Yesterday my boyfriend bidded for one on ebay, then went to pick it up with my mums’ boyfriend. It’s in the living room. We kinda have to move stuff (the coffee table/a chair) and move the table to be able to play it and have room to walk about and stuff, but there is room for it. I have wanted one for a long time, and it’s especially cool since I started playing pool more at pubs! I’m not that great at pool (unlike my boyfriend who is really good at it), but I think he taught me some things and since I’ve played it more I should be improving a bit. It’s really fun anyway! 5 years ago

I love pool but hate smoke – only solution, get my own pool table. 5 years ago

First I need a place big enough to put a pool table. So this goal is still a bit far away. 6 years ago

A photo of the table almost assembled. I meant to take pictures all through the assembly process, but forgot. We had to stop at the rails, though, and I had to take them somewhere to have them done. So what’s missing here are the rails, the “apron” that goes around the outside and bolts to the rails (that’s one of the aprons you can see lying on the floor underneath the table), and of course the pockets. 7 years ago

You can see the level here. It takes a lot of really meticulous leveling to set up a table. After all, “close” isn’t anywhere near good enough. The slightest bit of unlevelness [is that a word?] will of course have a huge effect on the play. So you have to level the table in both directions, in about ten different spots. You can see the pieces of chipboard laying on the table; that’s one of the things I used (in addition to a piece of plywood) to level the legs.

You also have to level the slates, though, which is already done by this point. You do that by pounding wedges in under the slate. I really wish I’d taken pictures. 7 years ago

The fully assembled table. Note the scoring dials at the near end. My three-year-old son insists on setting those all to ‘A’ (4). I started to mess with them once, and from across the room he yelled “Leave those alone, papa! Those are mine!” And then came back and re-set them all to ‘A’.

He’s enjoying the table quite a bit. He pulls up a stool at one end and stands there and rolls the balls around. Then he moves the stool to wherever the greatest concentration of balls is, and goes again.

We also have a short stick (I don’t know if you can tell it here, but the table would be perfect if we had about 18” more width in the room—occasionally, though, we do have to use that shorter stick to make a shot from the side rail), and I’ve been helping him use that to hit the balls. He watches me play, which is bad because he’s already figured out how you’re supposed to hold your hand (the closed bridge). And obviously his hands are way too small for that. But it’s great that he’s trying, anyway.

I’m going to keep working with the kids on this—it’s great for so many things. Dexterity, gross and fine motor skills, eye/hand coordination, number recognition and counting, not to mention (as they get older) the geometry and physics of it. 7 years ago

Another picture of it completely assembled. Note also the billiard light. A little gift to me from my wife, as if the table weren’t enough. I really like the light, though. Hung at a regulation 30”, of course.

One of the biggest concerns we had with the table is the burlwood finish. It just looks so . . . old, I guess. So we chose the felt and the light so as to complement that and actually tone it down. I know that colors don’t come across consistently on the web, but the color of the felt is really an olive green. The metalwork on the light fixture has a burnished brass finish, and that is Murano glass. It’s all to go with that burlwood, so that it doesn’t just stick out like crazy. At the same time we didn’t want to accentuate it because, well, we don’t really like it. In the end, though, Susan and I are both pretty happy with how it looks in the room. The light actually helps with that; sort of helps it blend into the surroundings or something.

Anyway, there it is. I’ve been playing a lot since I got is fully assembled. That first night I stayed up and played until the small hours of the morning. Since then I’ve been averaging three or four racks a day, I’d guess (alternating between Straight Pool and 8-Ball). Not counting last weekend when my brother came down. He was here for one day, we played two 3.5-hour sessions. It was a blast.

I’m loving this. It has been even better than I expected, which was quite a bit. 7 years ago

Picked the table up two weeks ago, but we weren’t able to get it completely set up. We were re-felting the table, and ran into a snag (so to speak). The morons who put the last felt on glued it to the featherstrips on the rails, so that we had to bust the featherstrips in order to remove it. It being a weekend, and the closest billiard-supply store being 100+ miles away, we had to stop there. So we got the base and playing surface put together, got the felt stretched over that, etc. For the rails, since they’re pretty hard to do anyway, I decided to take them to said billiard-supply establishment and have them do the job. Meanwhile, I set about trying to install the billiard light that my wife had generously encouraged me to buy.

Ended up having to call an electrician on the light—in order to center it above the table, I had to have a new box put in. Since the light is kind of heavy, I thought it best to have someone do that who knew what they were doing. Turned out to be a good call, I think. In any case, we got the light put in this afternoon. As we were working on it, got a call from Cornhusker Billiards saying that my rails were done. So we made the trip to Lincoln and picked them up. I got them put on about 11:00. Put on most of the apron as well, but eventually I just got too impatient and decided to play.

So that’s what I’ve been doing for about the last 3 hours. Put on some Miles Davis, broke out a 1/2 ounce of the damn good scotch, and started shooting. Oh my god. It’s like heaven. Brand friggin new felt, my own music, scotch so good I couldn’t buy it in any bar in Nebraska, no hassling from drunks or wannabe pool sharks or any of that nonsense. And I can play as long as I want, any game I want. I tend to be a straight-pool shooter, but I’ve shot some 8-ball as well just to work on it. I’m ‘bout to go back to that here in a minute.

I have a few more pieces to put on before it’s truly complete. Once that’s done I’ll post some pictures. I’m pretty happy with how it looks. We picked the perfect felt for this table, I think (though you won’t be able to see the true color, so won’t get that). Also picked just the right light. Very happy with the look overall. And of course damn happy with having a full-size pool table in my house. 7 years ago

We’re getting a pretty nice one, free, from my wife’s mom (it’s actually sort of an inheritance from her grandpa). Oversized 8’ table (aka Pro-8), in really good condition. My brothers are gonna come up this weekend & help me move and re-felt it. Should be a good weekend. :) We even splurged and got a pretty nice pool-table light to hang above it. It’s gonna take a lot of space, and sort of cramp the family room for a while, but that will just add incentive for us to finish converting the basement into a family room (which we’ve been thinking about doing anyway).

I’ll upload a pic here when it’s in, so that you can all drool over it. ;) 7 years ago

Only way I can fit a pool table in my 2 bedroom flat is if I sacrifice my living room …

Which I still don’t think is a bad idea. It just that my girlfriend is against it. 8 years ago

I miss those late nights in college when my roommate and I would wander downstairs and spend hours honing our skills at 8-ball, 9-ball, etc., while luring everyone who passed by into a game (or two or three). Driving all the way to the local pool hall and paying by the hour just isn’t the same.

Each time I move into a new place, one of the first questions I ask is “Where can we fit a pool table?” Unfortunately, the answer always seems to be “Nowhere, unless you want to sleep on/under it.” But there’s always hope… we’re moving to a new house next month. :) 8 years ago

When Jenna and I moved into our house, we saw that the previous owners had taken their pool table, but not their cue rack. This has mocked me ever since. I need to get a pool table to complete the “game room” in the basement. 8 years ago