My interview with Brett Ellingsberg continues: Would you be willing to share with our readers your do-it-yourself table hints?
Sure. There are two evident challenges facing a person who wants to play bank billiards or regular-old pool at home:
1 - They don't have extra space in their home to host a full-size table, cues and the players (reader--see our related Put Thought In Pool Table Room Size article—Matt)
2 - They can't afford the average price tag for a pool table setup.
So here is how my table solves both of these problems in my opinion.
It's offered for a price that most people can afford, and much less than the cost of a standard pool table. It's actually easy to do if you can figure out a way to have the buyer set up and assemble the table themselves. Sounds impossible if you are comparing it to the set up and installation for a regular pool table, but this table is different to install, and much easier.
A do-it-yourself guy or gal can put this game table together because my round table doesn't rely on microscopic precision to be enjoyable; it just needs to fit together easily. The table itself is easy to assemble with a standard socket set. Installing the cloth was the biggest challenge for me, but I figured it out, and all you need is a razor blade.
First, to build the table, there are three sections that are required, all of which could be realistically produced using molded composites: 1) the table top 2) a middle game table section with cloth, rails and bumpers 3) a pedestal to hold the simply assembly aloft.
The table top is easy to create. It needs to be able to fit over the top of the table itself but be light enough to take off and on, which is where composites do the trick nicely.
The pedestal is easy as well. A fixed pedestal is readily available or could be easily produced by a mass manufacturing concern. And by having flexible levelers on the bottom of the feet, the leveling challenge is solved. I did it on my prototype and it works great. Remember my cloth is thicker to slow the balls intentionally, providing added player feedback on shot results, so the level doesn't have to be to the same tolerance as a quality billiards table (to the thousandths of an inch), just mostly level for fun straight and bank shots.
So now that we have figured out how to make the table top and the pedestal, here is the do-it-yourself way to build the middle game table section. First you need the have the actual table base which is just one round piece of molded composite, lightweight but strong, with all of the holes in place for future connections including rails, bumpers and pockets (molded composites and CAD design make this all possible at a fraction of the cost of traditionally honed wood and slate).
Since everything is symmetrical on a circle, you just need one manufacturing mold for the rails, and then make four of them to create the round rails (the cushions might have to be attached by the manufacturer but there may be ways to make this step do-it-yourself as well). The other two parts of the middle section include the pockets and felt cloth surface.
The pockets can be easily produced to fit into the matched openings on the table. The felt was the hardest one for me to figure out, and I actually had to pull the cloth for my prototype which was not easy to do. I think that even professional felt pullers would be challenged to pull felt on a round table. But one day while sanding a picnic bench using a disc sander, I got the inspiration that solved the felt problem - when I went to replace the sanding disc with a new one simply by peeling it off, I thought "why not do the same thing for my disc shaped felt dilemma?"
Felt comes in a wide variety of textures and colors (36 colors are already being produced and I have a company that is ready to supply me with the finest felt), and adhesive can be customized (3M Corporation can do it, I asked them recently) to create a method to attach cloth to the table without having to perma-glue it on. It's easy to attach and also easy to unattach, so if the felt gets ruined, or torn, or if it's time for a new color or design, simply pull it off and replace it with a new one the same way I did with the disc sander sanding disc.
Since there are four posts and 12 rail bolts that will help hold the felt in place, the adhesive just needs to be tacky enough to keep the felt in place with the rails and bumpers adding extra points of attachment.
So the end user, the buyer, would get three easy packages in the mail as the tabletop, the pedestal, and the middle gaming table section with all the parts. Not cheap to mail, but not as expensive as a multi-thousand pound billiards table! Especially economical if the 3 piece kit is sold locally in a billiards or retail store for customer carry out. Remember, it's not as heavy as it seems in the accompanying photos, due to lightweight composites being used.
Here are the 10 steps to a build-it-yourself, mass manufactured easy round table:
1. Attach the 4 legs to the pedestal.
2. Attach the middle game section to the pedestal.
3. Attach the felt disc (comes rolled in a tube) to the table.
4. Cut openings in the felt at each of the four pocket locations as shown.
5. Attach the 4 rail sections to the felted table using 12 bolts and nuts as provided. Holes are already in the rails and the table so it's easy to install.
6. Attach the 4 bumper posts to the table. Once again, it's pre-holed.
7. Put the 4 pre-formed pockets into the matched pocket openings.
8. Attach a round dot to the middle of the table felt for a marker (easy to find the middle by simply pulling two strings across the table from bumper to bumper and the middle is where they intersect).
9. Place the cue ball and the 4 balls provided for each player into the rack provided (I have a unique rack for my game, and it's easy to employ also).
10. Pick up the cue provided and PLAY!
Shoot the balls straight in or bank to your heart's content.
