Table maintenance

[bwls730]

Our clubs here in HK are general very humid, and it is really hard to keep up the speed of the cloth, we:

1) use hainsworth match cloth, which out of all these years, I realise the QC aren't that good at all as there are often batches with longer nap, and there is hugh different on the speed

2) we brush, block after every round of play, we vacuum every morning with special modified hosed end cleaner so the power is much lesser, otherwise you will see lines of dust suck up from the joints underneath the cloth, we fine tune it just right over the years that this won't happen, and iron only after vacuuum and blocking every morning. Our experience is that only brushing is not as effective in clearing the dust and chalk and ironing will make pack these dust and chalk well within the fabric of the cloth, this is bad as we iron everyday and over the long run it is not very plesant for the "hand-feel". We have tried different means over the years, back then internet wasn't that common and we did all weird things come from our mind, e.g. we tried damp cloth against the nap (with no downward pressure) thinking that this would stick up dust and chalk , then block it in the right direction again and then iron. This clean the cloth very good but you will soon start to see the direction of the nap start offline. But having said that, sometimes it is still useful to use damp cloth such as the cloth has been dirty by grease, a very common problem after round of play by some guys worked in kitchen, you will see figure marks of grease and when it is pressed against the nap then it is almost impossible to remove, this damp cloth against the nap is an final option, but you really cannot do more than 2-3 times on the same cloth

3) we change high charge table cloth every 3-4 months (to be re-used), and medium charge table approx. 6 months (to be dispose), and we put these 3-4 months cloth back to the lower charge table. You can see re-stretching of cloth really never a need taken into consideration how often we change our cloth. We change lower charge table cloth when we see ball jump when bouncing off the cushion, this is a good indication. But having said that, there now in the market cushion with rubber made from slightly different angle and height to avoid jumping, so cannot purely base on jumping for indication, but at least for my cushion they are, mine are standard 3.85cm so easier to jump, but many chinese made now with 3.9cm it hardly jump I suppose this is the main advantage with these cushion, but easier to mis-cue if playing off the cushion for players so its a trade off

4) to reduce the moisture, there are 2 schools here, one to install warm tube underneath the stone of the table (u call them slate?), so the moisture is readily evaparate from the cloth, but this school controdict with our weather as most of our electric bill is on the air conditioning and these warm tube is hurting us as we need more air conditioner. The second school is to use air moisture extractor, this is what we are doing but the overhead is more expensive as we need many of these to see an effect

Really no one tell me the above, all by trial and error, your opinion is welcome, hope my experiences can help you as well.

[edemrulez]

Terry: Thank you very much AGAIN, as you give me (us) very useful information from this aspect of te game too!
We have 6811 too, so the only question left that what percentage of humidity would be the ideal, how dry is your basement?

[Terry Davidson]

edem:

Depending on what cloth you have and how humid the conditions are in the club you may not have to iron at all!

As an example...I have a 6811 cloth on my table and an air extractor in my house which makes the basement quite dry. I only brush and block my table once every 2 days or so and it has maintained its original speed.

Blocking is where you take a spare piece of cloth in half decent shape and staple it tightly to a 12" piece of 2" x 4" (that would be 30cm x 5cm x 10cm in metric). Then you use the blocker the same as you would an iron and it combs down the nap and removes any fingermarks. I haven't ironed my table in months.

However, if you have very humid conditions then I would say to iron the tables every 2 days after you lightly brush and block them.

Best solution is of course to get the humidity in the club down by installing an air extractor.

Terry

[edemrulez]

Hi there!

About ironing: after how many game-hour do you advised to iron the cloth? is this a fix number or this depends only on the speed of the cloth?

[Geoff Large]

Do not damp cloth , people only did this to make the cloth more green as it loses its colour with age and sweat from hands it will not enhance ball contact at all , in fact the reverse .
wetting the cloth by either by wiping with damp cloth like anapper or in severe cases by spraying then wiping , will only solidify the chalk dust within the weave of the cloth .
and send the cloth like cardboard .

if you want to degrease cushions then a little acitone on an old piece of billiard cloth wiped along the edge of each cushion will degrease it available from local chemist , it is what billiard fitters use to erase baulk lines when stretching bed cloths , you can use nail varnish remover too as its also got some acetone in its make up , but avoid it if it has a content of oil .
avoid getting acetone on woodwork , just incase it strips the polish off .

one tip that was only given to me recently was offcutt square floatex cushion floor as a wipe down tool after brushing , although I have not tried this , I saw it demonstrated at my local club , it was a just a small piece wrapped around a block of wood and wiped down the nap , but with the nap of the Flotex cushion floor getting into the flow of the nap on the table cloth , making a very fine brush Bristle .
Now all rush down to the local carpet shop for some offcutts ...lol

NEVER BACK BRUSH BACKWARDS UP THE NAP , some people do this for some reason , always go with the nap direction in the Billirds cloth from Baulk to spot end , but face the nap of the cushion floor so that is is used as a brush .

KEEP IRON away from rubbers in cushions by 1/4 of an inch . heat will destroy the rubber over time , making a 25 year lifespan into 8 to 10 years .

[philip in china]

I made a block for my table out of an offcut of bannister rail. It was absolutely ideal as there was a slight indentation running down each side so it was easy and comfortable to hold. Somebody paid me the ultimate compliment- nicked it! I now can't find another offcut anywhere.

[bob1]

bob:

I don't think Yuri does them but I know Odie does as he switched out my wood rails and refinished them for a customer who wanted the wood. He said they came out looking like new, but I don't know what he will charge you to do them

Terry

Hi Terry: Do you have a e-mail address for Yuri?
If possible Thanks

[Souwester]

EASB has a series of useful single-sheet documents on 'Refereeing Best Practice' - http://www.englishsnooker.com/admin/...t_Practice.pdf

Issue 7, (page 9) is one of table preparation.

