Billiard table
A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables provide an elevated flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with cloth, and surrounded by vulcanized rubber cushions. More specific terms are used for specific sports, such as snooker table and pool table, and different-sized billiard balls are used on these table types. An obsolete term is billiard board, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Parts and equipment
Cushions
Cushions are located on the inner sides of a table's wooden. There are several different materials and design philosophies associated with cushion rubber. These cushions are made from an elastic material such as vulcanized rubber. The purpose of the cushion rubber is to cause the billiard balls to rebound off the rubber while minimizing the loss of kinetic energy.The profile of the rail cushion, which is the cushion's angle in relation to the bed of the table, varies between table types. The standard on American pool tables is the K-66 profile, which as defined by the Billiard Congress of America has a base of and a nose height of. When installed properly the distance from the nose of the cushion to the covered slate surface is while using a regulation ball set.
On a carom table, the K-55 profile is used. K-55 cushions have cloth, usually canvas, vulcanized into the top of the rubber to adjust rebound accuracy and speed.
Snooker tables use an L-shaped profile, such as the L77 profile.
Bed
The bed table – the cloth-covered, horizontal playing surface – is, on high-quality equipment, made of solid, smooth slabs of slate, most often from Italy, Brazil or China. Small pool tables may use only one or two pieces of slate, while carom, English billiards and tournament-size pool tables use three. Full-size snooker tables require five. The gap between slates is filled with a hard-drying putty, epoxy or resin, then sanded to produce a seamless surface, before being covered with the cloth. When several pieces of slate are joined poorly it is possible for the resin to deform and cause an uneven playing surface; it can also be difficult to move once joined.Tables for the home market usually use slate beds as well, but the slate is often thinner, down to about. The early table beds were made of cloth-covered wooden boards. Today, inexpensive but not very rigid or durable materials used for the beds of low-end tables still include wood, especially medium-density fibreboard and plywood, as well as plastics and other synthetic materials under various trade names.
Cloth
Billiard cloth is a specific type of cloth that covers the top of the table's "playing area". Both the rails and slate beds are covered with 21–24-ounce billiard cloth which is most often green in colour, and consists of either a woven wool or wool-nylon blend called baize.Most bar tables, which get much use, use the slower, thicker blended felt because it is cheaper. This type of cloth is called a woollen cloth. By contrast, high-quality pool cloth is usually made of a napless weave such as worsted wool, which gives a much faster roll to the balls. This "speed" of the cloth affects the amounts of and of the balls, among other aspects of game finesse. Snooker cloth traditionally has a directional nap, upon which the balls behave differently when rolling against vs. running with the direction of the nap.
Markings
, also known as , are inlaid at precise, evenly spaced positions along the rails of some tables to aid in the aiming of bank or kick shots. There are six along each long rail and three along each short rail, with each of the four corners counting as another in the mathematical systems that the diamonds are used to calculate. These sights divide the playing surface into equal squares. Books, even entire series of books, have been written on geometric and algebraic systems of aiming using the diamonds.Spots are often used to mark the and on the cloth. Other markings may be a line drawn across the . Another case is the outline of the behind the foot spot where the balls are in straight pool, since the outline of this area is strategically important throughout the game. In artistic pool, lines may be drawn between opposite sights putting a grid on the playing surface. Other grid patterns are used in various forms of balkline billiards. A recent table marking convention, in European nine-ball, is the.
Carom billiards tables
Pocketless carom billiards tables are used for such games as straight rail, balkline, one-cushion billiards, three-cushion caroms, and artistic billiards.Dimensions
Regulation 10 × 5-foot carom billiards tables have a playing surface of with a 5-millimetre allowance. The standard height range of the table, measured from the playing surface to the ground is between 75 and 80 centimetres.Bed
The slate bed of a carom billiards table must have a minimum thickness of 45 millimetres and in tournaments recommended heating temperatures is, which helps to keep moisture out of the cloth to aid the balls rolling and rebounding in a consistent manner, and generally makes a table play faster. A heated table is required under international carom rules and is an especially important requirement for the games of three-cushion billiards and artistic billiards.Pool tables
A pool table, or pocket billiards table, has six – one at each corner of the table and one at the midpoint of each of the longer sides.Dimensions
Pool tables come in different sizes, typically referred to as,,, or tables. In all cases, the table is rectangular with a ratio.There are only two sizes approved for tournament play by World Pool-Billiard Association : and. For a table, the playing surface measures with a margin of error for either dimension. For an, the playing surface measures, with the same inch variance allowed.
In the UK as well as a number of other British Commonwealth and European countries, the typical pool table is a, although tables for the pub and home market are also common. These are the sizes used by internationally standardized blackball and the amateur World Eightball Pool Federation, as well as informal pub pool. The 7-foot size is also frequently used in North American amateur leagues, and are common coin-operated fixtures in bars and other venues. The playing surface for a 7-foot table is.
Pockets
Pockets, typically rimmed at the back with leather or plastic traditionally have drop pockets, which are small receptacles below each pocket to contain the balls. More modern tables may instead employ ball return pockets, a series of gutters inside the table, which deliver the balls into a collection compartment on one side of the table, in a similar manner to the ball return on a bowling alley. On a coin-operated table, the object balls are deposited inside an inaccessible window until the table is paid again, allowing the balls to be released into the compartment, while the cue ball is usually separated into its own ball return, often utilizing a different sized ball. A possible result of drop pockets is that if too many balls go into the same pocket, it would fill up the receptacle and prevent any more balls from going in that pocket, requiring that some be moved out of the pocket manually before shooting again.Regardless of table size, the WPA standard table has wide, angular pockets that funnel notably inward, generally 1.75 to 2.25 times as wide at the opening as the diameter of the balls, wider at the side pockets than the corners. WEPF pool is played with balls, and this type of table has smaller, narrow pockets, with rounded entrances and nearly parallel sides, like those on a snooker table. One tactical consequence of this design difference is that the jaws of the WPA-type pocket are often used exactly like a horizontal version of the backboard of a basketball goal, to rebound the ball into the pocket; this technique does not work on blackball tables, and even shots down the cushion into a corner pocket are more difficult.