Balls Jumping

[jorock63]

Hi I have a new steel block table set up 3 months ago and it was very fine until last week I notice the ball is jumping when it rebound off the cushion,,does anyone know why is this happening??? it dont jump 3 months ago until lastweek

thanks

[Geoff Large]

double post ?

[Geoff Large]

could be a few things

1st / the blocks that the rubber ( bumpers in usa ) is glued to have dried and shrunk with the warm house heating over the last 3 months , which will result in the rubber lower edge now being lower on impact and lifting the ball up after impact

2nd /Grease and sweat from hands on cushions , wipe edge of cushion with Acetone to clean off any grease . grease and sweat from hands will effect balls bouncing off the cushion and deposit on the ball resulting in kicks . wipe every month with acetone if used on a regular basis .

3rd /cushion rubber may have dropped , is it on every cushion ? has anyone been sitting on the edge and leaning over the cushion rubber of the table when taking a shot , this is one of the main causes of rubber being forced off the block .

4th / has anyone been damping the cushions , if the cushion cloth shrinks ( it is wool )then it will tighten up on the rubber forceing it down and below centre of ball . resulting in ball bouncing up after impact .
Some people think that wiping cushions and bed cloth with water helps keep the colour of the new cloth , what they do not realise is the WOOL cloth will shrink if damp then hot ironed against it , another reason maybe you are running youre iron against the cushion , try and be 1/4 of an inch away from the cushions when ironing . Heat will distort and damage the rubber by the heat transfer from the iron through the cushion cloth and nto the rubber as well as shorten it's life span of around 20 years by half .

5th reason is low cost rubber fitted , always insist on Northern rubber , chinese and taiwan rubber is not very good .

6th ,Over use of the table will wear the nap off the cushions making it a shiny surface and this will result in ballbounce up too

take youre pick I think the answer is one of these . unless you have just replaced the ball set with a slight oversized set , and yes this has happend in the past . maufacturers do sometimes send out a rogue set or a cue ball that is either under or over sized very slightly .

Tempreture of the room is another thing , keep the room at 60F and above , if the heat falls below this the rubber gets hard , a constant heat or better still a oil filled radiator under the table set on a thermostat @ min of 60f will help keep the rubber from going hard

oh and clean youre Balls

Geoff

I did forget one thing , chalk dust deposit .
When a ball hits the rubber the force down the ball is also equal to the force through the ball hitting the rubber and proof of this is track marks in the cloth just under the cushion and into the pocket falls , resulting in vibration of the slate , this moves any chalk dust towards the impact , especialy on the end cushions , over period of time and this could be only after 3 months if used a lot , the build up of chalk just under the nose of the end cushions will be enough to lift the centre of the ball above the centre of the cushion resulting in youre bounce up , only a stretch bed cloth will get the dust out , BUT try this , I normaly do not say to anyone vacum clean the bed cloth but at the end cushion there is no slate joint that you could pull any filler out with the suction , so try vacum cleaning on the end slate just under the end cushion about 6 inches into the bed , this may resolve youre problem if it just an end cushion problem . do this at both ends of the table .
NEVER vacum over the slate joints , you could pull the filler out so vacum cleaning down the side of the slate bed under the side cushions you do at youre OWN RISK , the most you can do is pull the filler out , and then you would require the bed cloth to come off to refill the slate joint , you could if you have the right vacum with the slide on the pipe to open up and reduce the suction on the slate under the side cushions so as to lower the risk of joint filler pull out . but full suction on the end slates is ok .

Over time if left the chalk dust will solidify and build up as hard deposits making vacuming it out impossible , only taking the bed cloth off for say a stretch or recover and sanding down the deposit of hard chalk will clear this probelm . But I doubt that is the problem after only 3 months use .

[philip in china]

Thank you as always for that Geoff.

I couldn't source a table brush when I got my table so use an ordinary bristle clothes brush and get under the rubber with an ordinary 3" paintbrush. It is amazing how much dirt I get from under the rubber! I could quite imagine it becoming a problem over time.

