I’m interested in making a pool table. Not right this minute, but maybe in a year or so… Ideally I’d like one that would be able to last outside (out of direct rain, but on a screened porch type thing…
Has anyone done this and can offer words of wisdom? Anyone know of plans online somewhere that I could download?
Atmospheric moisture is likely to be your biggest problem out of doors - even under shelter - if you build it with a slate bed (incredibly heavy and somewhat expensive, but still the best option), this is less of a worry, but if you use MDF or some other wood-based product for the bed, you are likely to experience distortion of the playing surface over time.
If I was doing this, I would be looking out for a second hand table (in any condition, as long as the slate isn’t broken) as a starting point; I’d possibly discard all but the bed and ball return mechanism.
I don’t have any cites handy but my brother has been thinking about doing this. I’ve done quite a bit of research for himw and I think we came up with a figure of about a thousand bucks to make a table. The slate will run you at least $600 and that’s as cheap as I found one. The low end on a decent quality table is about $1200. YMMV of course. We had discussed purchasing an old table and rebuilding it. That was the MOST favorable deal we’d come up with. Old tables often go for as little as $100 bucks. New felt and banks will cost you a couple of hundred dollars. Just make sure the slate is good. The wood can be refinished or replaced fairly inexpensively. I saw a few on E-bay that were priced quite reasonably but he wasn’t ready yet.
good luck t/k
BTW we had also discussed the possibility of making it out of metal (this is for a shop) the shop is really big and he’s got a lot of welding stuff. We thought maybe welding theframe and using some plate as a bed. Then laying some solid 1" hardwood solid core plywood down as the top. Of course banks and felt etc would all be purchased and attached but the pockets could just be basket weave or something similar. No need to mess with a ball return.
He could then make a solid top to protect the felt and still use the table for whatever. he’s always BBQing or fish frying etc. it’d come in handy and afterwards…pop the top and play.
pop the top… mm-hmm a bunch of 'em
Actually, I suppose if you wanted to be unconventional, you could make a non-standard table - bare metal surface, unfelted hard rubber cushions and engraved stainless steel balls - it could still be every bit as playable as a conventional table - although obviously different.
Actually Mangetout a lot of the tables today have a steel frame and the wood that you see is only bolted to the metal substructure. This ensures that the table is strong and won’t warp when exposed to drastic weather changes.
But I get your joke…stainless steel balls not brass?
No joke intended; it would be kind of cool to build a sort of cyber-grunge pool table using only conspicuously ‘tech’ materials - no green baize or polished rosewood, just metal and plastics.
If you want cheap, there are cheap tables out there. Walmart for example has a 7 foot table for about $300 and an 8 foot for about $600. These are not slate, but I have an 8’ honeycomb table at home and I like it (I should probably point out that I’m no pro either, but hey, I have fun). A friend of mine has a decent slate table that he got for about $100 used. There are really good used tables out there, but you have to look kinda hard to find them. It’s not too hard to find a good slate table in the $400 to $800 range. On the plus side, you don’t seem to be in much of a hurry, so you can probably find a good deal.
It’s going to be awfully hard to build a table for the same price range, but it would be a fun project.
From here:
and the cue “stick” would be what?
This sounds vaguely familiar. Wasn’t there a billiards type game once upon a time (very small scale) that used steel balls and a spring loaded cue. Maybe I’m thinking about pinball 
Clear acryclic?
Oooh, oooh, no; clear acrylic with blue LED illumination, it would have to be.
That’s good info. engineer_comp_geek I’d concur with your analysis. I’ve had a table like you describe. It’s okay for most purposes. Mine didn’t stay true for very many years though. I later got an old coin operated table at a surplus games warehouse for a couple of hundred bucks and used it for a few years. I got double my money back on after I refelted it. It was a good deal all the way around.
You don’t think the acrylic shaft would shatter on a hard break?
Naah; acrylic is quite strong in compression; you’d still need some sort of resilient tip though.
Are you thinking about a regulation size table or one of the smaller “bar” sized tables? If it were up to me, I would look for auctions and estates sales to buy a used one.
My main concern is that it be able to be used outdoors. I’ve found tables online that are listed as outoor tables so I know they’re made… but the ones I’ve seen are all in the $3000-$5000 range. I don’t know how easy it would be to find a used outdoor table…
I really have nowhere NOWHERE indoors to put it, so an indoor table would be exactly useless to me.
I obviously don’t need anything like a ball return or anything…
Where in Texas have you seen a used table for $100? I started looking for tables a few months ago and the only used table I have found, granted it has been a while since I looked, was one from the 1880’s that was selling for $6000 +/-.
t-keela wrote: "Wasn’t there a billiards type game once upon a time (very small scale) that used steel balls and a spring loaded cue. Maybe I’m thinking about pinball "
My brother had a board called “Carom” or something, which had pockets and spring-loaded cues striking little pucks. The whole thing was maybe a yard square.
The “history” section of the Virtual Pool PC game claims that pool was originally played on the ground with long sticks looking a bit like modern large-scale shuffleboard sticks.
If you get away from today’s traction factors (clean felt, leather cue-tips, and chalk,) then the play will be vastly different. One guy I know had his table re-felted, and he cleaned the pool balls and polished them with car wax. They looked real purty, but shots would go forever and “english” had no effect on the ball path. After a few weeks, the balls got a little scuffed, and everything was back to normal.
heh, maybe you should move to wisconsin… I have had three people try to either give (for free) or sell for apprx $100 in the last two years - just don’t have a place to put it… :smack:
Bumper pool is fun too: