Table maintenance

[Terry Davidson]

poolqjunkie:

Yes, that's right, West of England is sold by Milliken which is the official trade name they use on shipments.

We get the WOE 6811 Gold here at Wholesale Billiards in Kitchener for approx $438 including tax (there might be shipping to get it to BC if you're looking to get some). Although there must be a wholesaler or retailer out in BC somewhere and I would be interested to see if the pricing is around the same if you happened to have bought some recently.

That $438(CAN) is around GBP200 for any Britishers reading this post with one Canadian Dollar = 0.5556 pence today

Terry

[Terry Davidson]

Bob1:

I meant to respond to your post where you say you're expecting your house to be done in 3 months. Based on my experience I think you'll be very lucky to have it done in the time promised.

I had a custom house built in Alma, started in June and was to be finished by mid-Oct. Nothing special about the house, permits were all set up but I didn't actually move in until Dec 5th and at that I had to push him a bit and also arrange to have the occupancy permit done on that day (something about the well wasn't EXACTLY where it was supposed to be on the blueprints, it was about 10ft more towards the back of the lot).

I love those bureaucrats!

Terry

[Geoff Large]

Is WoE and Strachan and Milliken the same company?

Yes Miliken is the latest company name .

the cloth manufacture is based in the west of england at Stroud , that is why it is called West of England Cloth .

[poolqjunkie]

Thank you. Is the name Strachan not being used any more?

What effect would it have on the play of the table if the nap of the cushions are not installed properly? Would it affect how the ball may rolled towards or away from the pocket on a soft shot down the cushion?

[bongo]

Is the name Strachan not being used any more?

I think it is still being used, the logo is sometimes on the referees' blazers on TV.

[Terry Davidson]

It's a weird thing. They supplied large posters for the Canadian Championships, one showing a picture of about 10 referees and the name 'Strachan & Stroud' was prominently displayed with 'Milliken' nowhere to be seen (except maybe on the fine print at the bottom, didn't check).

However, if you're ordering cloth and on their shipping documents you only deal with and only see the commercial name of Milliken, with Strachan & Stroud nowhere to be seen.

Terry

[Geoff Large]

Thank you. Is the name Strachan not being used any more?

What effect would it have on the play of the table if the nap of the cushions are not installed properly? Would it affect how the ball may rolled towards or away from the pocket on a soft shot down the cushion?

It would make a differance when the cloth is new and if the cloth had a long nap , if you put side on a ball to strike a cushion first and you know the direction of the long nap then that is where a differance could be vital to the accuracy of the expected angle that the ball bounces off the cushion .

a ball can skid or grip on nap , if its facing the wrong way then that skid or grip can alter the expected angle of the ball if side is put on .

It is less noticeable with short or fine napped match cloths such as no10 WOE and hainsworth match .

[philip in china]

Just a quick thank you to everybody (especially Geoff) for this exceptionally useful thread. I brush my table every day before I start to play but just with a bristle clothes brush- cos that's all I've got- and then maybe once a week I get under the cushions with a paint brush. It is amazing how much crud I get out from there! I haven't ironed the cloth though- but I suppose I ought to do. Will borrow the wife's iron and see how I get on with that.

What effect would balls have on the cloth- especially if they are a bi grubby? I always polish mine as I get them out of the box before a session. It has sort of become a bit of a ritual with me but that is what I am like.

[bob1]

Thought I would get out these questions, if they have not already been mentioned:

1.Which is the safer/best brush, nylon vs horse hair?

2.Which is best for the table to mark the spots for the colour balls, chalk mark where
the spot would be? Those adhesive spots and if so which one's/size. or another way?

3. This Chalk -off Billiard cloth cleaner in a spray can, good or bad idea?

I guess the key point of the 3 questions is to insure that the table cloth is not
damaged in any way.

Thanks in advance for your insight on this subject.

[bob1]

Last question...for now!
It has been stated not to use Ink pen for the balk line and the D. Which is best
when drawing the balk and D on the table?

Thanks again

[Geoff Large]

Thought I would get out these questions, if they have not already been mentioned:

1.Which is the safer/best brush, nylon vs horse hair?

2.Which is best for the table to mark the spots for the colour balls, chalk mark where
the spot would be? Those adhesive spots and if so which one's/size. or another way?

3. This Chalk -off Billiard cloth cleaner in a spray can, good or bad idea?

I guess the key point of the 3 questions is to insure that the table cloth is not
damaged in any way.

Thanks in advance for your insight on this subject.

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 .

[bob1]

Thanks very much Geoff, very helpfull!

[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]

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.

[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.