Anybody can make a pool table. But manufacturing a pool table that is
well-designed is an entirely different, and difficult, proposition.
Excellent design ensures that the person who sets up your pool table is
able to do so in less than 3-4 hours, and, at the end of the process, feels
as though the table is well built and will play well.
We've set up
thousands of pool tables in the 25 years we've been in business and
those that are constructed by companies that sell on the internet and
manufacture overseas are almost always going to make my husband, Lance,
master of the art of pool table construction and repair, cringe.
Especially those that claim some sort of "American Heritage" in the
name.
If you are looking at a new design, probably rustic, probably
with some slanty legs and metal pieces and parts and it has not been
made by Olhausen Billiards, there's probably a good reason why. This
isn't easy to explain, but the way my husband puts it is that most of
the products that are not manufactured by small U.S. manufacturers like
Golden West, AE Schmidt, or the larger Playmaster AMF, Olhausen or
Brunswick, or by any number of the small, ridiculously expensive,
engineering firms that make them, are junk, pure and simple. The
smaller companies tend to over-build them, and the companies that have
moved their labor costs overseas tend to jump into the market with
designs that have not been well-thought through.
How can you tell who will have well-designed pool tables and who will not? Have they changed
their name in the last 5 years? Have you ever heard of them before? Has anyone you know ever heard of them before? Do they hide the fact that their product is made overseas?
The only exception I can think of is Legacy. This company controls its process pretty well and they don't try to sell you $4,000 pool tables for $1,995 out of a warehouse in an alley. They price competitively, control the design process, and sell a decent product. Unfortunately, Lance still says they are not even close to the quality produced by Olhausen. I guess he's pretty stuck on Olhausen, but when you put together hundreds of pool tables a year, you might know what you're talking about.
We sell Olhausen, Brunswick, and Drawknife pool tables and we are willing to look at ordering designs from Presidential Billiards, Canada Billiards, Golden West, AE Schmidtt, and California House (24 week lead time), or Championship/Valley Dynamo (Connelly) so if you like any of the Olhausen or Brunswick's, we probably have them or can get them relatively quickly. If you don't see a design you like, take a look at the other manufacturers we've mentioned, but do give us a call. We can usually figure out what you need by sending out one of our library of PDFs and save you a lot of time and searching.
