Putting a snooker table on the 2nd floor

[jrc750]

What's the difference between an old pre 1890s billiards table and a modern billiard table then ?

[Geoff Large]

Thickness and depth of capping wood , how far back the pocket plates are set and the type of pocket plate used is now more deflecting of the ball downwards .
thickness of slate has got to 2 inch from 1 inch over the years .
Large turned legs
Laminated rubber that you had to warm up back in the early years to moulded rubber
all pre 1896 tables had top plate pockets and the older the top plate table the thinner the capping wood is .

[itsnoteasy]

I think billiards meaning pool must be quite popular in America. When I first started playing billiards(real billiards) I went on YouTube to find some tips when I typed in billiards, it was all American pool clips that came up.

[lesedwards]

Geoff is 100% correct. I have a mid 1920's Steel Block Burroughs n Watts Billiard table and I can tell you there is a major difference between a new billiard table and earlier models. One that I just realized this past week which I discussed with Geoff that makes a huge difference and that is the placement of the fall. My fall is set back almost 1/2" further into the pocket. What this does is allows the ball to rattle in the jaws and come flying back out. Newer tables such as Terry's tables just suck the ball in. I have had some of the top players in Canada play on my table and no one has come close to running a century. I previously had a 1889 5x10 Billiard table and it was just as bad in fact I think it might have been worse and no wonder Cliff Thorburn calls my room the Snooker Prison.... and I have no confidence. I have bought all the tools to file down my slate falls. I would love to see some of these top pros play on those old tables, I can tell you one thing you would not see them smacking them full force from end to end and screwing the cue ball back because the object ball would beat the cue ball back to baulk.

[roaster]

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There is alot to be said about 'american' snooker.
My da was an Irish immigrant, last of the Ellis Island babies in 1919.
He was 50 when I was born so I grew up with a whole different generations values.
I also grew up in the Irish Social clubs and played a good bit of snooker and what I remember as 'billiards', which today I recognize as 3 cushion carom.
The old guys who played both were brilliant at it but the carom players were true masters of angles.
Anyway, when I grew older I sought out a few snooker tables in NJ and when I moved to NC it was a long shot to find anything beyond an 8' bar table.
I moved to Knoxville,TN a few years ago and found a place called McDonalds Billiards, which had been down in they used to call the 'old city' for years and moved close to where I lived about 10 years back. They have 4 snooker tables and some staggeringly brilliant players. I went looking for a table and found this one, a 1933 Brunswick Balke-Collender. As you can see it IS a 5x10. The slate is about 1 3/8" thick and had the original hardware with it. 6 post, square solid legs.
Set up easily and leveled like it was used to being there.
The game I grew up playing had no numbers on the balls and I vividly remember a pink instead of the US favored orange 6 pointer.
They are 2 1/16" balls. I have looked for replacement Aramith colors but can't find singles available at any place who will post to me in the US.

What I referred to as Billiards is not played ANYWHERE, although I was told by a mate that there is a place with 2 carom tables in Atlanta.
Is that popular in the UK?

I will await my phone to slowly send over the old assembly photos of the project and the bolts and post those later on.

Thanks for the comments about the room, and its a Miles Davis Kind Of Blue platinum record, was a gift from an old mate of Miles' who owned the Plugged Nickel back years ago. I debated putting it in the snooker room or my studio, guess it won out here.

[DeanH]

Miles Davis - superb, a nice collectors piece, a nice gift
Carom (3-cushion billiards) is barely heard of in the UK and there is a rumour of one table in a Turkisk club in London somewhere
We used to watch it on Eurosport but that tournament is no longer run so it has disappeared completely now
shame it was great to watch

[chessking]

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Getting back to the American pool tables , there are many western american photo's that have billiards signs outside a building so I assume in America early Pool tables halls where also called Billiard saloon ?

Over here, Many use the term "Billiards" as a general term, when what they really mean is "cue sports". Pool is the most popular, but mainly it's 8 ball and 9 ball. Straight pool has become more rare. You will find the odd billiard table where snooker is played, but rarely billiards. I have seen the rare carom table, but they seem to be idle most if the time. Mainly, if you want to play snooker, you have to know someone who has a home table.