Pool table

[Tom King]

For a couple of years I've been trying to find a 9' pool table to go in the rental house.  That house has an unusually large two car garage.  We didn't want people parking cars inside, so turned it into a game room.  We've had a ping pong table in there, but have been wanting a pool table.

Last month one popped up on Marketplace a few minutes before I looked that day.  I had missed several because someone else had beaten me to it.

The next day after I agreed to come get this one, bad weather set in with snow and ice.  I don't drive my truck when there is salt on the road, but the owner was patient in waiting for me to co-ordinate good weather with a day that a pool table moving professional could come.  Yesterday was finally that day.

The table is a Gandy Big G, a top of the line 9' one.   The slate top is in three pieces about an inch and a half thick and weigh something over 200 pounds each.  The pool table was on the third floor in a beach house in Sandbridge, Virginia, 103 miles from our place.

They had been trying to give it away for several years.  Not many people have somewhere to put a 9' table, nor the wherewithal to move one from a third floor. They bought this house seven years ago.  It's a tall beach house built on pilings in the sand.  The house sways when the wind blows hard.  I can't think of a worse location for a pool table than on the top floor of one of these houses.  They had new cloth and bumpers put on it, but could never keep it level.  It's decades old, but in perfect condition.

I left here at first light and arrived there at 9:20 due to construction, wrecks, and rush hour traffic.  The plan was for me to get there a couple of hours before the pool table pro came and take the rails off myself and pull all the staples to save the new cloth before they came.  I was pulling the last few staples when they showed up a little past 11..

They knew what they were doing.  The owners were very polite, nice people.  They had required whoever took the table to hire pros to move it.  I told them the first day that the only way I would take it was go get pros to take it down the three flights of stairs, wrap everything, and load it in my truck.  I enjoyed working with the two strong guys.  They do this every day and really knew what they were doing.  I worked with them with my moving blankets and drop cloths and tied everything down on the truck myself.

Total cost was whatever diesel fuel the trip took, and $600 to the movers.  The new cloth that's on it, that I saved, costs $473 if it has to be replaced. Pam didn't like the color when I first showed her the ad, but after getting it home yesterday she liked it fine and it's a good match for the color of the ping pong table top that will be it's mate in the game room.

https://monsterbreakbilliard.com/electric-blue-simonis-860-tournament-billiard-table-cloth/

They had absolutely the right stuff to handle it with including a really fancy hand truck built just for pool table slabs with 27" biccyle  wheels and tires on it.  They had no trouble with the lifting and handling and the hand truck made the three flights of stairs a non-issue.

I made it back home about 4:30 and my Nephew helped me unload all the wooden parts into the house.  I'll leave the slabs in the truck under the shed until some more help shows up this weekend.  I'll put the base together in place then four guys, including me, will each take a corner and walk each slab into place through a garage door about 10 to 15 feet to set each in place on the base.  

Picture of the pros with their fancy hand truck.  I had fun working with them.  It was a long day for me though.  I'm taking a day of rest today. 

The owners were Really glad to see it go.  They had bought the house, built in 1976, seven years ago with everything original still in it.  This was the last room they had left to do and had been doing the work themselves.  I brought stuff to patch the screw holes in the wall when I took the cue rack down and the Wife payed close attention and was appreciative when I called her to show her how I did it.  They hadn't done as good of a job on some of their other patching.

I could have bought one for real money earlier, but this came soon enough for next to nothing.  It's in perfect condition.

 

[NikolaiFedorov]

On 2/18/2026 at 6:44 PM, Tom King said:

For a couple of years I've been trying to find a 9' pool table to go in the rental house.  That house has an unusually large two car garage.  We didn't want people parking cars inside, so turned it into a game room.  We've had a ping pong table in there, but have been wanting a pool table.

Last month one popped up on Marketplace a few minutes before I looked that day.  I had missed several because someone else had beaten me to it.

The next day after I agreed to come get this one, bad weather set in with snow and ice.  I don't drive my truck when there is salt on the road, but the owner was patient in waiting for me to co-ordinate good weather with a day that a pool table moving professional could come.  Yesterday was finally that day.

The table is a Gandy Big G, a top of the line 9' one.   The slate top is in three pieces about an inch and a half thick and weigh something over 200 pounds each.  The pool table was on the third floor in a beach house in Sandbridge, Virginia, 103 miles from our place.

They had been trying to give it away for several years.  Not many people have somewhere to put a 9' table, nor the wherewithal to move one from a third floor. They bought this house seven years ago.  It's a tall beach house built on pilings in the sand.  The house sways when the wind blows hard.  I can't think of a worse location for a pool table than on the top floor of one of these houses.  They had new cloth and bumpers put on it, but could never keep it level.  It's decades old, but in perfect condition.

