all the pretty pool tables

i've been making pool tables now since about 1989 .... hmmm almost 25 years?  seems like a blink.  i was first captivated by pool in high school, at the bowling alley, at Fry's, the luncheonette with two pool tables 'in the back', one for an open 9 ball game (50 cents and a dollar) and one for the 'old men' to play one pocket on.  high chairs to watch too.  there was also another 8 table room on the second floor above woolworth's where we hung out and played games to 25 or 50 for 'time'.  loser paid for the table time.  i got hooked by the geometry, the skill building, the camaraderie and pool hall culture.  and, in one of my fondest high school memories, my father, who was also good with a stick, took me into 'the city' to play at Allinger's, the famous philly pool room where they still had girls come around and rack your balls up and a pretty fair sized gallery section to watch the action on the hot tables.  it was something.  but i digress ... the table above was a redo of an old brunswick table i bought with peeling veneer and a broken leg.  i was making it for my boys, but a client (for the second time) bought the table as i was working on it.  click the photos to enlarge them.

the table above, with claro walnut rails by will and a steel frame by sam is one of our latest.  finished last fall and shipped to chicago.  more pictures and info here. 

10/7/17 ... we've made 5 versions of this design now

side view, in the shop

this one was for a special client, back in 2003.  they were building a large barn/party/entertainment building and we got to make the pool table and a large kas style tv cabinet.  i'm doing some work there now and it's great to revisit this stunning space.  we received a design award from custom woodworking business magazine for it in 2005.  there is a video of how this table plays at this link.  i hope to get better at this video thing as time goes on, but it gives you an idea of how the table plays.

and here we have our first attempt at acquiring a pool table in about 1989.  this one was in rough shape when i bought it for $500. and i had to make new curly maple rails, new legs, and strip the peeling veneer off the body and paint it,  but it was worth the effort, though that one sold too before i finished it.

the 'mark of zorro', table a version of my original beidermeier inspired table

then we got into our 'arts and crafts' era.  this one's mahogany with burl accents and i wish i had a better picture of it ... it also had a nice wood frame light above it inspired by the brother's green and i know i have a picture of it somewhere.  also 2003.

and this one, yet again the same year (it was a VERY good year), a little fancier with some baseball inspired motifs on the legs and some fabulous quilted maple panels ... i'm planning a visit to as many of these tables as possible to take videos of them in action.  they all play great.

simpler version of the same style ... 2012 ... more photos here

and then in the 2004/2005 ea, we had a short 3 edition run of these vertical grain fir tables.  simple, direct, effective, and they all went in spectacular rooms with lots of windows.  stratton mountain, vermont above ...

weston, vermont ...

and finally, greenwich, ct

and then our next diversion/trend was for some 'post and beam' style tables.   this one was for a builder friend who made the base and leveled it up, we just did the slate work and built the rails and the did the cushions and felt work ... 

 

 this one came next in 2009 and it went to martha's vineyard.  will and i took it down one crystal clear january weekend ... i never saw the vineyard quiet like that.  we felt like we owned the place.  the blog post about this one is in my list of  'popular posts' off to the right there.  that post can get you started if you are interested in building your own pool table. 

and this is our latest version of the 'post and beam' style.  we delivered that one to sugarbush, vt just last december and here is a link to a video of it in action ... more video links to follow soon i hope.

now we're looking forward to our next commission, which is in manchester.  that project will be an older table that has lost its slate (somehow).  we've ordered some new slate and when it comes, we'll set up the base, refelt the rails and cushions and set that one up in a spectacular recently remodeled home.  more on that later.

pool .. i love it.  i think i'll go to my man cave and shoot a few racks right now ...

man cave with my modestly 'restored' 1915 brunswick balke-collender pool table.  after selling the first two attempts to get a pool table for myself, i decided to not make this one too fancy so no one would buy it.  it almost sold once, but i talked the clients into a new table, and i still have the one above in my cellar today.

sam and will, (now 30 and 28), on the day of the original set up in our previous home.  this was in the very early 90's i think. no date on the photo and that period of our lives was pretty much a blur.

Welcome New Readers !

sometime around the end or beginning of the month

i often look at my 'stats', a feature of blogger that tracks your

traffic and shows some of the sources of it ... 

recently i have noticed some surprising trends ...

currently over 2,500,000 page views !

and already on the 13th of this month we have had

more traffic than all of last month, which was likely

my biggest month ever ...

so, thanks for reading, and since there are almost a thousand

posts, below i give you links to some of my favorites  ...

leave a comment or drop me an email if you like .
 

below is a post from January, 2023 

titled a 'few of my favorites'.

 

 conveniently listed on the home page of my blog

are, according to blogger, my 'popular posts' ...

 the one at the top of that list has been viewed 

more than 35,000 times, which does make it 'popular',

at least in my book.

below i list not my 'popular posts', but some of my 'favorite posts'.

ones that feature projects that i enjoyed writing about,

and/or feature projects that i am proud of.

here we go .... lots to read here ...

'all the pretty pool tables'

at the time i was writing this post i was also reading

a cormac mccarthy book titled 'all the pretty horses'.

hence the post title, which explains what that post is about ..

the duck bed

i could go on and on about this one, 

and in the duck bed link above, i do ...

 

'chance to be a hero'

this was a rather miraculous repair if i do say so myself ...

we were able to get all the veneer pieces back to flat 

without disturbing the original finish ..

