Steel block cushions

[douglasm]

Looking to upgrade 3 tables in our club to steel block cushions, any tips. The club is in Norway

[mikee]

Make sure the steels will fit the tables ,all depends if you have an older five bolt table or the newer 6 bolt slate ,you will need new cushion freezes and pocket plates ,probably looking at over ?1000.00 a set .Steels tend to wear the cloth slightly faster, especially on the inside middle pockets .Is there a reason for fitting these to the tables ,do you have an indication that more players will come to play with this upgrade ,what tables are you fitting them to ,and how many tables do you have .Steels are not always faster ,they are fitted to create a more consistent bounce all round the table ,they take the variation out the wood density that can vary a bit from cushion to cushion on a standard table .Fitters that service tables some times charge more for doing steels as they take longer to re cover .Have you already got the new cushions .

[travisbickle]

We have steels on one of the tables in our club. Everyone hates it as the balls come off The cushions twice as fast as they went on.

[mikee]

We have steels on one of the tables in our club. Everyone hates it as the balls come off The cushions twice as fast as they went on.

No they don’t ,that would be impossible .

[Danger Steve]

We have steels on one of the tables in our club. Everyone hates it as the balls come off The cushions twice as fast as they went on.

Your cushion cloth would have to be completely worn out for that to happen...?!

[Danger Steve]

Looking to upgrade 3 tables in our club to steel block cushions, any tips. The club is in Norway

Fit No.10 cloth and table heaters, forget the steel cushions....

[travisbickle]

No they don’t ,that would be impossible .

It does 100% so I guess it is possible

[travisbickle]

Your cushion cloth would have to be completely worn out for that to happen...?!

Why would it?

[Cue crafty]

playground fight!!!!!

[Danger Steve]

Why would it?

When you bounce a ball off a cushion with no cloth at all just rubber it will literally come off the cushion twice the speed, for that to happen with cloth on I would have to assume the cloth is very fine/worn? Either that or caked in chalk which can also give a fast bounce. It isn’t the steel that makes the balls bounce, it’s the rubber.

[Danger Steve]

Maybe the other tables have a thicker cushion cloth giving the impression your steel table is faster? Thicker cloth = slower

[itsnoteasy]

I now play on a table with steel blocks and the balls bounce so much more off them than they do in the club. You can strike the white six times up and down the spots with a normal stroke, by that I mean it's not a launch at it. You can't get anywhere near that on the wooden cushions in the club , four maybe four and a half . I can't say if the ball bounces quicker off the cushions but it definitely bounces further ( that could be the same thing lol) both tables have the same cloth on them and are maintained by the same company.

[Danger Steve]

Not twice the speed though!! That would be 9 - 9 1/2 times the wood cush... impossible amount of bounce

Don’t forget a heated table will increase the speed a ball runs on the cloth, is the steel table heated vs a none heated wood cushion table? Just wondering....

[travisbickle]

When you bounce a ball off a cushion with no cloth at all just rubber it will literally come off the cushion twice the speed, for that to happen with cloth on I would have to assume the cloth is very fine/worn? Either that or caked in chalk which can also give a fast bounce. It isn’t the steel that makes the balls bounce, it’s the rubber.

Ive no idea what causes it tbh. It just been recovered as well,but even before it was recovered it was the same.

[itsnoteasy]

Not twice the speed though!! That would be 9 - 9 1/2 times the wood cush... impossible amount of bounce

Yeah I confused myself between distance and speed