cushions are correct , I suspect who ever bolted the cushions on bolted 5 and 6 to left of D cushion and 2 and 3 to right of D cushion , make sure centre ball rails always face towards black spot end ( its traditional ) unless you just have bag nets on .

At the end of the day all side cushion nap should be in the same direction as the bed cloth nap and thats from D end towards spot black end .

Geoff

[seb1899]

Thanks Geoff.

When I traded the 5 x 10 Brunswick (my avatar) on this Riley I should have been with the fellow doing the assembly as I know the nap should follow the bed cloth. The fellow who set it up did a good job of levelling, however his forte is 4 1/2 x 9 pool tables and he was not aware of how the nap should run and I guess he did not look for rail #'s. I have to assume the cloth on the rails was properly installed per the rail #s by Riley when it was shipped from the factory.

I think I will take the rail blind (apron?) off and remove the end rail and see if it is numbered. If so I will take the rails off and arrange them as you have instructed.

Unfortunately there are no table mechanics in the area with 6 x 12 expertise so when I recover in the future I will have to be selective in whom I choose.

Thanks again for your knowledgeable reply and I hope business will pick up for you

[Geoff Large]

youre table from the avatar photo looks like the riley starline , a fitters nightmare to fit with the enclosed looking apron , I take it the frame underneath is a tressle type . and not the traditional 8 legs .

Geoff

[seb1899]

I guess I should have been more specific; this is the table I have now:





and this is the Brunswick Centennial 5 x 10 that I traded in on the Riley:





The Riley is certainly a challenge over the Brunswick.

Every morning I shoot 10 balls placed on the blue ball spot and the cueball on either the yellow or green spot and I am at about 40% successful so when I am at 80% I will be where I was on the Brunswick. Shooting up the side rail is TOUGH as I jaw it most of the time.

Oh well I wanted the 6 x 12 so I will persevere

[maryfield]

Seb1899 the table you have is a Chinese table badged by RILEY. Made by a company called Shender if I`m not mistaken.

[Geoff Large]

maryfield well spotted , also sold by Titan in the Uk under their own brand of TITAN corinthian , so it is a chinese made table that Riley have decided to import and badge as a riley .
to be honest they are not too bad a table to recover , you just got to be sure the slates are not dished . the pocket plates will become loose with hard shots rammed at them though .
They also used the same design readed leg on the riley diners they also imported from china .

Seb my mistake I could not see the table in the avatar too well . I can now see it was an american Pool table . I am gald you did not buy a starline , they are a billiard fitters worst table to fit . and if you lean on a corner when someone is taking a shot you can send the table out of level and bend his shot to miss the ball . they are so unstable and a very bad design that riley soon stopped production after a couple of years , but there are a few out there , some call them diabled tables because you can get a wheel chair more under when taking a shot , but the best design for disabled players is the Thurston (Clare) Jubilee model

Geoff

[seb1899]

Here I am again - asking the professionals for advice

I removed the aprons or do you call them rail blinds and the rail at the 'D' end is labelled 4 and the rail at the black spot end is labelled 1 so according to the number sequence explained earlier these are opposite. The rail that should be in the 6 position is labelled 3 so the rails were not installed per the original sequence intended by the factory.

I know the 'nap' is not running in the same direction as the bed cloth but does the rail sequence really affect play?

Is it something that I should ask the table mechanic to sort out (put in correct order as per the sequence explained earlier) or is it something I should be aware of and sort out when the table is recovered. Was the numbering done at point of manufacture to identify the cloth direction or are the rails themselves supposed to be only in the position as they are numbered?

I do not want to be a 'horses a##' if the rail position is not critical to play/performance

[Geoff Large]

Yes the numbers where put on at manufacture , this informs the fitter to recover 5 and 6 cushions to the right , and the other 4 cushions to the left .

Now if you want to get realy into it , when the bed cloth is off , the SLATES should also be numbered by dots in each joint , on the side of the slate , some thing like this ./. ../.. .../... ..../.... taking the forward slash as the joint , 5 slates = 4 joints .
no 1 slate is normaly the D end so ./. is the D end and ..../.... is the black spot end .

in reality It will not matter which end the D is , but the manufacturer makes a table up from those numbers so should be followed when assembling , it is important that the nap on the side cushions are in the same direction as the bed cloth , this is more down to the brushing of the cloth , if you are brushing the bed cloth in it's nap direction close to the side cushions then you will rub the nap up on the side cushion if that cushion is covered in the oposit direction to the bed cloth , if the nap was in the correct direction you cannot rub the nap up as it is going in the same direction as you are Brushing .

