[Photon713]

I would like to practice at home, but, do not have room for a 7-9 foot table. Has anyone ever cut down a regulation table to fit into a smaller space for practice purposes only? I could handle a 2x8 or 2x9 table and use one end and one side. Is there another solution?

[whitey]

A while back, in order to practice my stroke, I set up a
piece of glass from a coffee table, at table height on some
wood, and covered it with cloth. I experimented with all
sorts of things for a rail, and ended up clamping down a
rubber covered guitar stand "fork" at the right angle to suffice as
a rail. I drew a white chalkline in the center, so I could practice
a straight up and down stroke with a cue ball. Later on, I
got another ball, and then could practice a shot where I put the
object ball somewhere on the line, hit the cue ball to the object
ball, and if I hit it perfectly straight, the cue ball would stop,
the object ball would hit the rail, come off, hit the cue ball,
and almost set up the shot again.

Later, I obtained a set of real rails, and a particle board false
table bed, but I have limited room, and only have standing
room near the very end, and a little room on one side.
The particle board is slight warped, and the seams are way
out of whack, and it's a pain in the butt, but it beats nothing.
One of these days I am going to try and level the surface,
first sanding down the high spots, and then filling the low
spots with bondo. But of course the table will be unusable for
quite some time, so I'm hesitant to start. There is currently
enough room to shoot a long straight shot, and it won't roll
off at a medium speed, if I put a board and about 50 pounds
of weights at a spot near the foot spot but overlapping the
far seam.

Quite a "poor man's" solution, but I figured some would
benefit from it, and of course others will laugh over it.

It's all I got...

[billiardspoolnet]

Buy a 7 or 8' table from FL for $1500. Give up one long rail, shove it against the wall with about 2' just enough room to squeeze by. You never shoot there, you shoot only from the other long rail or the two end rails. If necessary give one of them up as well. Use the table to just do drills on and to stay in stroke. You can practice your long shots, draws and a lot of things that will save thousands of dollards in table time. On the long rail you gave up, stuff that pocket full of towels so only one or two balls can go in. When then do, you can flip them back out with your ferrule so you don't have to squeeze back there.

Any table, even half of a table, is better than no table.

www.billiards-superstore.com

[RoyZ]

' date='Dec 27 2006, 01:48 PM said:

Buy a 7 or 8' table from FL for $1500. Give up one long rail, shove it against the wall with about 2' just enough room to squeeze by. You never shoot there, you shoot only from the other long rail or the two end rails. If necessary give one of them up as well. Use the table to just do drills on and to stay in stroke. You can practice your long shots, draws and a lot of things that will save thousands of dollards in table time. On the long rail you gave up, stuff that pocket full of towels so only one or two balls can go in. When then do, you can flip them back out with your ferrule so you don't have to squeeze back there.

Any table, even half of a table, is better than no table.

www.billiards-superstore.com

Great idea!

[Cracker Barrel Gizmatchi]

' date='Dec 27 2006, 10:48 AM said:

Any table, even half of a table, is better than no table.

That is actually a really true statement. One thing i did was buy one of those Cheapy tables out of a fingerhut catalog... It works...