SHORT STORY: Took one of my rails to Golden West Billiards (only major 'made in America' table manufacturer aside from Olhausen) and complained about lack of rebound. Was immediately told that my rails are too high and suggested I simply slide either a penny or a nickel (metal related) underneath the outside edge of the rails in order to tip the nose of the rails a little lower. SOLVED MY PROBLEM!
LONG STORY: Live in the Portland Oregon region. Brought my table with me from S.F. Bay area about 7 years ago. Left it unassembled (properly wrapped) in my unheated shop for over a year. Finally had one of the local table mechanics set my level my slates and recover the table. On a medium stroke shot the ball would simply 'thud' into the cushion and rebound a mere 6 to 8 inches. This was happening on four of the six cushions, almost the full length of the cushion. In frustration, I ripped off the cushion cloth and noticed that the rubber was visibly cracked and hard as a rock. Called the idiot (he is the one that removed the old cloth from the stored cushions) and asked him why he would re-cover a table that was obviously defective. Said he was sorry and would make it up to me by installing new rubbers at a good price. Did so, re-covered the table again (faster cloth) and I was still unsatisfied. Made myself a 24" metal ramp (metal related) that had a 3/4" rise at one end. Would let a ball roll down and measured the rebound. I would also go to pool halls and repeat the same measurement. On the WORST tables at the pool halls the rebound distance was almost twice the distance as upon mine. Waited a year, found an old mechanic with
40 years of experience, said he would re-cushion with the best German rubber having a K-6 profile. I delivered my six rails to his shop. Calls me 2 weeks later and tells me that my rails are too high. Wants permission to run them through the jointer, or table saw, to get them down to the right height. "Sure, go ahead"! Three weeks later he comes out and installs the rails and re-covers the table with Simonis cloth. I get out my little 'ramp gage' and he laughs at me. "That's not how we check rebound. We shoot a ball the full length of the table (into a corner) and the ball should hit at least 8 rails". He starts shooting and after a while he's almost 'throwing' the ball by hand and the best he can do is about 5 rails. Once in a while 6. Because of my nature I pay him in full and tell him to get lost.Now, two years later, thinking that Golden West (the manufacturer of my 20 yr. old table) will probably mount new rubbers, or confess that my thin rails don't have enough mass for proper rebound, I was expecting that they will cut new rails for me that are wider and more massive than my 4" rails. No, we walk into the showroom, they immediately take the rail out of my hand, place it on a showroom table opposite their rail and show me that it's too high. They say take it home, try sliding a penny under and if that does not work try a nickel. Pennies are cheaper but I went with the nickel. Using my ramp (metal related) I went from a 16"-17" rebound to a consistent 23" rebound.
BTW, while this doesn't sound like much, this is extremely slow velocity ramp. It would be difficult to even shoot a ball at this slow velocity. My point being is that at a medium speed shot the percent improvement in rebound is much more than indicated by the percentage improvement above. The force increases with the square of the velocity. In fact, at these very slow speeds, I was able to pick up an extra inch of rebound simply by polishing the balls. Proved it with 5 different balls. While I saw no visible grit or lint on the cloth, a good brushing also added about on half of an inch. Of course all you players know that cleanliness is very critical at very slow speeds.
Sorry about the long rant. I'm just elated that after 4 years of putting up with this (tired of spending money) Golden West solved my problem, did not try to sell me a new table, did not try to sell me new rubber etc., but simply told me to lower my cushions.
While using a nickel works, I am fully capable of putting the rails either through my table saw or the jointer for a more permanent fix.
WHAT COULD HAVE GONE WRONG: Three possibilities: While the last tech new my rails were high and asked permission to run them through the table saw, he either forgot (had them for four weeks) or his new apprentice forgot. Another possibility is that he ran them through the saw BEFORE installing the new rubber. The new rubber, having a different profile (K6) is possibly higher than the old. Golden West tells me that all the rubber with different profiles have different heights and must be compensated for.
Comments appreciated. Have fun playing!!!
Ivan Vegvary
(cross posted to rec.sport.billiards)