Refurbishing a pool table.

[Ole Anderson]

I bought an inexpensive 8 foot one piece slate (7/8" thick) pool table 35 years ago and now it is looking pretty sad. A few years ago my wife got me a book on building a new one from scratch. From PoolTablePlans.com: "Arts and Crafts Mission Pool Table" by Southall and Swift. A great 94 page book, very detailed with templates, cut lists and a whole lot of info on building a pool table. At first I was going to reuse my slate and totally use their plans, but it was just too overwhelming and my slate was undersized and would require major changes to the plans.

So looking for a new shop project I decided to refresh the table I have in phases. First phase (and the biggest) is to replace the rails and attached fanel or skirt and of course put down new cloth on the table and rails. Second phase is reinforcing the structure and building new legs. At first I planned on just replicating the existing rails in oak and keeping the rubber pockets. I purchased 8/4 x 6" oak for the rails milled it to 1 1/2" to match the existing and purchased oak ply for the fanels. Then as I started referring to the book for tips, I decided to go whole hog and get new leather pockets which of course required a bunch of careful measurements and research.

First off I realized I should have milled the rails another 3/16" thick. That was solved by laminating 3/16" oak ply left ovr from a previous project to the underside where it will never be seen unless you are laying under the table. Actually turned out good as it will be easier to staple the felt to the ply than to oak. My TS is getting a good work out ripping the material to width, cutting the two bevels and three dadoes. The new pockets have 5/8" iron pins that must be drilled precisely in the end of the rails, that required some ingenuity with the drill press. I have a lot to do yet, but here are a few pics of what is going on so far (sorry the phone pics aren't that great, I'm waiting for my wife to upgrade and give me her iPhone 6.):

[Chris Padilla]

Cool! Sounds like a great project. "Fanel" is a new term for me.

I can't tell if you are basically following the old pool table and replacing items or are incorporating features from the old one and the plans.

I wish I had room for a pool table...just not in the cards for our current house.

[terry wolfe]

Very cool project are you planning to replace to table side with the solid oak also. Table will be heavy when completed but will last a lifetime. Please keep posting updates to the rebuild as I know all will be interested in your progress.

[Bill McNiel]

Cool project but.....I really wish you had chosen to build the A&C table. Never seen one.

[Ole Anderson]

Cool project but.....I really wish you had chosen to build the A&C table. Never seen one.

The A&C features show up in the spindles in the legs, so I may include that in phase 2. Did an A&C Mission bed, so I have some templates from that project that may be useful.

[Ole Anderson]

Made some progress since my last post. The original table had the felt glued to the bottom of the slate as a cost saving measure and the "beams" supporting the slate were just one thickness of 3/4" ply, about 6" wide, on edge. Not part of my original plan, but I couldn't let those ride so I sistered another layer of ply to each of the beams, gluing and screwing or shooting brads until I could clamp them. And you can see where I replaced the plywood flat slate supports (slats) with Oak as they cantilevered past the slate to support the rails and seemed pretty flimsy. I used 5" wide 3/4" poplar on the sides and 3" x 3/4" poplar on the ends under the slate as a slate liner to receive staples when installing the new felt. Used a ton of Titebond II to glue them to the bottom of the slate. I had to raise the slate up off the frame to get to the screws holding the slats and to install the slate liner. Good thing I have an ironworker son with a strong back to help. Next step is to flush trim the slate liner at the pockets. The first pic is my reuse of the "nuts" which hold the rail to the slate and fanel.

[Mel Fulks]

Not understanding the felt on wrong side thing ...but enjoying.

[Ole Anderson]

Not understanding the felt on wrong side thing ...but enjoying.

The green felt was wrapped around the edges of the slate and glued directly to the bottom to hold it in place. Typically the felt is wrapped over the edge and stapled to the edge of the wood layer glued or screwed to the bottom of the slate.

[Ole Anderson]

Phase one is done, I think I will save phase two (the legs) for another time. Turned out to be quite a project. Probably the most difficult was installing the rubber cushions on the rails, along with the related cushion facings and wrapping the cushions with the felt. Overall a very rewarding project.

[Chris Padilla]

Nicely done, Ole! Looks brand spanking new!

[Mike Cozad]

That is a great transformation. It went from a bar looking table to a really nice showpiece. I have been told the one piece slate is so hard to find today. Years ago we had one that some knuckle head chipped the slate during a move. The area of Chicago my dad moved too was a little shy on 1 piece beds and had to settle for a 3 piece. He said it was a levelling pita...

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Very nicely done Ole!

[Ole Anderson]

Thanks everyone. My man cave is coming along nicely, with the new looking pool table and the new bookcases either side of my TV. Now if I can just swap out my 47" flat screen for the old 27" TV and put a gas or electric fireplace (or maybe a low credenza) below the TV instead of my wife's old hope chest I will be all set. Oh, my shop is just to the left of the storage cabinet which holds many tools and other WW supplies. I made one just like it in hickory for my wife's knitting supplies. My bookcases hold old engineering textbooks from my 1960's days at Michigan State as well as WW magazines and several old Time-Life book series from my dad and my small collection of old vinyl records. By the way, only one antelope rack was mine the other two racks were my dad's. I haven't hunted in 30 years. But I do enjoy the memories of hunting with him. This is a man cave baby!

[Ole Anderson]

Now, a year later I took on replacing the base or legs on the table. All Red Oak. I made 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" hollow square legs using 3/4" material and a lock miter bit. Stretchers are 1.4"x6" Oak planed down from 6/4 rough stock. Double wedged through tenons hold the cross stretchers to the hollow legs (fun doing those mortises and getting them to line up) and the long stretcher to the cross stretchers. The wedges were cut at 5 degrees (see the Tips and Tricks thread post 63 as to how I cut them) from contrasting Black Walnut. The wedge mortises were cut on my DP with a Delta Mortising jig using a 5/8" Japanese built mortise tool. I built a 5 degree jig to hold the material as my DP table does not tilt. The main 1" x 3.5" mortises were first drilled with a 7/8" forstener bit, then using a template and router with a pattern bit, finally chopping out the corners. The long side of the leg was bolted to the side beams (doubled up 3/4" ply) of the table with 3/8" bolts. As can be imagined, this thing is rock steady as those wedges suck the pieces together as good as any clamp. No glue as I might need to take it apart someday. And with the 3/8" screw leg pads, I can easily dial it dead level.

leg 1.jpgpool table leg.JPGleg 2.JPG

[Mike Dodson]

Not understanding the felt on wrong side thing ...but enjoying.

One piece slate tables were very common for coin operated tables. The felt would be glued to the underside of the slate. Most of the time the slate would be covered upside down, and the weight of the slate was used to get a tight and consistant strech of the felt. Once glued, the slate would be fliped over and put back in the table.