Upholstered Coffin Shade

[Ex Enbild Fitter]

I have fitted several tables over the years where the shade was upholstered to match the decor in the snooker room! I remember one in particular where the shade was covered in a gold velour and trimmed with a gold fringe to match the curtains in the snooker room which were made from identical material. Has anyone seen an upholstered shade or indeed have one in your own room?

[philip in china]

I thought this thread title sounded like an Edgar Alan Poe story.

[Geoff Large]

Yes many times , we have one in for storage with a table at the moment it is in Red flock and gold , you have to be very carefull with materials that they are not anywhere near the hot bulbs , especialy on those enbuild shades which have a grill vent on the top at each end , cover this up , and you could have a fire risk , even if the material is flame retardent , the wooden shade is not , and if the heat cannot get away the wood may catch fire .
we have seen shade materials match the curtains and even a table cover that matches too , if the pattern is too bright they can look a bit over the top .

enbuild shades where a copy of the joe Davies Hartley engineering shade supplied and sold by Burnley Billiards in the 50s and 60s , in their day the Hartley engineered shade was the best that money could buy , although a little heavy becuase they where made out of steel , but the bulbs where in a recess at each end and they where mounted sideways and not hanging down so not to dazzle the player .

Today the best lighting for money is the office type lighting that can screw directly to the ceiling they are high Frequency strip lighting with a reflective chrome grid that triples the light power , high frequency will not flicker or strobe like normal flouresent lighting .
we scrap around 4 coffin shades a month .

[Ex Enbild Fitter]

Red flock and gold very nice! All of the Enbild shades were covered by the same upholsterer, the line of the fabric was always finished at the top edge of the wooden section so there was no chance of it covering up the metal grill or coming into contact with the metal which became extremely hot. One thing about coffin shades, they helped solve some issues with scoreboard placement in the boom club times of the 80's. Many of the centre placed tables had no wall or pillar space to mount a scoreboard in the vicinity, I have rigged up many a rigid frame from shade to ceiling and then fixed the scoreboard to it.

[Geoff Large]

I knew enbuild would not cover the grills , but the explanation was for others on here who may think having read the thread , that they will cover their shade , and was a warning not to cover any grills above the shade that was meant for bulb heat displacement .
I have seen it done .

Sat at home waiting to be picked up for a table dismantle in Northampton and then re errect 10 miles down the road , supposed to be here by 9am at latest , so just thought I would read a few posts on the Snooker forum ....just cannot get the staff ...LOL