HOW TO REPLACE POOL TABLE FELT? 2/4

Now Start following this step by step guide on How to replace your Pool Table Felt. After the previous introduction, here are the actions to take. How to determine which is the best Pool Table Felt for you. Which Pool Table Tool Kit to Buy and How to disassemble your table pool are topics covered on this article of the series.

 

 

Part 2/4: The step by step guide

In this series of articles, I present tips and step-by-step guides to be added to your creative experience for replacing your pool tablecloth, or at least to get some tips to do it.

If you have not read yet is good to read the introduction article. It is explained on How to Determine Which is the Best Pool Table Felt for you or “The Pool Table Felt Replacement Toolkit” as well as general advice involved in this activity.

Later I will continue with replacing the pool tablecloth on the slate and later on the rails.

Next articles will be:

• How To replace the felt on the table pool
• How to Refelt Pool Table Rails

But now I start disassembling and removing the old pool tablecloth.

Planning the Working Space to Replace the Pool Tablecloth

You’ll want to make sure you have enough space in the room to replace the felt. First of all, think you will be working mainly with the rails and with the slate.

You need to manipulate the rails in many positions, lay them, and press on them, apply contact adhesive and applying the staples gun.

About the slate, you need to place the slate on sawhorses or on a surface where the slate edges overhang the horses. You should have access to the whole surface and the bottom part of the edges. You also need to pull the felt to be tight over it and apply the adhesive spray. Then you need also elements to protect objects that the adhesive should not reach.

 

Pool Table Slate
You need to place the slate on sawhorses or on a surface where the slate edges overhang the horses.

Best Pool Table Cloth

Choosing which Pool Table Felt to buy

The fabric should be made especially for the purpose. So I assume are going to buy it.

The right pool cloth is actually a key item. The pool felt you choose makes up the second largest portion of your table, so it’s paramount that you choose a high-quality pool felt. The pool felt is actually a special type of cloth. Despite it is referred to as “felt,” it is usually sold as “billiards cloth”, “pool tablecloth,” or “pool cloth”. You cannot use ordinary felt to cover your pool table.

Pool Table Felt Colors

There are many available Pool Table Felt Colors. It can be wine, red, green, dark green, black, marine blue, several blues, olive, khaki, camel, gold, mocha, chocolate, violet and more.

 

Pool Tablecloth Materials

About the material, there are also several alternatives. The most common are
some wool cloth,

• some 85 percent wool, and fifteen percent or ten percent nylon.
• a blend of 75 percent wool and 25 nylon (called baize) with a weight of 22 ounces per linear yard
• all wool

Woolen pool cloth is the pool felt most players are familiar with. The pure wool pool table cloth is what’s preferred and adopted on the professional circuit. Some of them are called “championship felt”. Worsted cloth allows for greater speed but is rarely used outside of professional tournaments

However, the addition of nylon adds more strength and is well worth the investment of a few extra dollars per linear yard for a home pool table.
The criteria for choosing the cloth material generally are

• Durability
• Price
• Speed

When buying it, check the felt for scratches, rips, or any defects that could require you to get a refund or replacement.

The elasticity of the fabric also affects some placement details, especially in the rails.

Measure your pool table before purchasing the Felt.

Popular pool felt sizes include seven feet, eight feet, and nine feet, but other sizes are available. It is very important to consider the pool table size when buying the cloth.

Measuring will take the guesswork out of sizing your felt, resulting in completing faster the task obtaining a cleaner result. When you purchase the pool tablecloth, for your table, make sure it is longer than the table on all four sides. You should ensure that there will be plenty of cloth for the slate surface as well as the rails.

Prepare felt pieces for slate and for rails.

Once you bought the cloth, you can prepare the felt pieces to use on your slate and your rails. It does not mean to cut them now, but at least to set aside enough felt for each of the parts you need to use. That involves the slate and rails.

For your slate, make sure it is it enough extra surface longer than the table on all four sides.

