Felt Replacement (1 Viewer)

Jonzee

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So I bought my table about a year ago used. Nice enough table at a good price, only paid $100 used.
1631236594310.jpeg

The rail and vinyl are in good shape, and the table foam under the felt is still firm.
But… the felt is trash and all balled up.
1631236852916.jpeg

My question is do I need to pull all of the staples and remove the old felt? It seems like a massive pain in the ass!
Has anyone ever just layed new felt or speed cloth over the top of old felt? If so how did it turn out? Any advice for this project would be appreciated. I’m looking to re-cloth this table before my next game.
Thanks,
Jon
 
So I bought my table about a year ago used. Nice enough table at a good price, only paid $100 used.
View attachment 774101
The rail and vinyl are in good shape, and the table foam under the felt is still firm.
But… the felt is trash and all balled up.
View attachment 774108
My question is do I need to pull all of the staples and remove the old felt? It seems like a massive pain in the ass!
Has anyone ever just layed new felt or speed cloth over the top of old felt? If so how did it turn out? Any advice for this project would be appreciated. I’m looking to re-cloth this table before my next game.
Thanks,
Jon
You definitely can go right over it!
 
I've re-felted my table twice now (once to put better foam under and new felt) and it's really not a big production and totally worth doing it right. Give yourself an hour or so to remove the old felt and tack down the new one and you'll be happy you did it.

A second person to help hold the new felt taut while getting the first handful of staples in doesn't hurt, but it's not necessary.
 
I would not recommend refelting over that material. If you were refelting over SSC, it would be fine but you'll likely feel the texture of the old fabric through the new.

The proper way would be to remove all staples. If you want to shortcut, you can just cut the old cloth off near the staples, then apply the new felt. I wouldn't recommend doing this though if you plan to refelt the table often, the layers can add up quickly and cause fitment issues. Even 1 layer can cause trouble depending on how the table is built.
 
You definitely can go right over it!
Curious,
Have you ever put a second layer on top? If so, how did it turn out? Seems like the general consensus is to put in the work and do it right so I’m leaning that way…
 
Curious,
Have you ever put a second layer on top? If so, how did it turn out? Seems like the general consensus is to put in the work and do it right so I’m leaning that way…
Yeah but it was over speed cloth so I think it’s a different example than yours. Sounds like these guys had better experience.
 
I would not recommend refelting over that material. If you were refelting over SSC, it would be fine but you'll likely feel the texture of the old fabric through the new.

The proper way would be to remove all staples. If you want to shortcut, you can just cut the old cloth off near the staples, then apply the new felt. I wouldn't recommend doing this though if you plan to refelt the table often, the layers can add up quickly and cause fitment issues. Even 1 layer can cause trouble depending on how the table is built.
Seems like sound advice. I didn’t even think about being able to feel the texture of the old balled up cloth underneath…
 
I removed the staples with a flat-head screwdriver, reused the foam, and replaced the felt with new speed cloth. No glue, which worked well because l pulled the cloth really tight (and then some).

If I could do that, ANYBODY should be able to do it!!!

Spray glue, foam, speed-felt, couple clamps, and a staple gun.
What are the clamps for?
 
I removed the staples with a flat-head screwdriver, reused the foam, and replaced the felt with new speed cloth. No glue, which worked well because l pulled the cloth really tight (and then some).

If I could do that, ANYBODY should be able to do it!!!


What are the clamps for?
Clamps are for stretching the speed-felt and getting it perfectly flat.

Folding the felt over the edge, clamping it to the edge after bringing it taught. Then you can staple and cut away excess.
 
I would shave the fabric with one of those lent shavers you get for sweaters, and then cover the whole thing with new cloth. I might even staple the old cloth down first if it had a loose fit.

I’m kind of a lazy guy, so it’s probably good idea just to ignore me lol
 
Well,
9 months later and I finally found the motivation to take on this project of properly re-padding/ felting my table.
Removed the rail:
1655671670495.jpeg

Filled in the chip tray and rake drop:
1655671709685.jpeg

Just waiting on 1/4 volara and speedcloth:
1655671757790.jpeg

Not half as hard as I thought it would be. Will post final product in a few days!
 
Alright finally finished…
Glued down new Volara foam:
1656393065638.jpeg

Trimmed foam to size:
1656393172300.jpeg

Staples down new cloth/ reattached rail:
1656393287610.jpeg

Chips looking pretty sexy on new fabric!
1656393314685.jpeg
 

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Definitely remove the old cloth and pull the staples. I used a 6" diagonal pliers instead of a staple remover and removed about 100 staples (from three previous re-feltings where the staples were not removed) on my own in under an hour.
 

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