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 27 years we've been in business and those that are constructed by companies that sell only 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. Very few pool tables are made in the U.S.A. Olhausen, A.E. Schmidt, Golden West, Valley Dynamo (Connelly), and Drawknife (as well as many smaller specialty makers) are the brands that manufacture in the U.S. (nope, American Heritage is made overseas). Just as with any product, it's nice to buy from a strong company that will support its product; after all, what good is a lifetime warranty if the company is long gone?
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 Olhausen or Brunswick, or by any number of the small, ridiculously expensive, engineering firms that make them, look modern & cool but are not designed well. 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. Most of his complaints are about connections.
The only exception I can think of is Legacy or Plank & Hide. These companies control their manufacturing processes from materials sourcing to shipping, 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 understand your product and what quality design looks like.
We sell Olhausen and Brunswick pool tables and we are willing order and install designs from Presidential Billiards, Canada Billiards, Legacy, Plank & Hide, Golden West, AE Schmidt, and California House (24-week lead time). Because we are an Olhausen and Brunswick Authorized Dealer, we stock these tables and if we don't have them, we can get them in a reasonable time frame (note: except in 2022, Brunswick is struggling with logistics issues). We are also a Valley Dynamo & Dealer, so if you like any of the Connelly pool table models, or one of the Valley Dynamo tables, we can order and install them as well. If you don't see a design you like, take a look at the manufacturers we've mentioned, but do give us a call. We can usually figure out what you need by sending out one of our PDFs from our library of PDFs and save you a lot of time and searching.
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