 

some libraries we have built

at least 6 of them there ... one of them took

nearly a year from cutting the trees to installing it

on the upper east side in new york city ...

some big projects there ...

 

all claro, all the time

about a dozen live edge tables in the blog post at that link

and about 45 more at this link

 

algebra and geometry in the workplace

 
a real, deep, head scratcher here ..

create the supports for a conical ceiling ... 

here are the 'plans' from the architect

Ensure Slope Matches Side Wall Angle for Conical Ceiling'

at 2 and 1/16th x 12

and there is always the onsite variable where

the concrete wall on the right is maybe on 2 and 3/16ths x 12

instead of the required 2 and 1/16th x 12, which in

7' adds up!  crazy stuff !

 
a 1/8th" to the foot scale model ...

and your basic algebra here ...

and in 2010 we collaborated with a 

friend to build two rather large conference tables

at 20' x 8', this is the 'small one'

'small' because this one is 26' x 9'

about 2' of granite hangs out over the base pieces
we cnc'd and joined the knockdown parts, 

we did the steel that supports the granite

 and did the wood borders around the granite pieces ...

our friend steve did the finishing and onsite assembly.

                                                                             the crow bar  ... below

i think this will do it for today ... 

more 'favorites' to come sometime ...

and a few more favorites at this link

 

and there are literally thousands of photos in the 'slide shows' 

a custom pool table

ok .. we're getting close now ... as i wrote back on july 28th, there's a lot going on in the shop. for the last week or so though, trevor and will and i have been pulling the final pieces of the pool table together. pool tables are always a challenge because, typically, we haven't built one for a while. our last one was in 2008 ... holy cow, no wonder we couldn't remember what we were doing exactly, and they are all different ... we're wrapping this one up, and, wonder of wonders, we'll be starting another one in a couple of weeks. hopefully that one will be a breeze. .. click the photos to enlarge them ...

like most things here, 'we took something' and 'did something to it'.

natural irion walnut and quilted big leaf maple

what we 'took' was the pool table below, dropped the tapered legs, changed the inlays from 'baseball inspired' to geometric and had at it. the proportions, moldings and palette are pretty much the same, but the result will be different ...
the one above we built in 2003, so no one working with me now was working with me then. but fortunately, that table is local and, coincidentally, the client requested that we 'level it up' as it was exhibiting a slight roll to one corner. after studying the roll, (it took 3 or 4 racks), we determined that the one corner was in the dead center of a +/- 30 clear span and either the thick carpet there had crushed or the joist had sagged ever so slightly. a piece of 1/16th inch veneer and two playing cards under one leg and we were back to level. it was a bonus, as we got to check it all out and 'remember' how to build it.

like anything, you start with a bunch of parts. i never counted them, but trust me, there were a bunch ... our trusty companion is still, after 23 years of pool table making, (15 tables total) an article by paul bowman that first appeared in fine woodworking in 1989 ... i give you the link here. paul's table was different than most of ours, but the information applies (still) and if you study it, i think it's all in there somewhere.

we typically start with a leg mockup ...

and in this case, we made the mortises for the inlays and the inlays for the 16 leg pieces, but held off on gluing the inlays in until we were ready to do the finishing ...

our assembly system is a hybrid system of bolts and steel plates and captured nuts, (like for bed bolts), and i really need to document that for the future .. trevor's got it dialed in now so as long as he's around, i'm good to go.

i have documented the 'rail process' a series of steps below that define the playing area (44 x 88 in this case), and make the balls behave and the pockets the right size.

the rails are constructed in two pieces ... i've got a very detailed cad drawing with dimensions and angles and i'll post it here at some point ... the steel plates you see in the poplar above are for the rail bolts that come up through the holes you see in the slate below and lock the cushions firmly in place so the balls bank properly.

after we add the profiled rails to the polar subrails, we cut them to length using standard dimensions for each size playing area.

first we install the inlays, spaced in all cases at 1/8th (long rails) or 1/4 (end rails), of the playing area. in this case 11" starting out from the center of the side pocket and the middle of the end rails.

then we add the rubber using yellow glue and masking tape with the goal of having the point of the cushion one and 13/32nds (1.40something) of an inch above the surface of the felt so that they are not too high ... (ball does not rebound with life and kind of thuds) .. or too low ... (ball rockets off the table when struck too hard). .. a vitally important detail ...

then you have to figure out how to drill the holes for the pockets .. we do em like this, except on a full size table where we have to raise the drill press up on a platform.

then you have to drill for the bolts that hold the pockets in place ...

then you get to put it all together and bolt it all to the slate and mark out the pocket angles ...

above, i give you the keys to the kingdom ... the order in which to do all this stuff. this is my 3rd and hopefully final iteration of this list.

after marking the angles using the standard measurements and angles from paul's article and a couple of jigs we have made, we cut them on our chopsaw, all on compound, fussy angles. the ends of the rubber than get different rubber cushion 'facings' and then the felt is applied ... we'll cover that when we get to it ... soon

update 8/22

i still haven't posted the felting of the rail details, but i hope to get to that tomorrow or maybe over the weeked. the table is finished now and it will be leaving for virginia next week on tuesday

we set it up for a final check yesterday, using a piece of blue felt left over from another project. i only wanted to stretch the real camel piece once, when the table is set up for real ... plays great and i'm happy with the new design.