Cushion rubber

[lmf1471]

I have not been happy with the cushions on my table for some time, i found out some time ago that they are to low. Thus making the white and object ball leave the bed of the table on impact with the cushion. They are going to be sorted by a local fitter within the next week or so, but i just had to check what rubber was fitted in the past. When i stripped the felt back i found white rubber had been used. Does anyone know what rubber this is ? i cannot find any brand name on it. Hopefully Geoff Large can answer this, is this cheap rubber?

My cushion.jpg


Cheers
Lee

[lmf1471]

Just been looking on your site Geoff Large and found this are they the same? old white low quality standard rubber ?

Hilton-mill-old-white-rubber.jpg

[svendh]

The northern rubber is black:

[Geoff Large]

I think they used to call these white rubbers Barton rubber and they where I am informed manufactured in the west Midlands so it maybe UK rubber .
most Taiwan or imported low cost cushion rubber is canvas backed , you will find this type of rubber used on pool tables , even the highly regarded Supreme tables have canvased backed rubber cushions
The latest club rubber sold is imported , I buy both types but I only use Best Northern rubber made in Retford Nottinghamshire UK for all 9ft to full size Snooker cushions
I may use the lower cost rubber on pool tables and the 5/8th cushion rubber of say a 6ft / 7ft or 8ft tables .

the reason I re-rubber pool cushions in low priced rubber is because with most pool tables getting recovered every 6 months the wood will fall apart long before the rubber starts to lose it's bounce , so pointless re-rubbering cushions on a pool table with Northern rubber if the wood they are glued to only have a 6 to12 year life span why use a 25 year rubber life span on them .

The white rubber has no canvass backing so I think it may have been manufactured in the UK , I still come across cushions with white rubber in and they still perform well , it may be that the cushion requires lifting a fraction .

Riley used this White rubber on their introductory models from the 1980s onwards in the riley Regis model
all rubber in time starts to drop a bit as it gets older and bounce up is a sign that you will require new rubber , you can rectify jumping balls by recovering the cushion cloth and leaving a strip of old cloth on the underside to raise the cushion that fraction , this will stop the balls jumping but may take some rebound value out of the cushion , it is trick I do if a client cannot afford a new re-rubber on top of a re-cover .

[lmf1471]

Cheers Geoff for the superb info as per usual. I did actually try slightly lifting/packing the cushion rail by 2-3mm and this did stop the White from lifting, but like you stated I definitely lost some rebound. So this fixed one problem and created another. Not to worry though, because a local fitter is coming to sort the cushions out next week. I Can't wait.

Cheers
Lee