8' slate bed table how many red balls

[David B-S]

Hi on an 8' snooker table what is recommended amount of red balls is it 10 balls or 15 reds many thanks and optimal size thanks

[DeanH]

welcome to TSF


a quick search hit the following
https://www.thesnookerforum.co.uk/bo...what-ball-size

I feel this advice is for 15 reds; if you have full size snooker balls try 10 or even 6 see how much space you have to play with

[David B-S]

thanks i will post up some pictures , the table came with 10 reds , i think they are 2" , was curious if you could play with 15 reds

im in the process of refurbishing the table its a Riley dining/ snooker table with single 8 x4 slate bed made in 1912 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[DeanH]

thanks i will post up some pictures , the table came with 10 reds , i think they are 2" , was curious if you could play with 15 reds

im in the process of refurbishing the table its a Riley dining/ snooker table with single 8 x4 slate bed made in 1912 ,,,,,,,,,,,,,

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[David B-S]

Hi I having trouble uploading photos ,

I keep getting a message not authorised to upload or remove an attachment

thanks

[David B-S]

test

[DeanH]

works fine

[David B-S]

Hi

About two weeks ago I received a call from a friend who had seen a vintage Riley 8' X 4' slate bed snooker / dining table advertised locally in very good condition for free , the caveat being the table would have to be dismantled and removed ASAP .

I called the owner an arranged to go to view the same day , I arrived at a lovely old Victorian Rectory that was accessed up a very steep , narrow driveway with overhanging bushes and 6 outside steps leading up to the front porch , through another two steps into the hallway. .... My immediate thoughts were how on earth am i going to reverse a trailer up the driveway , never mind disassembling and loading a very heavy snooker table.

I was shown into the Study and there was the snooker table .



The table has a lovely patina , with all the original fittings , The side facing the windows had been sun bleached over time , But a cracking table , it also came with some lovely old cues and a very smart Ray Reardon cue in its own case three sets of snooker balls , and pool balls. The Lifting mechanism , functioned perfectly , what a great piece of engineering


The owner explained that the house belonged to his mother ,had been sold and he was in the process of downsizing f, the Snooker table had belonged to his father ,had been offered to the new owners who didn't want it and time was ticking out , several viewers had baulked ( excuse the pun ) at the physical logistics of removal.

"Well its fantastic I Said !"............... "Err well i need to have it removed by next week otherwise I guess it will be broken up. " the son said .

If its convenient , I can come tomorrow i replied with a smile ,
I think the Son was taken a back ... well ok but I wont be here , If that's ok with you , my mother will let you in , Perfect I replied .........thinking how am i going to get the table out !

[David B-S]

I returned home and researched how to dismantle a snooker table .... then i looked at vintage 8 x4 slate bed Rileys from what I could tell the slate came in 3 pieces , it would be heavy but could fit in the back of the car , The oak frame i could dismantle and put in the trailer , With a plan in place I called my friend
.................Are you busy tomorrow.

Perhaps I should explain the friend in question , is a Vegan weighs in at around 70 kg .. but i thought with my 110 Kg would compensate for any lifting that had to be done. ..... Are there any light sides to a snooker table ?? and in any case he was a reliable fellow .
The following day we returned with my car trailer , several Car dolly's ( the sort you put under the wheels of a car to move it ) lots of blankets a toolkit and plenty of rope , we got the trailer into position , and very carefully started to remove the Side rails , I photographed everything and was extremely careful labelling each part .



Once we had got the baize off and rolled up carefully ...................there was a sharp intake of breath




the three piece slate bed was in fact a rather intimidating single piece of lovely Welsh slate ? . I looked at my friend and he looked at the door .............. Dont even think about it !! . Just then the old lady poked her head around the door , " My word your making progress , she said I cant tell you the weight off our minds you removing the table for us ! .

[David B-S]

Well we would have to resort to plan B ............Which is my friend said

" Elbow grease" i replied ......... And those trolleys !

