Another salvage job!

[philip in china]

It isn't "only" anything! If that is the right size for you, then it is a 6' and what you need!

The difference you have made is amazing. Stick at it.

[itsnoteasy]

It's only a 6 footer, but perfectly sized for my outside covered decking area

As said, things have been slow as I've been making fences, levelling & turfing gardens and laying gravel to patios Plus I've recently been re-introduced to carp fishing, so have spent a little time relaxing in the sun!

Just a couple of anecdotal pics though;


Just a layout check, making sure the right rails are in the right places and re-marking them appropriately.


And first mounting on the rails. Miscalculated the length of the bolts required though by a mere 10mm. I can get them to bite, and I could probably take another few MM out of the sunk boltholes I've drilled in the rails however worried I'd take out too much of the structure by doing that. I'll get either longer bolts or use longer claw nuts.

I've been making test cuts on the new cushions and have been very pleased with how the jigsaw cuts the rubber with the new soft material jigsaw blades I bought. Means I can get far closer to the correct curve and then sand back to suit.

Sorry if I'm being stupid but is that rail on the wrong side of the table? Sorry I have just figured out what's going on, just ignore that.

[Kryten]

Managed to spend some time yesterday on the table, gluing the rubbers to the rails. I've cut them roughly to how I want using a rubber-cutting blade for jigsaw, gotten them a little better using the jigsaw blade manually, however can't find anything suited to finer cuts and more importantly for final shaping. None of the files or rasps I have seem to touch it. The last table I did had considerably smaller rubbers so was a lot easier to work, yet these are full size and I'd rather do a proper job of it.

[Kryten]

So, the key to getting a half decent finish on the rubber appears to be patience. I did a lot of research and perusing around the local DIY shops (even the dreaded orange coloured place!) and found nothing to suit. The nearest most suitable thing I could find for rasping would have been a cabinet rasp. I did have a childish chuckle whilst browsing these when I found something called a "******* Rasp"
Despite there being specific soft material blades for jigsaws, there didn't appear to be a handheld counterpart. So, I continued to use the jigsaw blade on it's own.
My weapons of choice: (What a great song from Fatboy Slim, although the music video with Christopher Walken was fantastic!)


A before and after of my frankly laughable attempt at shaping, but acceptable for me. I can certainly see when looking at Geoff's blogs how it can take many years to perfect these skills!


Progress on the rails - some of which still have the rubber glue setting.


And a side by side of old vs new. It's when looking at these parts of the cushions when I realised what I was up against. Most sane folks would have binned this upon seeing that, but as I've said before, I'm a glutton for punishment!


The seller of the black rubbers assured me they are identical to the red rubbers I already had bought from them previously, although I'm wary of someone having previously said the red dye (?) causes some UV instability.

Hopefully the rest of my hardware arrives tomorrow (longer tee-nuts) then I can get everything attached for a dry fitment and check of the cuts.

[Big Splash!]

You can form rubber with a Dremel on low speed (no.1) and some fine sanding drums. You got a few bumps there, I've seen worse from Rileys fitters, and a Dremel can smooth them out.

[Kryten]

Great cheers, I'll give it another go. I did have a play with a dremel and it tore a sanding drum up, however I probably had it on far too quick.

[Big Splash!]

Great cheers, I'll give it another go. I did have a play with a dremel and it tore a sanding drum up, however I probably had it on far too quick.

Keep it down to speed 1 and buy some fine generic drums off ebay, much cheaper than bloody B&Q. If the Dremel is biting too much and the drum clogging with rubber, another and maybe better option given its larger surface area and ability to flatten the surface more evenly than a dremel, may be something like a Black and Decker mouse. Maybe Geoff Large can come in with some ideas. I know some fitters use a stanley but the rubber is a mess; it must affect how the OB recoils off the cushions and if it will go down or bounce out.

[Geoff Large]

http://www.screwfix.com/p/half-round...t-rasp-8/94685

[Kryten]

Funnily enough, exactly the one I had bought, Geoff! Took my time with it and I've got a result I'm more than happy with. Got a bit carried away yesterday though and got the rest of the hardware side of it done, and then decided to do a little upholstery!
Side by side comparison - on the left, how it was picked up, on the right as it stands now! All that's really left to do is finish off the pocket areas of the new timber under the slate, fit the bed cloth and do some fine finishing!

I had considered rebating the cushion timbers to allow the use of cloth retaining strips, however I don't have access to the hardware to allow me to do that tidily enough. I stuck with it's original installation instead.

[Erwan_BZH]

Quite a change!! Congrats on a top job!

[philip in china]

Is that on our left as we look at it? ;-))

[itsnoteasy]

Looking very good that!

[Shockerz]

Looks very nice, you must be please with how it's turning out.

[perpetualboredom]

When it's done time for a big one?!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SNOOKER-TA...QAAOSwQgpXAnSJ
They may be a bit ambitious with their asking price by around £350 though!

[Geoff Large]

When it's done time for a big one?!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SNOOKER-TA...QAAOSwQgpXAnSJ
They may be a bit ambitious with their asking price by around £350 though!

Why have that full size when you can get this for Free
http://gclbilliards.com/free-snooker...rgent-removal/

not my table of course but there are few free full size tables around because of home improvements and change of room use due to Baby on the way , and house moves .