Here we are at Ole’s Tavern in beautiful, overcast, downtown San Clemente, CA. It was cool and overcast on Tuesday morning when we showed up to recover the two pool tables. The seven foot Global pool tables had been previously recovered with Championship’s “Tour Edition” euro blue cloth. The bar’s cleaning crew had made the mistake of using Armor-all to polish the pool table rails. This left an oily residue which was transferred to the felt. Then when a player would touch the felt with their hands, some not so clean. After a couple of months the felt started to become black in certain areas. So, needless to say, the felt looked bad, but it wasn’t worn out.

Mark, one of the owners, on the recommendation of his business partner, decided to have us refelt the pool tables. We replaced the tour edition cloth with “Aramith’s” 24oz. Worsted Tournament cloth. I believe this cloth to be a rival to “Simonis 860″ It looks and plays the same and costs about $15-$20 bucks a yard less. The two Global pool tables were in great shape, considering they were only a couple of years old. The only slight problem I encountered, was when we re-leveled the front pool table. I noticed that two diagonal opposing corners were low. Confused, I thought to myself, how is this possible? If I tried to raise slightly one corner, this would severely affect the opposite corner. After a while of chasing the bubble in my level, I decided to stop using the leg levelers. I loosened the the two end rails and placed a small shim underneath the slate of the two low corners and re-tightened the rail bolts. This seemed to help the problem. The other pool table was the total opposite, it leveled up perfectly with the use of the leg levelers.

This poor pool table sat in this Santa Ana, CA garage for a year while it’s owner found a permanent home. Thank God for understanding parents, While their son was out looking for a house to buy this newly acquired toy sat unused for a year on the garage floor just like you see it pictured here. Apparently our client (the son of said parents) had a buddy who was getting a divorce and refused to let the “ex” obtain the pool table. So he let his buddy have it for a steal of a deal, the only catch, it needed to be moved asap!

So in come the six friends and a pick-up truck routine, I’ve seen it before and I’m sure I’ll see it again. It’s not the safest way to move a slate pool table, but when the “ex” might get the thing, all hands on deck. The only obvious damage sustained were some gouges and scratches near the bottom of the frame and a couple of loose rails and blind aprons. So, destination, our client’s parent’s garage floor. Here it sat until Sonny Boy found himself some new diggs, which he did… in a nice 1920′s Santa Ana, CA home.

So we schedule the job for our client and show up at the parent’s house to dismantle the pool table and load it up. The felt on the slate was in pretty bad shape, there was a big tear in it. The rail cloth was still ok, our client thought about refelting the whole table but I mentioned to him that leaving the  camel colored felt on the rails and refelting the bed with black cloth would look cool. He liked the idea of having a black & tan pool table, we were also able to save him some money too! It was win-win for him, because he was having a party later that evening.

Yesterday we went to Angel Stadium in Anaheim, CA to deliver and install the Fan Appreciation Day pool table. This pool table will be given away to one lucky fan in attendance on Sunday, September 26. We set-up the pool table right outside the Diamond Club.

Yesterday we were on a pool table job in Laguna Niguel, CA. The owners of this nine foot pool table were moving to Colorado and needed the pool table experts to help with getting this massive pool table disassembled and loaded into their rented moving truck. No problem for us, that’s what we do on a daily basis.

We started by detaching the leather pockets and then un-bolted the rails. We carefully slid the two “U” shaped sections of rails off the table and laid them upside down on the floor. We then removed the bolts that fastened the leather pockets to each rail section. While this was going on my assistant was carefully removing the felt that covered the slates. This particular model of pool table had the felt glued onto the slate. So he had to be really careful not to rip it while it was being detached from the perimeter of the slate. Once this tricky task was done, we move on to removing the slate screws. After removing the last screw and before moving the slate pieces out I always mark the slates with a “head” for the end that was the breaking end of the table. Then I’ll draw an arc across the three pieces and I’ll number the pieces 1,2,3. After we’ve moved the last piece of slate off of the cabinet, I’ll mark “head” on the wood where the head piece of slate was resting.

Now we un-bolted the four legs and bored four holes into two sturdy cross-members, then bolted the legs to the inside of cabinet. We carefully folded and wrapped the felt and packed it in a box with the six pockets, pool balls and any other small pool table related items. I inter-locked two rails and laid out a moving pad on the floor and wrapped the rails sort of like making a big burrito, making sure I rolled them a few times then folded the ends inside then rolled again and taped the ends shut.

This pool table was now ready to be trucked up to Colorado safely.

We delivered this 8′ Fischer “Dutchess” pool table to a nice family in Orange, CA. The “Dutchess” is our most popular model, it’s available in Cinnamon, Warm Chestnut, Traditional Mahogany and Honey Maple finishes. Priced at only $1999, we include the local delivery, setup and a full premium accessory kit. All “Dutchess” pool tables feature solid wood double interlocking beams, solid wood carved legs, rails and blind aprons. Three piece one inch slate is standard on all Fischer pool tables. Visit our show room in Orange County to see the “Dutchess” and many other beautiful pool tables.

