Table maintenance

[thommo335]

mines always covered when not in use takes seconds to do, the fitted peradon cover makes it too simple not to be lazy.

That's a bit up market for me. Mine for the big table at my house is just a 2.5 x 4.3 metre plastic sheet. As much as anything like a tent groundsheet. Very tough and completely flexible. Does the job very well. On the little table I have, in China, it is a tailored cover out of a lightweight nylon with elasticated corners. Very light and easy.

£33 on fleabay shouldn't be too upmarket? ???

[philip in china]

Mine was free with the table! (Thank you again, Geoff).

[DeanH]

oh we have covers, some very old dust sheets
of course if they were my own tables (one day) it will be covered every time it is not beign used with the black fitted cover like I got for the single table at my old club.
The new club has three tables, and in the nearly 2 years being there I have never seen a table covered - ever.

[philip in china]

So, try it some time. Maybe if people see tables covered they will get into the habit.

[DeanH]

So, try it some time. Maybe if people see tables covered they will get into the habit.

oh I have but no reciprical response yet

[itsnoteasy]

The only table that's covered in my club is the match table, but that's only because the roof has a leak above it.

[philip in china]

The only table that's covered in my club is the match table, but that's only because the roof has a leak above it.

Yuck. I don't like the sound of that!

[itsnoteasy]

Aye it's not good is it Philip.

[inevermissblue]

If you thoroughly vacuum your table brush and only lightly vacuum your table(s) each week, provided they are kept covered.yyou would only ever need your table brush for chalk dust only.

Discovered something very significant recently regarding brushing. Assuming that surface dust is tackled/vacuumed. This is not however the whole story. I play in a club which has 10 tables. 7 of them were recovered recently. The other three were left as their cloths were done not a million years previously. So what concerns me is the chalk that is re-distributed by brushing down to the black cushion. As the 3 tables in question all run out along the top cushion. This is because the chalk which is brushed down, accumulates along the entire length of the cushion.
So the best idea would be to capture the chalk dust in a pan as you go down towards the top cushion. Once finished you would need to vacuum the top cushions end to remove the brushed down chalk.

[Geoff Large]

Be very careful when you use a vacuum on the table , even mentioning the use of them on this topic will make other users think it is the normal thing to do and use them .

The slate bed of a snooker table is made up of 5 pieces since around 1880 /85 onwards , this means there are 4 slate joints , if these are not perfect and have some chips out of them they are filled with either plaster of Paris or soft sand car body filler , you can sometimes suck the filler out of the joint and leave it on top of the slate under the cloth as a bump , a very expensive mistake as a re-stretch or re-cover is the only option to get it right again . even a low powered vacuum can sometime have the power to lift the filler out .

unless you know the state of the joints of a table you plan to use a vacuum on , then do not use one as the risk is too great .

however just under the end cushions there are no joints so suck away , the first joint is around 29 inch away from the end of the slate or 27 inch from the nose of the cushion give or take 1/2 an inch

[biggus stickus]

I must confess I used a vacuum on my table for the first time last week. It had not been used for some time and had managed to pick up a lot of cat hair despite being covered. Anyway as you say Geoff I knew my joints were all in good condition and I put an upholstery end on the vacuum and it worked perfectly. It removed all the hair, lint dust etc from the cloth and after a brush, iron and blocking it looked and played great again. There is no way I could of got it clean like that just using a brush.

[philip in china]

Just need to be careful. The maid at my place has instructions never to vacuum my table.

[inevermissblue]

I must confess I used a vacuum on my table for the first time last week. It had not been used for some time and had managed to pick up a lot of cat hair despite being covered. Anyway as you say Geoff I knew my joints were all in good condition and I put an upholstery end on the vacuum and it worked perfectly. It removed all the hair, lint dust etc from the cloth and after a brush, iron and blocking it looked and played great again. There is no way I could of got it clean like that just using a brush.

Precisely! This is exactly my point. Anyone who only'cleans' a table soley with a brush is doing nothing good to it at all. The brush will force settled dust into three places;
1. Directly into the cloth, getting trapped inside the weave, adhering to the grease from fingerprints at potential damp.
2. Inside the brush making this process fruitless.
3. Straight up into the air, only to settle back down onto the table. Also fruitless!

Chalk dust is the only thing we are supposed to be brushing. However, if we only brush this down to the black spot end it will build up more and more over time. This does through past experience causes the ball to turn out of the both corner pockets.
So my suggestion is to capture the chalk as its brushed down to never allow a build up. This is all common sense.

So as to be clear. Would someone please try this experiment?
1. With only the table light on. Lightly vacuum one half of the table. Then brush it. There will only be chalk dust to brush.
2. Only brush the other half, and watch all the surface dust fly up into the air. This is what countless people do on a regular basis believing it to be the right way! I would hate all of that surface dust getting trapped time and time again into any tables I play on. To top if off they then proceed to pack it in even further by padding it down, before finally sealing the cloths fate with an iron! Ouch!!!

[Terry Davidson]

The danger with using a vacuum is if it isn't very weak suction it will remove the nap. If you have a low pressure vacuum and then brush, block and iron the table it should be OK but the person doing this should open up the vacuum cleaner and look in the waste bag and see if there's a lot of green in there. If there is then you are sucking up the nap and that will reduce the life of the cloth.

I don't use a vacuum on my table as all of mine are high power suckers but I think a small hand-held vacuum would be OK. I have not experienced any chalk build-up with my table but perhaps that's because it's a private table and doesn't get the use of a club table, especially with those players who chalk their tips heavier than is really required (we've all seen them, chalking their cue for a minute or so when just a wipe would do)

[inevermissblue]

The green fluff is damaged/sliced nap for sure. However this is caused by playing the game. Lol. Also by the brush. Each sweeping motion pushes the nap down and the chalk will sliced it as it is a glass. The same can be said of blocking a table. The green fluff is more apparent on a table that is not looked after at all. So a vacuum is innocent from being the cause. This just picks it up! Tables that have not been looked after will give visual proof of green fluff once you get to the black spot end, without vacuuming! Lol.