[Terry Davidson]

bob:

I don't think Yuri does them but I know Odie does as he switched out my wood rails and refinished them for a customer who wanted the wood. He said they came out looking like new, but I don't know what he will charge you to do them

Terry

[bob1]

bob:

If you need to do them yourself, then take off the steel-blocked rails and the cloth of course until you just have the wood. Then use a belt sander with a fine grit sandpaper, maybe 300 or so.

Once you have removed all the old finish without removing too much wood hopefully, then use a finer grit, say 400 or so by hand to smooth out the wood.

Next, mahogany stain.

Last, 3 or 4 coats of varnish done 2 days apart in a dry atmosphere so each coat is good and dry before you apply the next.

Also, I have a (slightly used) #10 bed cloth with WoE 6811 cushion cloths which came from one of the pro tournaments and is in pristine condition. I bought 2 but figure I have another year left on my present cloth and then probably 2 years with the #10 so I don't really need that second #10 I bought.

Terry

Thanks Terry: Sounds like a job for Yuri that is if he does that as part of
a install job? I hope so.

Regarding the build, as you had mentioned before, the Permit process was
a pain. It took 8 months to get a building permit, and the tree issue is a
big problem in Toronto. They don't like large tree's removed for construction,
but finally passed. The build ,side addition, will take 3-4 months, but as you say probably
longer, although the builder has stated in writing if it goes over the 4 month
period there will be a discount on the project.[exception weather].

hopefully Yuri and Pat will be available for the table install.{in the fall, the
build starts in June.]

Thanks again for your advice and best wishes in the Canadians.

[Terry Davidson]

bob:

If you need to do them yourself, then take off the steel-blocked rails and the cloth of course until you just have the wood. Then use a belt sander with a fine grit sandpaper, maybe 300 or so.

Once you have removed all the old finish without removing too much wood hopefully, then use a finer grit, say 400 or so by hand to smooth out the wood.

Next, mahogany stain.

Last, 3 or 4 coats of varnish done 2 days apart in a dry atmosphere so each coat is good and dry before you apply the next.

Also, I have a (slightly used) #10 bed cloth with WoE 6811 cushion cloths which came from one of the pro tournaments and is in pristine condition. I bought 2 but figure I have another year left on my present cloth and then probably 2 years with the #10 so I don't really need that second #10 I bought.

Terry

[bongo]

Hi Bongo: Thought I would ask about my table. I have a BCE with the steel
block rails, I believe it is a Westbury. I don't have the room ready yet, but
in the fall, so it is in pieces wood in the house slate in the garage.
The rails need to be re-done. I am not sure the best way and when.
Should I sand, restain, then varnish? And do it before re-asemble. Most of
the orginal stain is worn off to bare wood. Should I do it myself or get
the guy/table guy to do it when he putts the table togethere?
I would rather restain it myself, but not sure how and when.
Any information appreciated.

I would get a professional table fitter to do it.

[bob1]

Horse hair , or better still if you can get them Chinese Pig/hog/boar hair with the split ends that sepperate as the brush wears in . (all top quality paint brushes are made from chinese Hog hair ) Nylon brushes are as useless as a ash tray on a moterbike , they are too coarse and bend like an old tooth brush in time and go out of shape .
the nylon hairs are also too far apart and they have no split ends , so they will not do as good a job as a pure bristle brush which gets better as it wears in .
Be carefull of cheap and nasty pure bristle mix hair brushes from china . these are made up with a few hairs of pure bristle and the rest are nylon .

Proper purpose made baulk pencil is best for marking the baulk line , but there are good water based ink felt tip pens that can be used if they can be cleaned off with acetone when a stretch is required .
I use very small office supply adhesive spots , black are hard to come by , we have a DIY store in UK called Wilko's these sell green spots which come in a pack of multi coloured spots , and are around a 50p a packet .
I always iron these on , be carefull of inferior dye's on some makes of these spots as some have experienced streak run from the black office spots .
when positioning the ball on a spot , click a ball across the top of the spotted ball once and only lightly to spot the ball .
A table without spots will wear through on the black spot first if used on a regular basis , TV tables have their cloths changed every 3 days so no issue not to use spots . So please do not copy a profesional table on TV when you see they have no spots .

Good old fashioned elbow grease with a quality pure bristle brush , do this often and you should will never find use for these spray cleaners , some of which can starch the cloth in patches .
You can if no filler in the slate joints use a vacum cleaner , or use a low powered vacum cleaner with the slide open on the tube for less suction , but be carefull a vac/cleaner will suck out loose filler in slate joints resulting in an expensive visit from a Billiard fitter to put right as the bed cloth has to come off .

Hi Geoff: I have another question just posted, any advice appreciated and
thanks again for the previous information.

[bob1]

On www.cuesportscloth.com, there is a small book/leaflet which is about how to look after tables professionally, it is about Pool but it equally applies to Snooker.

Looking after tables professionally is not like have 4 black spots like i've seen on a proper full size table in a club once! (And 3 baulk lines, 2 blue spots and 4 green spots, YES! Supposed to be a normal Snooker table!!!, but they made a mess of it!!)

Hi Bongo: Thought I would ask about my table. I have a BCE with the steel
block rails, I believe it is a Westbury. I don't have the room ready yet, but
in the fall, so it is in pieces wood in the house slate in the garage.
The rails need to be re-done. I am not sure the best way and when.
Should I sand, restain, then varnish? And do it before re-asemble. Most of
the orginal stain is worn off to bare wood. Should I do it myself or get
the guy/table guy to do it when he putts the table togethere?
I would rather restain it myself, but not sure how and when.
Any information appreciated.

[bob1]

Thanks very much Geoff, very helpfull!