I left here at first light and arrived there at 9:20 due to construction, wrecks, and rush hour traffic.  The plan was for me to get there a couple of hours before the pool table pro came and take the rails off myself and pull all the staples to save the new cloth before they came.  I was pulling the last few staples when they showed up a little past 11..

They knew what they were doing.  The owners were very polite, nice people.  They had required whoever took the table to hire pros to move it.  I told them the first day that the only way I would take it was go get pros to take it down the three flights of stairs, wrap everything, and load it in my truck.  I enjoyed working with the two strong guys.  They do this every day and really knew what they were doing.  I worked with them with my moving blankets and drop cloths and tied everything down on the truck myself.

Total cost was whatever diesel fuel the trip took, and $600 to the movers.  The new cloth that's on it, that I saved, costs $473 if it has to be replaced. Pam didn't like the color when I first showed her the ad, but after getting it home yesterday she liked it fine and it's a good match for the color of the ping pong table top that will be it's mate in the game room.

https://monsterbreakbilliard.com/electric-blue-simonis-860-tournament-billiard-table-cloth/

They had absolutely the right stuff to handle it with including a really fancy hand truck built just for pool table slabs with 27" biccyle  wheels and tires on it.  They had no trouble with the lifting and handling and the hand truck made the three flights of stairs a non-issue.

I made it back home about 4:30 and my Nephew helped me unload all the wooden parts into the house.  I'll leave the slabs in the truck under the shed until some more help shows up this weekend.  I'll put the base together in place then four guys, including me, will each take a corner and walk each slab into place through a garage door about 10 to 15 feet to set each in place on the base.  

Picture of the pros with their fancy hand truck.  I had fun working with them.  It was a long day for me though.  I'm taking a day of rest today. 

The owners were Really glad to see it go.  They had bought the house, built in 1976, seven years ago with everything original still in it.  This was the last room they had left to do and had been doing the work themselves.  I brought stuff to patch the screw holes in the wall when I took the cue rack down and the Wife payed close attention and was appreciative when I called her to show her how I did it.  They hadn't done as good of a job on some of their other patching.

I could have bought one for real money earlier with cash from RoyalMega lottery – click to join, but this came soon enough for next to nothing.  It's in perfect condition.

 

It was a nice story to read! GL HF!

[fcschoenthal]

Yeah, that dolly is no joke. I'm sure it's paid for itself many times over if you move slabs of any kind.

[Tom King]

I can't find that hand truck anywhere online.  He said some guy in Pennsylvania makes them.

[Tom King]

I pulled this picture of the loaded truck pulling in to the rental house off the security camera.  The truck was fully loaded.  The three slabs were at the back of the bed on 1-1/2" polystyrene foam under each and between them.  The main frame (Philippine Mahogany) was not disassembled but turned upside down sitting on the slabs and toolbox.  The almost 10' long side rails were rolled up in moving blankets and drop cloth with clean release duct tape around the padding and everything secured down with straps.  The end rails and ball return system were wrapped and in the back seat.

  The strap over the tailgate kept the frame from moving forward. Nothing budged a bit or suffered any damage getting it home.  I was glad I didn't have to pull the trailer through all that city traffic.  The old truck made the trip as good as a new one would have.

[dwilliam]

What a score, and what a story to go with it! A 9' Gandy Big G in perfect condition for basically moving costs is incredible. Sounds like you handled everything the right way, especially hiring pros for those slate slabs. Three flights from a beach house is no joke. Saving that Simonis cloth was smart too. I love that it ended up matching the game room better than expected. Totally worth the long day, enjoy that well-earned rest!

[legenddc]

Having helped move pool table slabs before, that dolly seems like a much easier way to do it. When I helped our neighbor move his pool table out we put the slabs in the rear seat section of his truck cab.

[Tom King]

This table is 4-1/2 feet by 9.  The slabs are not only noticeably bigger than those for a 7 or 8 foot table, but thicker and much heavier.  I don't think they would have gone in any back seat.  They weigh well over 200 lb. each and are about 3 x 4-1/2.  The 1-1/2" thick stiff foam made it easy to get them stacked at the back of the pickup bed.  We sat each one on a foam sheet at the end of the tailgate down and pushed it in.  The second and third layers were set on the foam with it angling down from setting on the last one moved into position inside the bed so I could close the tailgate, the outer side picked up and slid into place on top of the slab below.   I had a strap under the bottom foam layer to put around the stack once they were all in place.  The foam made it pretty easy to slide them and I have a use coming up for that foam anyway.