That’s right, UCI’s Vista del Campo in Irvine, CA  is going “Green”. New green felt that is. As you can see in the pics, we are replacing the three year old Championship “champrint” cloth with “Aramith’s” 24oz. “worsted” tournament cloth. I’m sure some of the better pool players at VDC will really appreciate the upgrade in cloth. The Championship printed cloth was cool looking because it had the VDC logo on it, but it was a “woolen” cloth. “Woolen” cloth tends to play quite a bit slower than “worsted” cloth, because a woolen cloth like championship’s has what’s called “nap” on the playing surface. This “nap” tends to slow the ball’s momentum when rolling. Some of you may be familiar with a type of billiard cloth called “Simonis”. Simonis is a worsted cloth, meaning it has no “nap” on the playing surface. “Aramith Tournament” cloth is also a worsted cloth, AT has very similar characteristics to Simonis 860. AT cloth is newcomer to the Billiard Industry. The manufacturer however, is not new to the Industry. Belgium’s Saluc S.A. has been producing the world’s finest billiard balls for over half of a century. The benefits of using AT cloth over a conventional woolen cloth are great. You can enjoy tournament quality play on your own pool table, while saving some “green” too. On average, the cost of AT cloth over Simonis cloth is approximately $20-25 dollars per yard less. I have personally installed AT cloth on dozens of  pool tables in commercial environments such as sportsbars. The AT cloth will stand the test of time and when it’s “broken in”, has that same shiny look to it that Simonis does. For the “designer type” folks, AT cloth is available in 12 popular colors. Please visit our show room to see it in person.

Here’s a perfect example of a family who loves their pool table. Back in 2002 we setup this eight foot Connelly pool table in South Orange County. After a few years the family was transfered to Barbados, so their pool table was disassembled and the slates were crated for protection. For the next couple of years the pool table sat in storage until another transfer came along. This time the family relocated from Barbados to Miami, FL. This is where their prized Connelly pool table was resurrected, the pool table was setup and refelted in Euro Blue. A few years and many enjoyable games of pool later, the family, yet again was relocating. This time, to beautiful Laguna Niguel, CA. So their pool table once again was disassembled and the slates crated for protection. This is where we come into the picture again. The family hired us to uncrate and setup the pool table again but they weren’t feelin’ the Euro Blue felt in their new home. So Mike and Nicolle came down to our showroom to check out some different felt colors. They liked the Camel, Evergreen, Mahogany and Burgundy. But after much back and forth discussion the two decided on the Burgundy. So Rory set their appointment and we showed up a few days later to resurrect their beloved Connelly pool table. There are only a handful of pool table manufacturers that I consider to be high quality. Connelly is by far one of the best, considering that this pool table was originally purchased in 2001 in Virginia, it has been taken apart and setup many times over. It’s structural integrity still sound. So here’s a look at the finished product, looks great, plays great. Hopefully the family will continue to cherish their Connelly pool table for another decade and beyond!

We delivered this beautiful 8′ pool table to a cool couple from Costa Mesa, CA. The old “non-slate” pool table was being given away to one of the contractors doing work for the homeowners. John and Denise had recently inherited this 1960′s “non-slate” pool table with the home. John found about us and was originally just interested in refurbishing the old table by putting new cloth and cushions on. But after talking with Rory for a while about putting money into a pool table that wasn’t even slate. John decided to embark on a new pool table search. After visiting with a couple of Orange County pool table dealers and being really turned off by the “used-car” salesman-like treatment. John decided to buy from us, where he was treated with a “no-pressure” approach.

We started this job out, in a garage in Newport Beach, CA. This is where this pro eight foot “Beach mfg.” pool table had been for a few years while it’s owners had been searching for a new home. It also served as entertainment for their son while he attended college. Well, college is over and daddy wants his pool table back. A beautiful home in San Juan Capistrano, CA is the new place of residence for this gem of a pool table. The owners of this Beach Billiards custom pool table wanted us to refurbish it completely. When we arrived at the new home, we figured out the best position for this plus-sized table. We wrapped up the rails and brought them back to the shop to be re-cushioned and recovered. The owners chose mahogany cloth and new brown leather fringed pockets. The pool table looked great in the room, with new felt, cushions and pockets the table looked and played like new!

Dave,
Thanks for doing a great job. the table plays great and looks fantastic in our new home!
Regards,
Willy

Last week we went out to Anaheim Hills, CA to remove and replace some very old leather pockets. This was an old “Cooper” pool table named after the man who built and sold these highly unorthodox pool tables. Just a little history on the man named Cooper, I have heard from customers of his that he actually drove to the customer’s house with the pool table loaded into the back of a Ford “Pinto” station wagon. I have heard that he would actually build the whole pool table on site. Most of these “Cooper” tables were built around a one piece slate. Every one of these pool tables is a little different than next. From an installer’s standpoint, one never knows whats in store with a Cooper table.

For the most part these sub-par pool tables functioned rather well, considering the crude construction materials used. But I think that at the time, these tables were very affordable for most people wanting to own their own pool table. Let’s get back to this new pocket job. Basically the pool table was original except for the pockets. Our customer told us that he had the felt repalced once or twice in 30+ years and I’m sure he’d had the rubber cushions replaced sometime 10 or 15 years ago. I noticed that one of the cushions was starting to go “dead”. He told us that he and his grandkids just dink balls around once in a while and recushioning the rails was not necessary, but that his leather pockets were in need of replacing. So that’s what we did for him. Now all the pool balls will stay in the pockets and not on the floor, where they’ve been going for months. Yet another pool table resurrection by the pool table experts.