Fred Rowley - Snookerman Cloth Fitter??

[itsnoteasy]

Welcome aboard Fred, you can't drop names like those and not tell us some stories

[barrywhite]

you ask some task's of me Phil...lol

a full refurb , well lets start with bringing the table in with traveling two men around a day thats £300 / £350 + 50p per mile before we even strip it .

to strip a table and wash the stripper off the woodwork is also around a day for one man if a square leg more if carved turned leg

sanding the woodwork filling the grain , and any woodwork repairs plus staining another 8 hours / 16 hours depending on type of table square leg or turned leg to heavy carved etc

Polishing two ways of doing this forget french polish it is too soft for modern day use a belt buckle rash will soon rub the french polish off , a two pack spray polish is the most often used , or 7 coats of Ronseal satin , sanded between each coat , last coat also wire wooled and then covered in bee's wax , a full strip stain and repolish is going to cost around £1000 . some charge even more .

a Rerubber £300 / £350 only use northern rubber

Recover includeing nets leathers and ball rails £550

Set up £450 + 50p mile add for any nights out if traveling too far .

refloating of slates ...I do not know of anyone doing this at this moment in time ENBILD and K & Hillman where the last I know of to do this . but expect around £300 for this service if a firm had the facility in the workshop to do this , if contracting out the slates may have to be transported to the floaters which would mean extra costs , I may point out I know how to float slates but my boss says too many laws on health and saftey for us to get involved with it ? i think it would be a good money earner if no one is doing it but thats life . always better to shoot a frame and float the slates on it rather than just put slates on a test frame and float .
Ajustable muntin's a new way of making sure slates do not sag , I say new but burrouhs and watts where useing this method in aslightly differant format on their RIGIDUS framed cross bearer type construction which had no muntin's . i would as a Guarentee w hen having a full refurb ask for adjustable muntin's to be put in useing the original fixed muntins i would expect 6 brackets to cost around £20 each so £120 plus say £40 to fit and shooting of old muntins would be an acceptable price .

Iv'e left out all the playing tackle like cue's balls triangle long tackle and of course the new type High frequency lighting or maybe refurbing the old coffin shade if you wanted a traditional look .

I make that around £2860 + vat , add more if the slates want floating !


Geoff

Rileys did all that and a supplied a refurbed table for slightly less. Geoff is good but.................

[Geoff Large]

“There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person’s lawful prey. It’s unwise to pay too much, but it’s worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money — that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot — it can’t be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better.”

The above was carved into a large wooden solid oak board by hand with a carving chisel to show the skills of the Billiards fitter I learnt my trade from and to show his clients that he has a price for his work , it's actually a Quote from John ruskin , Mick Robb of Belvoir billiards my mentor always stated to me never underprice your skill and always show that you do not rest on your laurels always seek to improve , sadly Mick passed away in his 50s from lung disease from sawdust contaminating his lungs making tables in a small workshop with that carved plaque above his head every day to remind his clients of his worth .

the fact that I am still trading must mean I am doing something correct after 40 years as a billiards fitter.

Rileys where a very large organisation in the 1980s up until they went bust rebranded or regrouped and went bust again and had various people in an assembly type line doing all sorts of work . one fitter never took the whole job on from the first screw undone to the last screw fitted on assembly
Try getting a quote from Riley today , they sell the Aristocrat at around £12000 , they are not really Riley anymore as I think BCE own them ? or the rights to the name E.J Riley registered in Bristol if you check companies house

I am a little lower priced than Thurston and about £20 to £30 higher priced than a speed fitter on recovers .

So why the Geoff is good but quote at the end

, are you suggesting I am too expensive ?

get quotes from Thurston or Cheshire billiards for the same work and you will see that was a competitive price .


and that quote was at a time I was employed for a firm called Elston & Hopkin it was not from my own self employed status which only happened 4 years this June ago , it does state lower down a reference to my Boss about not wanting to hand float slate because of employment health and safety laws
the above quote was a rough one done for Phil who was asking me what the rough cost was .
I would not take on any renovations like repolishing as it is far better to sub contract this out to a furniture restorer , i am too busy on table re-covers and re-rubbers and also pool tables to spend many hours stripping and staining and polishing wood work , it is too time consuming , and who ever does this type of work deserves a good pay for all the time it takes to do it .
Fully renovating the woodwork on a full size carved leg snooker table is not a 5 minute job .

and because of what happened to Mick with his lungs with sawdust and chemical stripper contamination , I am better off leaving it to someone else as I want to live a lot longer than Mick did and I will with God's help be still fitting at 70 years old .

You only have to look at fitters like Brain at Cheshire billiards still fitting at over 80 years old , they will have to carry him away from a table I think .

[cally]

Great post Geoff..

Why that Barry is still able to post his drivel around the boards I don't know.

His posts are ridiculous, take no notice of him. He's just trolling. Absolutely ridiculous that he's just allowed to troll the boards as he is here

[Fred Rowley]

Hello, Fred Rowley here..
Only just come across this very old post and was most surprised that I have my very own thread! Seems that my workmanship is in doubt so maybe if I drop a few names of my customers you might be suitably impressed.
One of my very first famous customers was Oliver Reed (very nice man) Frederick Forsyth,Rod Stewart, Ronnie Wood, Roger Daltrey, Jamiraquai, Ray Wilkins, Jimmy White, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Sky television, Brainiac to name but a few. I can honestly say they were all 'happy with my work'. Considering we are just a 2 man band I don't think we've done too bad!
I retired last year and gave up recovering full size snooker tables, just do the occasional pool table now. Kind regards, Fred

Started at John bennetts in the old kent road in 1970 -71 began my own business A SHADE ABOVE THE REST in 1982 and have enjoyed going to work every day since

[Bigmeek]

Started at John bennetts in the old kent road in 1970 -71 began my own business A SHADE ABOVE THE REST in 1982 and have enjoyed going to work every day since

Hi Fred, I seem to remember buying a cue from a shop in the Old Kent Road around 1974/5. Did Bennetts sell cues? My memory of that period is a bit scetchy!

[jrc750]

... Did Bennetts sell cues?...

Plenty of cues with that name on so yeah
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Excellent-...p2047675.l2557

[Fred Rowley]

Bennetts were the main suppliers of snooker tables and accessories in the south side of london