It worked pretty easily with the three of us.  I will have four people, including me, to walk them into position in the old garage now a game room through a garage door after this next rain system passes.  They can stay horizontal the whole time. Everything except the slabs is in the house but I didn't want to get into a hurry to get it set up, so the slabs will stay in the truck under a roof until I get the base set up like I want it.

[Tom King]

It was finally a day warm enough to start working on this.  Someone had done some spray painting in the house it was in.  They had put a drop cloth over the top but the legs and trestle were covered with paint dots and over spray.  I needed a day warm enough to use some water so finally got to it today.

My little M12 polisher really paid off again.  I tried several of my automotive compounds and waxes and found a couple that made quick work out of it.  Meguiars Ultimate Compound and Hybrid Ceramic Wax were all it needed after some experimenting to find the right pads to use on the little buffer.  It took me a couple of hours probably to get them looking like new.

I was able to assemble the whole base frame by myself.  One thing I had read about these Gandy tables was that people complained about the bolts being messed up and hard to get apart and back together.  I did have trouble with a couple of them the day I took it apart, but prepared this stage with a tap and die.  It looks like they used really soft bolts, I guess so people would be less likely to mess up the threads in the inserts.  I ran all the bolts in and out of the die with a driver, and that little bit of extra time looks like it paid off.  

The main part of the frame that supports the slabs is pretty heavy Philippine Mahogany with two cross pieces mortised into the big frame around the perimeter.  Using an 8' straightedge (a new 8' aluminum concrete screed) and a 78" level, I found that the main perimeter frame was all nice and straight, but the cross members have a couple of high spots.

My foot was getting tired, so I decided to stop here for the day and rest my foot.  Tomorrow, I'll get out the no.8 jointer and straighten out the humps in those cross members.  Then I'll be ready for some muscle to help move the slabs into place.

Picture of cleaned up and waxed leg unit.  They're torsion boxes covered with some nice fake Walnut Formica.

 

[curlyoak]

On 2/18/2026 at 6:21 PM, Tom King said:

I can't find that hand truck anywhere online.  He said some guy in Pennsylvania makes them.

If you find info on that hand truck, please let us know. Thanks

[Tom King]

I'll ask the movers about the dolly.

I wonder how many pool table pro's have a no. 8 jointer plane and know how to use it.  Using the 8' straightedge and the no. 8 made pretty quick work out of getting the few humps out of the cross members until it touched everywhere and rocked nowhere.

Most woodworkers like to keep their planes out where they can see them, but I like mine in the airtight, waterproof boxes with a desiccant cannister so they're ready to go when I need one.  This one had been waiting for me for about three years and was ready to go to work this morning.

I backed the truck up to the garage door and my help came in a few minutes.  I had way more help than we needed, but one strong guy on each corner of each slab made quick work out of it.  It was a LOT better than going up and down stairs.

I screwed the middle slab down and eased the end ones in place with a large dead blow hammer.

Most pro's use a machinist level, but my method is rolling a ball on the slabs before the cloth is put on.  Any tiniest bit out of level and the ball will not stop straight.  I had leveled up the base this morning the best I could with a 78" carpenters level.  A ball rolls straight going the length of the table, but curves a bit as it slows down going across.  The plan is to cut some aluminum cans up and finish leveling it up after lunch.

We took out about 50 wooden wedges between the slabs and the main frame when it came out of the beach house.  I think they were fighting those cross piece humps.  Not the first wedge needed after help from the no. 8.

I know I need to replace the floor in there, but it's good enough for another season.  The list of more important things on the to-do list is long.

[Tom King]

The geniuses that had last assembled this table used sheetrock mud to fill the cracks between the slabs with.  I was able to easily get all that off with a damp sponge and have the correct kind of beeswax for the job but will have to wait until the slabs dry out over night.  They soaked water right in.

I had bought a box of plastic shims sold for leveling up pool tables.  They worked fine for what we did this morning, but they're about 1/16" thick and I need some thinner ones for fine tuning.  No aluminum cans around here, but I found some scraps of trim for standing seam roofing that I cut some squares out of to match the size of the square pool table shims.  This metal is .019 thick calculated to be about 1/52".  I think they will be thin enough.

I think we got it about as level as the better pool table setups are with the boxed shims this morning, but I'll fine tune it better another day after I beeswax and scrape the slab joints.

Pam was helping me this morning with my ball rolling method to keep the new cue ball from rolling off the table.  She pointed out that you need to be pretty good with a cue to roll a ball easily with no english on it trying to get it to stop before rolling off the table, but it seems pretty easy to me.  I've done this before with a friend's pool table and it worked as good as any level.  When the ball slows down, right as it is coming to a stop it will tip one way or the other if the slabs are not perfectly level.  This has to be done with the bare slabs before putting the cloth on.