Also in the case, the slate thickness is about 1 inch or thicker it could be nice to set an extra felt line in the pockets edges. In that case, think about cutting pieces about an inch off the end of the cloth you’re going to use them for the pocket liners in the table. That will allow to fully cover the borders in the pockets areas. It should have enough length to cover the slate thick on all the pockets.

 

The piece felt you need for each rail, should have length a bit longer than the rails, and the width depends on the mechanism used to attach the felt to the rail.

Typically, the felt comes in one large piece and includes instructions for removing pieces to fit each one of the rails. Follow these instructions carefully, to avoid the cut pieces not fitting your table.

Depending on the felt and the shapes, you may use a box cutter or a razor blade.

Disassemble the rails.

Before beginning to disassemble, Notice that some manufacturers number the parts so you can return them to the same area when assembling them again. In such cases, to pay attention to that numbers will make easier later assembling the table tool. If you don’t have numbered parts, pay special attention to allow putting each piece on their place when reassembling.

Some rails have attached the pockets on them. In that case, you should remove first the rails and then the pockets. In some other models, you should remove the pockets first. Some pool table pockets are bolted or screwed on separately from the railings.

The rails generally are attached with bolts to the case. But those bolts could be covered in several ways. In some cases, they are behind a panel that can be slid. In other cases, they are covered by silver trim pieces attached using screws. In some other cases, the bolts are on the underneath part of the case.

If your pool table has trim pieces, taken the Phillips screws out of those sides over there from the long and short rails, and get those trim pieces off. In the other case, simply slide the panels.

Find the bolts on the underside or on the sides of the table keeping the rails in place, and take the rails off using a Socket Wrench.

Next, Move the railing carefully to a secure place where they won’t get scuffed or scratched, or interfere with your movement around the pool table.

In the last article, I will mention more about Pool Table Rails and Felt and the detail to cover them.

Take out the Slate

Now that your rails and pockets are off in most cases the slate only lay on the case. In some cases, they are attached to the case using some bolts or screws. On some of the models, you need to remove them and prepare the place where you will move the slate. On some other models, taking off the rails is enough to keep the slate edges free to work on them.

You need to place the slate on sawhorses or on a surface where the slate edges overhang the horses. You should have access to the whole surface and the bottom part of the edges. You also need to pull the felt to be tight over it and apply the adhesive spray. Then you need also elements to protect objects that the adhesive should not reach. Think that it can weight 400 pounds. Always be careful with your fingers when moving it. Maybe you need a friend to help you with this stage.

Some guys use simply two wood rails, one on each end and after lift the slate up, and put your wood rails underneath (not the pool table rails…. please). Then you can have the slate sit on two bars. Be sure you can see and work on the table all around.

Take the cloth off the slate

Removing the old felt is pretty easy.

Where the felt is stapled you can use a staple remover, or first, loosen the staples with a screwdriver and then removing them with Needle Nose Pliers.

If it is glued, you can simply rip the felt off.

How to remove Adhesive from Slate Pool Table

Once the old felt is off, use a dry, clean cloth to remove any dust, and a putty knife or a flat blade to scrape off any old glue or residue build up. Be sure to remove anything that could block the balls access to pockets. Do not use any water or cleaning solutions without checking information from your pool table manufacturer. On some slates can be applied to mineral spirits. Check yours before applying if it is adequate for your slate material. When the old felt or glue turned into real gooey stuff you can start scraping the annoying thing with an electrical scraper.

The goal is to have the slate surface clean and also to get underneath especially where you’re going to end up sticking the glue and the pockets. When removing residues take care not to damage the slate surface.

Be sure the slate is clean, flat and smooth.

A little dust left on the table can make your final playing surface unpredictable or bumpy. The least little thing will seem like a boulder on it when playing. You can minimize the chance of any mistake by working slowly and carefully

You want your slate to be smooth. Don’t allow any chips in it at all. Using an electrical scraper can take a few minutes to do it.

 

Next Article shows how you can continue with this enjoying task of refelting your table pool

 

 

 

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This is the best video I found taking off the slate of the table pool to refelt  it

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