I am not a player so my veiw of the nap in the wrong direction affecting play is ...it would not affect play that much for anyone to notice .

So to sum up , it is more down to the maintenence of the table in Brushing that the nap in the wrong direction which is the main problem . if I was you I would just swop them all round .


Geoff

[seb1899]

Thanks Geoff, I wish you were on this side of the ocean.

I will swap the rails to be in the correct position and hope I do not 'jaw' as many object balls!

This forum is a wealth of information and I appreciate all who comment!

[ryanah147]

Geoff, on the subject of the nap, I would do it the same as you ie : 1,2,3,4, right to left, and 5,6 right to left, but I know when I started the bosses son used to cover all cushions right to left. When I asked him why was this he said that most people are right handed, and when brushing the cushions and starting at the baulk it was the right hand that was used if you brushed the cushions whilst walking around the table. He also stated that if you played a hard shot from the yellow spot to the middle of No.2 cushion it would hit that cushion `with the nap`, then hit No`s 4 and 5 also `with the nap. I argued this point with him on quite a few occasions saying that although it hit No5 cushion with the nap, the ball was travelling against the nap of the bedcloth. If I was covering a table with him I would have to cover all the cushions right to left, but if I was with his father I did it the way I do it now.
There was also another fitter in Ireland who covered cushions in that fashion and he used to work for Burroughes & watts in Dublin, but he was the only other one I knew of. It was not really till 1980 that I discovered that the CORRECT way was 1,2,3,4 right to left, and 4,5, left to right.
Another method that different firms used was the numbering of the cushion rails. To me it was always Baulk was 1, left of baulk was 2 and so on, No6 was then `right of baulk`. Iv come across tables numbered Baulk 1 , right of baulk was then No2 and so on.
Legs of a table were also numbered differently, to me it was always Baulk left No1 and then carry around the table till you come to No 8 which was baulk right. Burroughes & watts numbered some tables 1,2,3,4, the four corner legs, then you had the left hand side numbered 1 and 2 for the middle legs, and 3,4 for the middle legs on the right hand side of the table. I dont know what their reasoning was for this as it would have been much easier for all concerned to number them 1 to 8.
G.

[Geoff Large]

hi Gerard , yes I have come across the all to right to left method , this was a firm in liverpool called Enbild who just covered every cushion to the left , they did not number their cushions either . I always used to do this when we had a new table from them , then next time it was recovered i put the nap in the correct direction on 5 and 6 .

I was told by an old fitter that burroughs and watts used to cover their end cushions left to right same as no's 5 and 6 , with just 2 and 3 to left . this I was told was an old fitter who worked for Burroughs and watts just being differant , another fitter told me it was just the steel block cushions that was covered that way .
I told him whatever there is no need for it and I just cannot see the point , and it is now well accepted that nap on the side cushions always follow the Bed cloth nap , and the two end cushions nap go to the left .
I have been known if talking and taking my mind off the job to cover no 5 or 6 to the left , it happens I'm only human ....lol

Geoff

[ryanah147]

Well, I dont make that mistake anymore, Iv got my lad doing the setting in, and I do the stapling, but like you said he is also human and occasionally make a mistake, but he is quickly pulled up by me. If its a `posh job`he`ll have to re-do it, but otherwise Ill let him off with it.

[Geoff Large]

Iv'e only done it 2 times in 36 years so not too bad , and you have the option if you make the mistale first , to swop over cushions from 2 and 3 to 5 and 6 , then on the next recover swop them back which is what I did .
I always cover 5 and 6 first , i strip these two down together and cover to the right .
Then I just go into recover mode of to the left for the other 4 .
right off to Swillington near Leeds this morning about 77 miles away , to recover a K and hillman , which should be a doddle to recover .

Geoff

[philip in china]

From your photo I see you have an overhead fan. My previous room had one. I still have the cue with a notch taken out of it by that fan! Be careful!!