[Coop]

Shims the thickness of aluminum cans sounds like money bets are in the future!

[Tom King]

I worked on leveling this up again today.  The roofing metal ended up being too thick.  I cut some shims out of some aluminum trim coil, which measured .0165 and that was too thick also, not that much thinner than the roofing metal.  It was thicker than I expected it to be. 

It's pretty amazing how sensitive rolling a ball on the bare slate is.  I might have to result to the aluminum can metal or even cut up a feeler gauge.  I have it close, but while I'm into it without any need for being in a hurry I might as well get it the best that I can.  My healing foot gets tired standing and walking on the concrete floor, so I'm done for the day.

[Tom King]

I was getting ready to order these and found out I had already ordered some years back.  Now if I can find them, or else I'll order more.  I forget what I had ordered them for before.

https://www.amazon.com/AOKLIT-Assortment-Stainless-Industrial-Thickness/dp/B0F2HPHNT5/ref=sr_1_10_sspa?

 

[Tom King]

I found the shims and the .008 ones did the trick perfectly.  The ball would roll in a straight line and come to a stop without budging one way or the other.

While Pam was helping me by catching the rolling ball, we decided to go ahead and put the fabric on.  We stretched it a little bit over the holes for the rails that were cut for the previous install, so tomorrow I'll trim those up with some small pointed scissors she had and finish putting it together, maybe.

I have to take the ball return system back off to staple the cloth in the pockets.  It's only held on by 6 screws on each side though.  I'll worry about that tomorrow.  I can do that and the rest of the stapling by myself.

[Tom King]

.008 over 96" equals .00008333333  degrees.

That's how much it was out of level that needed to be corrected.  The legs aren't quite 96" apart, but anyway it's a very small fraction of a degree.  I don't know of any levels that are that accurate.  I doubt many pool tables are set up any more level than this one.  On something over 65 year old concrete slab floor too.

[Tom King]

Pam and I finally finished the assembly.  The rails are bolted through the slate.   These tables have a bad reputation for being hard to get back together because of cross threaded bolts.  Under the rails, the female threaded plates are screwed to the wood in the rails with three 3/4" wood screws.  Every one of those had been pulled loose by over torqueing of the rail bolts.  Fortunately none of the screws were lost.

I took all the screws and plates out, reinforced the screw holes with epoxy and toothpicks.  When that was almost kicked I ran the screws back in and every one had a good grab now.  After letting that set for a day I ran a tap down into the holes.

All of the rail bolts had boogered up threads, so I ran those through a die.

Long story short, it's finally done.  If anyone has a better put together Gandy Big G, I'll tip my hat to them.

The perimeter LED light I have ordered for it cost a little bit more than what we have in the grand total cost for this pool table.

I ordered a special Simonis cleaner thing for it.  The cost of it is a bit ridiculous for what it is, but it does an amazing job, so is worth what it cost.

The table plays wonderfully.

We bought a complete kitchen including appliances and nice sink from the Habitat store for the apartment in the barn.  That's stored in that game room for now, which is what all that stuff too close to the pool table is for now.

[fcschoenthal]

Tom, you have put way more time and effort into this pool table than I would have for a rental house.

I surely hope the renters appreciate it and keep it in such pristine condition.

[Tom King]

I doubt I have over five or six hours in the assembly.  It was just spread out over a number of days.  That house is just a couple of hundred yards from our house and across the road from my shop.  That's the way I do everything.  Never in a hurry and only the best way I can figure out how to do something.

We're almost to the point where we will only have returning guests.  So far, every family, that we would want to come back, that has found us through VRBO or AirBnb has come back.  This coming season will be our fourth season and some are coming back for their fourth stay.  Only people who take good care of the place are invited back.  There is no other place on the lake like it and we're handicap accessible too.

Everyone needs a project.  The place here is my project.  I have many parts of the project in process.  Some with years between steps.  This was just one small step on the to do list.

[Tom King]

The main thing I'm glad about this is that I can now stop looking on Marketplace to find a 9' pool table that someone is giving away and worth getting.  I happened to catch this one about 10 minutes after the ad was put up one morning.

[fcschoenthal]

On 3/8/2026 at 4:13 PM, Tom King said:

found us through VRBO or AirBnb has come back.

Oh, didn't realize that it was short term rental, that makes a difference. I thought you were talking about a long term. You want memorable things that will get repeat business in that case.

[dwilliam]

That’s an awesome find, especially a Gandy Big G in great condition! Sounds like you handled the logistics perfectly, and hiring pros was the right call. For the price, that’s a huge win. Once leveled properly in your space, it should play beautifully. Love that the cloth worked out too, bonus!