Slate bed Pool tables

All Pool tables we supply are slate bed Pool tables, with precision ground slates.
You are sure of an excellent game of Pool from any of our slate Pool tables.
Whether you require reconditioned Pool tables, home Pool tables or a coin operated Pool table, you can rest assured that they all have a playing surface that is second to none.

We also often have odd sized slates, offcuts, and some broken slates that can be cut to different sizes for all sorts of other applications.
Contact us with your requirements.

How are slate Pool tables produced?

Something which every Billiard manufacturer takes for granted is a perfect slate bed playing surface.
Actually, the fun of a good game for a skilled player is seeing the ball rolling smoothly and in a straight line where it is intended to go.
This result is achieved by using a top quality slate bed as a playing surface, which has been finished with the most up to date machinery, so as to obtain the flatness and smoothness required by the best known Pool table manufacturers. In terms of performance, no substitute has been found for slate.

Italian slate is quarried from vast underground layers. The slate veins lie between two sandstone layers - called the roof and the floor.
Quarrying begins with opening holes in the mountainside where the slate veins appear to be. These holes are dug out using explosives, until large enough for quarrying machinery to enter.

The slate vein is cut into layers in blocks of different sizes as required by the manufacturers.

A special hydraulic chain saw cuts the blocks out of the layer. The blocks are then extracted by a huge
CAT and taken out of the quarry to be loaded onto trucks and transported by the factories.
The blocks must be kept moist by being wrapped in plastic until they are sawn.
It is most important to protect the blocks from drying out before being sawn, otherwise they become
brittle and useless.

Slate finishing is a multi step process. The first step is that of placing the blocks beneath the gang-saw cutting machines.
Each gang saw utilizes 10 - 25 of the long diamond teeth blades, depending on the thickness of the
slabs. It cuts either blocks up to 9ft long and up to 5 1/2 feet wide, or alternatively, two smaller blocks.
The thickness of the slabs at this stage is about 1/8" thicker then the desired thickness of the finished product.

After a final curing period the raw slabs are cut to the exact size desired by a computerized sawing machine. Both sides of each batch of slabs are cut at the same time by a couple of rotary blades, so as
to ensure a perfectly straight cut.
The trimmed slabs are now assembled together into a complete set in order to fix the dowels, drill screw holes and the boltholes for the full size.
Slates for 3-piece tables are drilled automatically after being assembled as a complete set, in order to ensure accurate location of holes as per specification.

The set, complete with dowels, pockets, holes and bolts is now carefully floated to obtain the perfectly
flat, smooth surface required for the game. Sloped pockets must be cut one by one with diamond-teeth bits, which have the required angle, and leave the top edge of the pockets smoothly rounded off.
The most important step after floating is the final curing process, which lasts for several days, until the slate is perfectly dry.
Before packing, the slate is again double-checked and only a perfect finished product leaves the factory.
We are now at the end of the process. The bundles containing the finished slate sets, are loaded into containers or onto trucks to be despatched worldwide.