[jorock63]

Thanks alot,,,will take your advice seriously,,,thanks again

[the nugget]

could be a few things

1st / the blocks that the rubber ( bumpers in usa ) is glued to have dried and shrunk with the warm house heating over the last 3 months , which will result in the rubber lower edge now being lower on impact and lifting the ball up after impact

2nd /Grease and sweat from hands on cushions , wipe edge of cushion with Acetone to clean off any grease . grease and sweat from hands will effect balls bouncing off the cushion and deposit on the ball resulting in kicks . wipe every month with acetone if used on a regular basis .

3rd /cushion rubber may have dropped , is it on every cushion ? has anyone been sitting on the edge and leaning over the cushion rubber of the table when taking a shot , this is one of the main causes of rubber being forced off the block .

4th / has anyone been damping the cushions , if the cushion cloth shrinks ( it is wool )then it will tighten up on the rubber forceing it down and below centre of ball . resulting in ball bouncing up after impact .
Some people think that wiping cushions and bed cloth with water helps keep the colour of the new cloth , what they do not realise is the WOOL cloth will shrink if damp then hot ironed against it , another reason maybe you are running youre iron against the cushion , try and be 1/4 of an inch away from the cushions when ironing . Heat will distort and damage the rubber by the heat transfer from the iron through the cushion cloth and nto the rubber as well as shorten it's life span of around 20 years by half .

5th reason is low cost rubber fitted , always insist on Northern rubber , chinese and taiwan rubber is not very good .

6th ,Over use of the table will wear the nap off the cushions making it a shiny surface and this will result in ballbounce up too

take youre pick I think the answer is one of these . unless you have just replaced the ball set with a slight oversized set , and yes this has happend in the past . maufacturers do sometimes send out a rogue set or a cue ball that is either under or over sized very slightly .

Tempreture of the room is another thing , keep the room at 60F and above , if the heat falls below this the rubber gets hard , a constant heat or better still a oil filled radiator under the table set on a thermostat @ min of 60f will help keep the rubber from going hard

oh and clean youre Balls

Geoff

I did forget one thing , chalk dust deposit .
When a ball hits the rubber the force down the ball is also equal to the force through the ball hitting the rubber and proof of this is track marks in the cloth just under the cushion and into the pocket falls , resulting in vibration of the slate , this moves any chalk dust towards the impact , especialy on the end cushions , over period of time and this could be only after 3 months if used a lot , the build up of chalk just under the nose of the end cushions will be enough to lift the centre of the ball above the centre of the cushion resulting in youre bounce up , only a stretch bed cloth will get the dust out , BUT try this , I normaly do not say to anyone vacum clean the bed cloth but at the end cushion there is no slate joint that you could pull any filler out with the suction , so try vacum cleaning on the end slate just under the end cushion about 6 inches into the bed , this may resolve youre problem if it just an end cushion problem . do this at both ends of the table .
NEVER vacum over the slate joints , you could pull the filler out so vacum cleaning down the side of the slate bed under the side cushions you do at youre OWN RISK , the most you can do is pull the filler out , and then you would require the bed cloth to come off to refill the slate joint , you could if you have the right vacum with the slide on the pipe to open up and reduce the suction on the slate under the side cushions so as to lower the risk of joint filler pull out . but full suction on the end slates is ok .

Over time if left the chalk dust will solidify and build up as hard deposits making vacuming it out impossible , only taking the bed cloth off for say a stretch or recover and sanding down the deposit of hard chalk will clear this probelm . But I doubt that is the problem after only 3 months use .

Very interesting stuff there Geoff, i discovered on 3 of our club tables that a line of lumps had formed in 3 places on the tables and discovered that the caretaker(after initial denial) was not only vacuuming under the top cushion but had also vacuumed down the length of the tables. I discovered this after hoovering the car seats with loose foam balling up ander the seat material,amateur csi! Needless to say all 3 tables had to be recovered at much cost. Keep up the good info!

[bricktip]

I've recently noticed the balls jumping on one half of the black cushion. I did take the cushion off to change the leathers a few months ago. Is it possible that one half is lower/higher than the other and could be causing a problem. So, is there some room for maneuver vertically when bolting the cushions on?

Edit: Cleaning with acetone fixed this.