magellan said:
Wow, that is a fine looking table. I don't think there is anyone that wouldn't want that piece of craftsmanship in their house. If I may ask, did you have a plan drawn up or are you that familiar with how a pool table is constructed? I've considered building a poker table a few times but never looked into it any farther. Beautiful work
Thank you.
I found an old Fine Woodworking article in PDF that I used as guideline for the feet and frame (and another "Blog" article that I found) - download them at the end of this post. I even bought leather pockets from the USA to build the table US style (I am in South Africa) but my wife did not like them, so eventually I changed the design to what you see now. I also visited one of the biggest pool table manufacturers in SA and spent some time in their workshop (their chief carpenter was very helpful). I also bought the felt, rails (including the rubber), pockets etc from them (they also sell the slate).
So no, I did not have any plans drawn up - I designed most everything myself. I bought the slate first and then designed / sized everything around the size of the slate.
And then quite a number of Youtube videos (specifically for the felt - but eventually I did get a professional to come do it - I did one rail and it did not come out as good as I hoped).
grbmds said:
That's amazing! It looks worth every bit of the two years. It will be something that you will be proud of every time you use it or are you afraid to use it?
We definitely use it! Even our 7 year old son and his friends are playing on it, so there will be a few scratches, dents, marks on the felt etc shortly. Luckily the wood is very hard and the felt quite durable (Hainsworth Club), and I finished it with a two-part polyeurethane varnish (used for floors - very scratch resistant). In 7 or 8 years, once our youngest is a bit bigger, I will most probably replace the felt and add a new coat of poly or two which should have it looking brand new again.
Gnovice17 said:
I would love to see more pictures of the build. I have always had a table with the slate in 3 pieces due to the weight. How did you build the frame to support that much weight? What was you source for the rubber for the rails? My only criticism is that for that nice of a build, I would have preferred leather pockets. More pictures please. Incredible work!!
I used the same frame design (and slate support) as per the Fine Woodworking and "Blog" articles. Also remember, the small table (6ft) only uses 20 mm thick slate which weighs only around 110 kg. The African Rosewood is also quite strong (see The Wood Database -
http://www.wood-database.com/bubinga/). The legs are 190 mm diameter (thickest section) and the frame is 280 mm x 40 mm.
