Billiards Articles

If you are a pool player you know for sure that a mere tear on a pool table can significantly affect the game. Even if you are just playing casually with family and friends, your pool table deserves all the protection and maintenance for you to have a fun filled and hassle free game. Thus, it is very important that you really should take good take care of your pool table.

The most usual damage to the pool table that comes out after years of service is the rips of different sizes found in the surface cloth or felt cloth of your pool table. Thus, what you need to do is to re-felt the pool table to restore it like new.

Well this task looks quite simple. But remember, you cannot just patch a specific part that has cuts, as it would create an uneven surface. Pretty sure you don’t like that, so instead of patching several slashes on your pool table I would suggest that you really have to re cover the entire pool table.

Follow these steps to effectively recover your pool table. This instruction is for pool tables with wood backing and has stapled felt configuration.

First, get the exact measurement of your pool table to know the size of the felt to purchase. You may also consider the color that you want for your new pool table cover. Most felt cover can be purchased from craft shops and online.

Second, do away with the rails that surround the rim of the table. You can remove these rails by taking off the bolts placed underneath the table but remember to keep the rails in their proper position so that you will not have any problems in joining them again later.

Third, remove the staples tacked on the ends of the felt using a staple remover so that you can easily remove the old felt cover.

Fourth, spread the new felt on the pool table and try to double check for some defects on the new felt if there is any. Cut the felt according to the size of your pool table and remember to allocate at least 12 inches extra felt on four sides of the table purposely to recover the rails.

Fifth, carefully cover your pool table with your new felt. Start it by tacking your felt at the center edge of the table then work all the way to the edges, tacking every 2 to 4 inches. Make sure that you pull the felt firmly before tacking it under the edges.

Sixth, make three slits at the side pocket. Start wrapping the felt and staple it under the edges then cut down the extra felt. The pocket liners can then be re attached

Finally, make a final check on the over all smoothness of the felt, this will greatly affect the game since the ball will wander if the felt cover are snag at some point.

Now reattach the railings in the same way as you took it apart, make sure you tighten the bolt or screw to make a firm, vibration free side railing.

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