How to Set Up a Pool Table: A Quality Inspector's Simonis Cloth Installation Checklist

This checklist is for table mechanics, dealers, and facility managers who need to set up a pool table without turning it into a callback. It is the same 7-point process I use as quality compliance manager for a billiard equipment distributor, where I review roughly 300 table setups a year. Most of those jobs use Simonis pool felt; Simonis Tournament Blue is what I see on tournament-level tables, but the checklist applies to any Simonis cloth order.

Why 7 points? Because after a Q1 2024 quality audit, my team found 14 tables with visible seam impressions, 9 with uneven pocket cuts, and 2 with the nap running the wrong way. None of those were cloth defects. They were setup defects. A 15-minute final inspection would have caught all of them. When I implemented a punch-list sign-off in 2022, our cloth-related callbacks dropped by 34%.

Before you start, get the basics together: a long straightedge, a machinist's level, a feeler gauge, a staple gun, fresh razor blades, a flashlight, and a vacuum. If you are approving the job remotely, add a phone stand or a good headset. I use a Logitech headset for final walkthroughs because it leaves both hands free while an installer shows me the ball test. It feels like office equipment, but it has saved more rework than the flashlight.

Step 1: Level the slate and check the seams before cloth is unwrapped

Let the cloth stay wrapped until the slate is done. The opening of the cloth is the exciting part; the slate work is not. If you unwrap the cloth first, you are basically inviting dust and slate grit into the weave.

Place a machinist's level along the length, across the width, and on both diagonals. The reading should be stable. Then run a straightedge across every seam. I use a feeler gauge: if it catches on the seam, the slate is not ready. Minor seams can be filled with beeswax or a leveling compound, but only after the compound is fully hard.

Why go first? Because a slate seam problem telegraphs through Simonis 860. You will see it as a ridge, and no amount of stretching will make it disappear.

According to the Billiard Congress of America equipment guidelines (bca-pool.com, accessed January 2025), the table bed should be flat and true across the playing surface. That check is the cheapest insurance in the job.

Step 2: Give the cloth 24 hours to acclimate in the room

Everything I read about cloth installation said to hang the felt overnight. My experience with Simonis cloth says otherwise: a full 24 hours in the same room, still in the wrapper, makes a measurable difference.

Cloth is worsted wool. It responds to temperature and humidity. If you stretch it two hours after it comes off a cold truck, the fibers will move again as the room warms. That is how you get a ripple near the side rail on day two.

I am not 100% sure of the exact relative humidity window. I know that every cloth callback I dealt with in 2024 was installed the same day it arrived.

Step 3: Identify the nap direction before you cut

This is the step that makes a table play differently, and it takes 30 seconds.

Open the cloth on a clean, dry surface. Run your hand from head to foot, then from foot to head. One direction feels smoother. That is the nap. The smooth direction plays faster; the rougher direction plays with a little more drag. The key is not which direction you choose; the key is that the bed and the rails are consistent.

Here is a mistake I made in 2022: I installed a commercial table without checking the nap. It looked perfect. On the first league night, a player said the table played slow. We re-clothed it at our cost. A 30-second hand test would have prevented a $22,000 redo.

Step 4: Lay the bed cloth with even tension, not maximum tension

Center the cloth over the slate. Do not cut it to shape until it is pulled over the edges.

Start at the center of one long rail and work toward the corners, stapling 1 to 2 inches apart. Move to the opposite long rail, then the short rails. Check the weave as you go. The conventional wisdom is to pull the cloth as tight as possible. My experience has been the opposite: extreme tension distorts the weave and makes the pocket cuts drift. The cloth should sit in full contact with the slate, with no wrinkles and no slack.

Checkpoint: run a flat hand from the center of the table toward each rail. If your hand catches on a wrinkle, lift the cloth at that side and restaple. Stretching a wrinkle out by hand is a temporary fix. It comes back.

Step 5: Reinstall rails and cushions in the right order

If the rails are off, check the cushion rubber before you tighten anything. Press the cushion near the nose. It should spring back. If it holds the mark, replace it now. Cushion replacement is cheap compared to cloth after the rails are on.

Bolt the rails in place hand-tight, then tighten in an alternating sequence: a little on one rail, then the opposite rail, then the two sides. Do not fully tighten one side before the others. This keeps the cloth from pulling unevenly at the corners.

Step 6: Cut the pockets with a fresh blade

Pocket cutting is where I find most callbacks in my own audit reports (surprise, surprise). Use a fresh razor blade. Cut a small X at the corner, fold the cloth into the pocket opening, and trim the excess underneath. A razor cuts the weave cleanly. Scissors can leave a raveled edge that turns into a pull by the third game.

Use a fresh blade for each table. I used to think that was wasteful until I saw a dull blade push the cloth instead of cutting it. The result is a tiny bunch of fibers that looks like a defect.

Step 7: Final inspection: light, hand, ball

Now go over the table with a low-angle flashlight. It reveals ripples, fiber bumps, and seam ridges that look invisible in normal room light.

Run a finger along every seam. It should not catch. Pull lightly on the cloth where it wraps into the pocket; it should not separate from the staple line.

Then do the ball test. Put a ball on the head spot and roll it straight toward the foot spot. The path should be straight and slow. If it drifts, check the level again before the client sees it.

I record this test on my phone for every commercial job. If you are doing a remote sign-off, put on a Logitech headset and walk the installer through the same test. It sounds like office equipment, but a headset lets you talk to the installer while your hands are on the phone, the flashlight, and the ball. The recording also gives the customer a time-stamped proof that the setup was checked.

I still do a final mental walkthrough after the table is signed off. Hit confirm on the screen and immediately think, did I check the foot-rail seam? I do not relax until the ball test is recorded. It is not paranoia; it is the difference between a quick fix before the client arrives and a redo after they have played on it.

Common mistakes I check for before signing off

Do not install cloth in the same room where the frame is still being cut, drilled, or routed. Wood dust settles into worsted wool and is almost impossible to remove completely.

Do not move heavy game equipment across the table after the cloth is down. I know one rec center that put a ping pong table on its side and used the pool table as a staging surface while they rearranged the room. It left a scratch down the length of the Simonis Tournament Blue cloth. That is not a cloth failure; it is an installation sequence failure.

Do not reach for cleaning chemicals on the first day. According to Simonis care instructions (simonis.co.uk, accessed January 2025), the recommended approach for worsted cloth is vacuuming and a soft brush, not water or chemical cleaning. Let the cloth settle, then vacuum before the first serious play.

And if something feels off, stop and check. Five minutes of verification beats five days of correction. That is not a slogan. That is the formula I use every time a customer asks why the installation schedule includes an extra day.