the Jubilee, thurston Manufactured

[Geoff Large]

i have set up a thurston Jubilee table in the wharehouse this week , and thought maybe some of you would like to see this type of table , so i took a photo , this table was first designed in 1977 during the queens jubilee year , ironic that is another jubilee year this year for the same monarch .
anyway the table i think is ahead of its time , the leveling system and the fact that it has just three rotundas and is very stable , make this table a good buy , some even refer it as a Disabled table due to the fact that wheelchairs players find that they can get right upto the cushion as it has a good overhang all the way around and the wheelchair actualy will travel a little under the table .
other manufacturers have tried to copy some of the designs of this table , riley built the starline which in my opinion is a not very good and all should be scrapped , I know one well known club in leicester that has a few of the starlines . Enbild also tried to copy the leveling system when they tried to incorperate it into a standard 8 leg table , this was also a bad design as the table was very rickety and wobbeled when you leant on it .

Anyway here is the table , it is made up of very high quality laminated wood and finnished in a variety of colours in the FORMICA finnish which if looked after will last forever . this one is in Oak , but you could get them in Cream and gold and darker shades too .
NOTE the large brass pocket plates , this plate was the start of the extra extra extra Broad bow Craze that was used in later manufacture by BCE and Riley , but this jubilee pocket plate is even larger and more scalloped on the entry and gives the table a tournament match table feel .

and Thurston even make this model today Brand new .

[jarcher]

the Jubilee, thurston Manufactured

Hi Geoff, could you explain what it is the makes the leveling system in this table so special and why is it that others have been unable to copy it?

[Geoff Large]

I did not say they where unable to copy it , but they have not matched it's stability , the designs of nut leveling system on the riley starline involves a trestle cantilever which just is not upto the job , if you leant on a Riley starline when someone had just taken a shot you could make the ball curve away it is that unstable .
The enbild tried to use the same method of slotted side rails of the jubilee and a nut that was turned to lower or higher the side rails , the bolt and nut used where rather flimsy around 3/8 ths thick and they soon dropped the design through complaints of unstableness . tables where creaking and moving when leant on . We used to lower all the lifters on these adjustable bolted enbilds to the lowest setting to make the frame stable and then pack with toe pieces / shims to relevel just like a traditional 8 leg fixed frame .

The jubilee has very thick laminated wooden side beams , strong enough to be used as Lintels if you want to compere them to something solid .
The joints are reinforced by thick steel plates , and the bolts that adjust the lowering and highering of the side beams are very thick 1 inch threads , with two locking off bolts per side rotunda . the side beams are further inside the slate rather than just 6 inches in like an 8 leg traditional table , making the use of muntin's on a jubilee not required .

[jhr145]

I learned to play the game on these tables very tight pockets to pot anything along the rails it has to just over pocket weight, the tables never moved in 30 years any drifts stayed the same in all that time, apart from the leathers the tables looked the same as the day they were put in the club that had a sloping floor I think it was a bakery before. The 8 tables were all metric a little under sized, the club is closed now but there is another Jubilee table in the place I play now that is 12ft by 6ft.

[jarcher]

the Jubilee, thurston Manufactured

Very interesting Geoff, thanks. You would think with the technology available today, that someone would have thought up an easier way to level a table.

If it was me, I'd probably look at integrating a digital, computer connected level that you hook into the table via USB or something lol although, that really removes the skill of what it takes to properly level a table.

Anyone with the right equipment can level a table, though for the time I'd spend on tweaking etc to get it right and you'd probably be finishing the fittings of the cushions after a full recover haha it's truly is a skill to float the slates correctly and quickly lol

[Geoff Large]

There is a story about the metric slates , back in the 80s the Main billiard firms got together and formed the B&STA the Billilards and Snooker Trade Association , at a meeting it was agreed I think because of the Italian quarries wanting just to prooduce slates in metric measurements that the slate in principle where to be of metric size going forward in any production , but it had not been passed by the comittee of the B&STA , Thurston jumped the gun and ordered a few Hundred slates and started to produce metric tables in all the range of full sized tables thay produced includeing the Jubilee , once the other manufactureing firms found out they voted against the metric sized tables , hence any Metric full size which is around 2 inch shorter than an imperial 12foot , cannot be used in ranking tournament and is not reconised by the governing body of the Game .
Thurston carried on useing the stock of Metric slates until they ran out and they reverted back to imperial size .

Jubilee tables can be leveled by a noivice the system is that easy to operate all you need is 2 spanners . those jubilee leathers where a swine to fit in the early days as they came flat and you had to soak them to form around the Brass plate then dry them out before you cutt them or they will shrink back , today they are pre formed Moulded and are easier to fit .
the jubilee table is a forward thinking design of the 70s , but people like traditional looks of the Hard wood , and Sadly the table only apealed to a few , thurston did sell a quite few though and i come across them often , sadly they do not fetch good money on ebay ao if you are foward thinking maybe a Jubilee is the model for any snooker room , Thurston are still manufactureing the table to this day look at the web site below . I think they are priced around £6000 new .

http://www.thurston.co.uk/Pages/Article.aspx?id=171

[Geoff Large]

digital computerand lazer leveling has been used and was offerd by a firm a few years ago , but in my opinion it was a gimmick , and also cost a few £s to have done , they only told you where the slates where out and then you had to pay extra for either refloating and planeing true of the frame hich a good fitter would have found with his level , or for someone with a hand held sanding form to try and get the high spots out , I actualy have seen them do this and it never improved the table like refloating would have , only refloating will get the slates back to true , and adjustable muntins to stop any future slate sag , there is no better way to level than agood Engineering level and a good set of true slates to start with ,

there is another thread discussing the PC lazer leveling .
http://www.thesnookerforum.com/board...ht=lazer+level