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Balls Roll Inconsistently on New Cloth

1/23/2022 3:22:10 PM

Balls Roll Inconsistently on New Cloth

I have a problem where the billiard balls roll very erratically and inconsistently on the new pool table cloth I installed.

First let me say, I've watch many videos about resurfacing my pool table, and have actually resurfaced my pool table one time (except for the rails). It looked and worked fine.

Then I bought new cloth. It is a worsted 80/20, 24 oz cloth, it said. It cost me $185. Now I have installed the new cloth on the rails and the surface. I re-leveled the pool table first and cleaned it.

The problem is that the when the balls slow down they roll erratically and inconsistently. It's not a leveling issue. When a ball slows down it appears to actually wobble. This occurs all over the pool table, and not just in one spot.

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Balls Roll Inconsistently on New Cloth

Replies & Comments
  1. Mitchbilliardsforum on 1/24/2022 5:24:37 AM

    It's hard to say without seeing and feeling the cloth installation in person, but a few thoughts come to mind:

    • I will assume that this didn't happen with your old cloth, thus ruling out the balls themselves as a cause.
    • I am not doubting your cloth installation skills, but is the cloth stretched uniformly throughout the pool table, and was it aligned squarely when being stretched? If it wasn't stretched in a perfectly uniform manner, it will bunch up (and thus, be more dense) in the areas not stretched consistently.
    • Is the cloth you bought a "napped" or "napless" pool table cloth? It would be napless, preferably, as a napped cloth will certainly cause the issue you mentioned.

    Best of luck figuring it out. It sucks to be out the $200 and have a pool table that plays worse than when you started.

  2. MitchMitch on 1/24/2022 5:40:09 AM

    To tell you the truth I'm not sure if I stretched the cloth uniformly.

    I tried following the guidelines from one of the videos I found but then I couldn't get the side pockets to smooth down without wrinkles.

    Much thanks.

  3. MitchRayMills on 1/25/2022 1:49:50 AM

    Thanks for the quick posting of that video by our Moderator!

    After watching it, I now think @Mitch would get slightly better help from this one (specifically, at the 14:14 timestamp):

    Mr. Jiles (of New Orleans) doesn't state a percentage, but we can see that the cloth he stretches in this video goes about 10 to 15 percent beyond where it started.

    (My goodness, are video links automatically displayed, or are you always awake, BF?)

  4. Mitchbilliardsforum on 1/26/2022 3:46:33 PM

    Hah, LOL. @RayMills - For YouTube specifically, you need only paste the link, and the site automatically converts it to the video object you see above.

    I can definitely see what you mean with the stretching. He's really pulling at the cloth quite hard, especially at around the 15:13 mark.

    You really need that stretch to be consistent and uniform as well.

    Best of luck, and let us know how you make out.

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Balls Roll Inconsistently on New Cloth

  • Title: Balls Roll Inconsistently on New Cloth
  • Author: (Mitch Kuzma)
  • Published: 1/23/2022 3:22:10 PM
  • Last Updated: 1/24/2022 5:13:56 AM
  • Last Updated By: billiardsforum (Billiards Forum)