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Old Riley snooker table

Postby Steveleg100

Hi, I am looking for some advice, I recently acquired a 4.4×2.4 slate bed ej Riley table top snooker table, I have all accessories as when purchased new,even have the brochure from 1940!!it has been recovered recently and the balls which are 1 5/8 will only just fit in the pockets! Impossible down the cushions. I have bought smaller balls 1 1/2 and even 1 3/8 but still very tight, does anyone have a solution for this problem, i think the cushions near the pockets need shaving back but Don't really know. Cheers Steve

Re: Old Riley snooker table

Postby rekoons

Welcome Steve!

Could you perhaps upload a picture of the pocket shape?

I've read that the rubber around the pockets are sometimes slightly shaved off a bit, but you can only trim back a little or else you'd hit solid wood.

more common is to do an undercut on the rubber side, this will open up the pocket a bit because it allows more of the ball's edge to slide 'under' the cushion.

a member on here by the name Acesinc owns a table around a century old iirc and he went so far to grind a bit of the slate around the fall because his pockets were deeper than nowadays official specs, and thus also played too tight.

He might pop in here and elaborate on the subject...

Re: Old Riley snooker table

Postby Steveleg100

Thanks, today I removed the end rails, removed the corner pockets then just 4 bolts to get the rail off each end, I removed some of the staples to peel back the felt to expose the cushion rubber, I used an electric multi tool with a sanding bit to shave off around 4mm of the rubber, put back together and is definitely better, still need to do the side rails because its still too tight!! Not too sure how to attach a photo.

Re: Old Riley snooker table

Postby rekoons

I'm oldschool and use the ImgBB website, it's free and simple enough for me to be able to use it...

There are probably better alternatives though.

I takes some courage to do what you do on your table , hope it works out.