Luckilly, I did a cut and paste before I submitted! (experience taught me to do this a long time ago!!)
I bought a pool table! [sub]Yay![/sub] It’s just a “bar” size (7ft) but its good enough for us, anyhow… an 8 footer would have been a titch to wide to go in our rec room comfortably.
ANYHOW…
Can someone give me some insights on the “proper” way to level it… if there is indeed a “proper” way? It has 4 “legs” and under each leg is a small “foot” that threads out for fine adjustment.
I have a 3 foot level that I am using and got everything level according to the level. So, on playing the inaugural game we noticed that the balls “rolled” to one side more than the other, so did some fine adjustment and kept playing. After about 6 games, we’ve got it IMHO almost perfect, but I still think that 1 side may be just a “hair” lower than the other… and this is just IMHO, my wife thinks its fine. However, it is an extremely fast table so the balls roll really easy and I think they track ever-so-slightly to one side. It is minor but I think its there, so I want to fix it as much as possible.
The table is on a carpeted floor as well, so when I take a bit of weight off the leg (when I screw in/out the foot to adjust) I think it may be sitting in an ever-so-slightly different position on the carpet (like 2mm) so it is no longer “out” the same amount… make sense?
Is there a routine/tool to make this job easier than just a little bit of trial and error?
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Table is like above (side view of table). Legs aren’t on the corners, but come out from roughly 1/3 in the table on each side.
Can’t help with the leveling problem per se, but would strongly recommend that you put carpet protectors under those feet. Available from most any hardware or home improvement store. Come both stiff and relatively soft; for this purpose I’d use stiff. Set up as you have it now, the table is not only going to “unlevel” over time but will bore holes in your carpet.
The folks on Hometime installed a pool table once.
I seem to remember the levelling of it being something best done with a long (like 6-foot) level. I distinctly remember the installer saying that the test for a perfectly level table was to shoot a ball straight down the cushions on all 4 sides, about an inch from the cushion. This makes it very easy to see any drift toward or away from the cushion, I presume.
They “feet” are quite large, probably 3-4" diameter, so I don’t think they are going to bore holes in our 55 ounce berber, but I think its a good idea… it’d probably make it easier for me to adjust them if nothing else. Thanks.
I don’t have much input, other than pool is fun, but if you want to do any more ASCII art drawings, use the code tags. {code}{/code}, but with square brackets.
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Oh, and you have to preview, because code gives fixed width fonts, but the input box doesn’t.
Without knowing where your table sits, i couldn’t say for sure what would work best. If you installed your table in a second storey room or over a basement, you could be experiencing some settling of the floor. If that’s the case, i think that you will just have to continue to fine-tune occasionally due to seasonal changes. If, however, your carpet is on a concrete slab, the best bet would be to buy the protectors that PBear suggested. They do make these protectors with metal spikes (think of it as an inverted ‘bed of nails’) that will pierce the carpet and put the feet on ‘solid ground’ then, barring things of earthquake magnitude, you should be fine.
A friend of mine put in a regulation table on a tile over concrete floor. Once he had it fully assembled, he contacted one of the local table retailers who came out and did the final levelling. This guy brought a level that was so sensitive that setting one end of the level on a dollar bill would register.
KneadToKnow had a good tip also and may be worth a go. On the few tables that i have recovered (it’s really not that hard), the slate beds sit on wooden ‘carriers’ and these are independently adjusted with with bolts and allow you to match the seams. By rights, you should level the table with the bare slates then felt the table and apply the rails. Be careful not to overtighten the rails as it may cause the slates to flex slightly. Once that is done, all re-leveling should then be done with the legs/feet.
Get two levels, and level the table with levels on both ends, then both sides, then perpendicular on a diagonal.
Remember that when correcting one foot’s height, you are doing two things: changing the side to side difference AND the end-to-end difference all the time, every time.
You are going to have to do small adjustments, working on both legs for one adjustment:
-side to side adjustment means BOTH legs on one side get adjusted a little at a time, and the same amount each time
-end to end adjustements mean BOTH legs at an end of the table and a little bit at the same time.
Carpet: yes, get hard feet, give a month to settle before you give up.
Your standard carpenter’s level is generallynot accurate enough to do a good job. I machinists level is much better. There was a discussion on this in rec.sport.billiard a year or 2 ago. Here is one such thread: rec.sport.billiard
It’s a long link so I hope it works. If not, go to google groups and search RSB for “level pool table” without the quotes and the first hit was this thread.
Best way to level a pool table? Hire a good table mechanic.
Your table is most likely 3 piece slate. Did you put it together yourself? Did you use beeswax or bondo the seams?
There will be some settling that occurs especially on carpet but I have even heard of it happening when the table is on concrete. I have a table on a hardwood floor and noticed it get a bit out of level after about a year. So, expect to have to fine tune it a few months or so down the road.
BTW, I don’t like the idea of shooting a pool ball softly downtable to check for levelness unless you know you have a decent stroke.
I bet, since it’s a seven-foot table with the round screw-out feet, that it’s a classic bar table. Many of these are single-piece slate. Where’d you get the fast cloth? Most barroom tables I’ve seen have what seems like tweed on them. Did you buy Simonis?
A good level will get you close, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of whether it’s level is whether you notice it when you play. I disagree with breaknrun on this point. Just keep tweaking it as you notice the balls have a break to the rolls.
My eight-foot table (with Simonis 860) is on the second floor, so sometimes I have to tweak the levelling. Mine is levelled with little compressed wooden shims under the feet, and I just add or subtract some.
Our table is wooden there are no adjustable legs and it sits on carpet so if it gets shoved around and moved, (usually before and after Christmas) it’s a big deal for them to get it level again. It’s 8th with a one piece slate and is leveled under the slate with some clothes line clips that were disassembled and split to size and in a few places there is a face card or two or three that was folded and slipped under a leg.
Well, I think what I will do is try to buy some feet for it and slowly tweek it over time, as it sounds like it’ll probably settle mm by mm for the next while. I can tell it is still slightly off as if the ball is going real slowly roughly parallel to a cushion, and slowly hits it and comes back out, it starts back towards the cushion again. I am slowly working it out.
CurtC - Time to confess. It’s not slate. It is some faux slate that is however supposedly guaranteed to be true. The reason we didn’t go with a nice, big slate table was the room constraints. The next time we build/buy a new house it will have enough room for a minimum 8 foot table…if not larger. So I knew that the table would probably stay in this house when we move… hence not wanting to spend $4K on it. But, it looks nice, plays well and the price was right.
The rag is what came with it. I don’t know what it is but jeezuz its fast. I’ve never played on such a fast cloth. It is actually taking a bit of getting used too. I think it must be some kind of a man-made blend with wool.
I have a 1961 Valley on carpet and if I can level that puppy, stick with it. The guy who moved it used a digital level, but I’ve adjusted it since…and the ‘on the bumper, off the bumper, on the bumper again’ action is about the best revelation that it’s off.