smoothness of table cloth

[wannabenumb]

Hi everybody, a noobie question for you guys ya! Does table's cloth smoothness equates to how fast the balls travel on the snooker table? Thanks!

[haz_pro]

i think its the thickness of the cloth, how ever i could be wrong.

[wannabenumb]

What are the things we should do that can actually improve the smoothness of the table? For example, what routine maintenance should be carried out etc.. etc..! All replies will be deeply appreciated, thanks!

[wannabenumb]

i think its the thickness of the cloth, how ever i could be wrong.

Hi haz_pro, thanks for the reply! By the way, do you know what are the things that we should do to improve the existing tables' cloth condition? Thanks!

[jeffrey]

brush and iron the table

[inevermissblue]

Most Important Thing To Do.

This is by far the best procedure to keep your cloth and its subsequent playability to the best possible condition. Alot of people seem to think that you only need to pad or spray a table with water only, prior to ironing. This is probably the worst thing to do imo as the build up of grease accumulated by hands and dust particles cannot be removed by water and ironing alone. The result of this leaves the cloth very unplayable as in it will take away the gliding properties that a newly fitted cloth provides, and this is the type of conditions that we should be playing with. The grease that lies on the surface (ironed or not), unnecessarliy grips the cueball taking away all of the imparted spin you apply on the shot! A nightmare!!!

So what i do is to fully submerge a beer towel or similar into a clean sink of water. then use a bar of soap and rub it until the lather is building up in my hands and falls making the water slightly cloudy. This seems to be the sufficient amount needed. Then i would empty the sink and very briefly rinse the cloth out without completely removing the soap. Then wrap it around your table brush and pad the table with it! Once the table has been ironed you will notice that the sheen has reappeared which will tell you that the gliding effect you need will return. Excellent!!! :snooker: :snooker: :snooker:

[Geoff Large]

Water in any form i.e sprayed on in a mister ,or a damp cloth around the brush is a no no , it will make the cloth go like cardboard , and when a stretch is required there will not be much stretch in the cloth to move the area's of ball track wear on the corner pockets down the fall .
Water and ironing on a wool cloth will shrink it , and send it stiff just like Cardboard , I have witnessed cloth that can stand up on its end when bent because of water damping , water and damp will solidify the chalk dust .
people mostly damp a cloth to bring the colour back , this is only tempory as soon as the water has fully dried out the colour has gone back to normal worn colour .

Brush and iron on a regular basis , after each game wrap a piece of cloth around the brush and just wipe the bed down , this will help keep dust out of the bed cloth weave , unless you know there is no filler in the slate joints never vacume the cloth , if you do vacume the cloth use a low power suction , just enough to suck up the surface dust , but not the filler in the joints .

the only time a fitter will use water , is around the middle slate falls on a newly fitted bed cloth ( especialy no 10 strachan ) and then only spareingly by damp hands or a spray mister around that area only .
You can sometimes see this on TV if you look at the middle slate fall on the centre pocket , you can see a damp mark .

[wannabenumb]

This is by far the best procedure to keep your cloth and its subsequent playability to the best possible condition. Alot of people seem to think that you only need to pad or spray a table with water only, prior to ironing. This is probably the worst thing to do imo as the build up of grease accumulated by hands and dust particles cannot be removed by water and ironing alone. The result of this leaves the cloth very unplayable as in it will take away the gliding properties that a newly fitted cloth provides, and this is the type of conditions that we should be playing with. The grease that lies on the surface (ironed or not), unnecessarliy grips the cueball taking away all of the imparted spin you apply on the shot! A nightmare!!!

So what i do is to fully submerge a beer towel or similar into a clean sink of water. then use a bar of soap and rub it until the lather is building up in my hands and falls making the water slightly cloudy. This seems to be the sufficient amount needed. Then i would empty the sink and very briefly rinse the cloth out without completely removing the soap. Then wrap it around your table brush and pad the table with it! Once the table has been ironed you will notice that the sheen has reappeared which will tell you that the gliding effect you need will return. Excellent!!! :snooker: :snooker: :snooker:

Hi inevermissblue, your advise was simpily awesome thanks! How often should we do it? My ironing of tables is currently twice a week and sweepings done once every two days, please advise.

[wannabenumb]

brush and iron the table

Hi jeffrey, how often to do it then? Thanks!

[nutscrewsandbolts]

Water in any form i.e sprayed on in a mister ,or a damp cloth around the brush is a no no , it will make the cloth go like cardboard , and when a stretch is required there will not be much stretch in the cloth to move the area's of ball track wear on the corner pockets down the fall .
Water and ironing on a wool cloth will shrink it , and send it stiff just like Cardboard , I have witnessed cloth that can stand up on its end when bent because of water damping , water and damp will solidify the chalk dust .
people mostly damp a cloth to bring the colour back , this is only tempory as soon as the water has fully dried out the colour has gone back to normal worn colour .