We decided to undo the lifting mechanism , and lift the table with slate together carefully onto its side , place onto the two trolleys and slowly wheel out of the room , the oak frame would simply be undone labled and placed into the table.

It took 3 hours of very careful manoeuvring with plenty of blankets to traverse the table down the steps and into the trailer ...........surprisingly it fitted perfectly .. It was then a very slow drive back to my house hoping that the slate bed would survive

I pushed the trailer into the garage .........thats full of lockdown / retirement projects ,





Then I had to come up with a plan to get the slate bed out of the garage around the rear garden through the French doors and into the lounge ? ......... Only this time I would be on my own .

I didn't fancy having 4 mates lift and walk around the garden , it just seemed too risky for one of us to drop the table . So This was my plan.




with the table in situ , I decided to rig up my chain hoists over the beams and simply lift the oak frame and suspend it .



Unfortunately I ran out of height ..............so was time to device another plan





with two hoists i could maneuverer the table high enough to remove the trailer





I had a good look at the frame really these are a fantastic piece of engineering , , now it was time to lower down onto cushions on two car dollys and build a frame i could push / pull across the garden

[David B-S]

Moving across the drive was easy but across the lawn ............err mud as the dogs had dug up the garden ..... another job to be done before summer !!

I had to use spare decking and levers to slowly lever the frame into position.



I then required a Slope to be built to get up the 3' steps into the lounge ... nothing easy






finely she was in the lounge with no damage



I had already built the frame and as space was going to be an issue in the future , the wife wanted the table to be able to be moved against the wall when not in use . So I researched coasters and found some rated at 100kg with double wheels and the mounting plate was perfect for the leg diameter.



Frame in position

[David B-S]

At this stage it would have been ideal to work on the wood refurbishment , but i had to get the slate bed off the trolley and into position ..... So with the help of 4 friends we lifted the slate bed onto the frame ,

Successfully and with no damage ,

I loosely placed the baize over the table




then started to examine all the original equipment , the pocket leathers and strings couldn't be saved , so i ordered new ones with rails and strings





new leathers , strings , these are much bigger so i will trim to the correct size during installation




I researched attaching the baize and reused the old tack's , stretching the cloth from both front and sides , So far it seems to be fine I followed the original marks and its lined up pretty much the same.




At this stage im not in a position to replace the Baize with a new one , This can always be done at a later stage , the Rubbers on the side rails appear to be in good condition and obviously have been replaced at some stage there was plenty of bounce , so i will leave these as they are .

[David B-S]

Now was time to start on the wood refurbishment , I inherited my fathers wood working tools and his collection of wood dyes , stains and varnishes , I decided to use a rail which was badly faded and hand sanded down using varies grades of paper , after a clean I applied a water based Walnut colour , This was applied in two coats before adding a dark oak on top to add depth , This was the final colour i chose




You can see the original colour to the treated rail



I used a sponge to apply the stain , rubbing down between coats , with 3000 grit paper ,

There will be a lot of rubbing and staining and varnishing to do

Other jobs

I will have to darken the rail with the Riley Decal , i looked at replacements but couldn't find any ? Do these exist certainly not on their web page ?

So looking at other tables I liked the ones with brass plates , so I contacted an engraver who is making me a plate up to go over the original decal ..... which i will leave untouched




The new plate is 8" x 2" so will fit nicely over the original decal , There was also a stamp on the frame with a date of 1912 , here is the new name plate




I also looked at the original rail buttons these were badly tarnished but they are all there , so i started to clean them up



the plan was to get them re brassed ,,, but i had a thought , with the brass plate in place and new wood , i would prefer to experiment with an alternative rail button , they have to cover 35mm . So i looked on line and found these at 20mm brass flat buttons



these would be mounted on a brass M8 X35 mm washer . with magnets behind the screw so can easily be removed ,

Well that's as far as ive got . Really appreciate any advise and nice to be part of the Community kind regards

David

[David B-S]

hand sanded another two rails , heres a better picture of the walnut/ oak finish im aiming for

[DeanH]

great photos

can I ask how long have you been on this project so far