Brush and iron on a regular basis , after each game wrap a piece of cloth around the brush and just wipe the bed down , this will help keep dust out of the bed cloth weave , unless you know there is no filler in the slate joints never vacume the cloth , if you do vacume the cloth use a low power suction , just enough to suck up the surface dust , but not the filler in the joints .

the only time a fitter will use water , is around the middle slate falls on a newly fitted bed cloth ( especialy no 10 strachan ) and then only spareingly by damp hands or a spray mister around that area only .
You can sometimes see this on TV if you look at the middle slate fall on the centre pocket , you can see a damp mark .

Thanks Geoff. Great info.

[Geoff Large]

Well I thought I had seen it all , but today realy surprised me .

I had to go to Kingston on Thames today to recover some american sam tables in a 10 pin bowling place , on arriving the tables had just had their Bed cloths WASHED , yeh you got it the tables where soaked in water , wringing wet .
I took the cloth off the slates on the tables I was working on , and left the slates to dry , in the meantime I recovered the cushions , on the other soaked tables that where still in use , the balls where sticking on the rails inside the table , the soaked cloth was getting the balls wet and this in turn was turning the dust on the rails into a slimy sludge , I pointed this out to the Manager who was on duty , only to be told , but we always do this to make the tables look good ?
I said if you want to wash them , take the slates out and wash the rails system down , then the balls will not stick . and never wet the cloth again .
the Sam tables by the way where way past their sell by date , all hinges broken and top surrounds falling apart , just by wetting them , they thought they looked good ?

the problem with wetting these tables is , the manager could be transfered to another bowling place and do the same there , also staff under him could be promoted to another bowling place and do the same , soon by word of mouth and from wetting the tables themselves , all the bowling centres are soaking their tables becuase they think this is the correct thing to do as they have been taught , customers are coming in and placeing their hand on a soaking wet table to play Pool . and the table has sticking balls and rust inside the table if they have steel rails .

so you see why in snooker wetting a cloth or spraying the table has been passed around by word of mouth that this is the thing to do , when in fact NOBODY in the billiard industry as a Fitter has been trained to do this , and the fitter by experience has proof why you should not do it , YET people still do it !

[unclevit]

What are the things we should do that can actually improve the smoothness of the table? For example, what routine maintenance should be carried out etc.. etc..! All replies will be deeply appreciated, thanks!

I might be wrong, but from playing at many clubs, balls will run faster on smooth and clean cloth. The Club I am playing now will clean and iron the cloth after each player/group has finished their playing. Or after some 5-6 games of 15-reds. Hourly charge is only US$4/hour day or night. Cleaning/Ironing takes about 10 minutes (quick one) and counts into the hourly rate. At night, when the club closes, all tables will be ironed again to ensure 'tournament' playing grade on the next day.

[poolqjunkie]

Well I thought I had seen it all , but today realy surprised me .

I had to go to Kingston on Thames today to recover some american sam tables in a 10 pin bowling place , on arriving the tables had just had their Bed cloths WASHED , yeh you got it the tables where soaked in water , wringing wet .
I took the cloth off the slates on the tables I was working on , and left the slates to dry , in the meantime I recovered the cushions , on the other soaked tables that where still in use , the balls where sticking on the rails inside the table , the soaked cloth was getting the balls wet and this in turn was turning the dust on the rails into a slimy sludge , I pointed this out to the Manager who was on duty , only to be told , but we always do this to make the tables look good ?
I said if you want to wash them , take the slates out and wash the rails system down , then the balls will not stick . and never wet the cloth again .
the Sam tables by the way where way past their sell by date , all hinges broken and top surrounds falling apart , just by wetting them , they thought they looked good ?

Speaking of cleaning the cloth, have you used a product called quick clean which is like a dry cleaning product for pool table cloth. You spray it on, wipe it down, and it is dry and ready to go.

[Geoff Large]

Yes I have used most of the products for cleaning cloths , from spray on mister to foam , these are ok to use if they do not starch the cloths , but never use them on very dusty chalk ridden cloths , as all they do is solidify the chalk dust , the foam cleaners are useless they stain the cloth .

chalk dust only requires damping by either water or cleaning spray products to solidify in the weave and this is not good for ball run trueness and if the cloth requires stretching as in the case of Full size snooker tables , as stated above in other post , it makes the cloth like cardboard , I prefer to stretch cloth not cardboard .

I prefer the method of regular brushing and ironing without any cleaning sprayproducts at all , cloths maintained like this are good to stretch when the time comes and will perform well on speed and ball run ( do not Iron on man made pool cloths ) on wool content napped cloths , the recomended time between brushing and ironing is every 10 hours of use , but wiping down between frames is a good idea to keep the surface chalk and dust from entering the weave .

[Geoff Large]

I might be wrong, but from playing at many clubs, balls will run faster on smooth and clean cloth. The Club I am playing now will clean and iron the cloth after each player/group has finished their playing. Or after some 5-6 games of 15-reds. Hourly charge is only US$4/hour day or night. Cleaning/Ironing takes about 10 minutes (quick one) and counts into the hourly rate. At night, when the club closes, all tables will be ironed again to ensure 'tournament' playing grade on the next day.

Correct regular Brushing and ironing is the way to keep a table cloth in good order for speed and trueness , because you are ironing the nap flat and taking the chalk dust off the table .