I think the cue ball is generally smaller (1 7/8" vs 2") although it's not really something I looked into. If the cue ball was larger it would be easy enough to change the routing :) It was quite tricky to find the optimum height of the 'separation bar' (for want of a better term). You only have 1/8" to play with... it's too low, then obviously the cue ball won't pass under it and if it's too high the colour balls will occasionally get stuck. I didn't spend too much time faffing about and could have made it better/more elegant e.g. the two trays that run under the pockets are just black PVC guttering and they sound quite cheap when the balls fall into them. The table is now complete and without wishing to tempt fate the return system hasn't failed yet :)
It's purely based on the size difference between the cue ball and the colour balls. You can see at 10 seconds that the cue ball passes under a bar that's a tiny bit too low for the colour balls, which then just follow the angle of the bar. In the vid they just bounce off some foam I'd jammed into the end of the return so they didn't fall onto the floor, but now they fall into a tray at one end of the table.
The cue ball was originally delivered to an opening at the baulk end of the table, but I later added a small, protruding ball sized holder (the size of a very shallow coffee cup) for it to run into, so it was easier to pick the ball up. The coloured balls are delivered to a much wider, slightly protruding 'tray' at the other end of the table, so they can be very easily removed. When I took the video, that part of the table wasn't complete, so there's just a large hole for them to drop through... to stop them falling onto the floor, I just stuck a piece of foam in the way (the grey stuff they bounce off towards the end of the video). I really should have taken more shots/videos of the table as I was assembling it!
I hate a smaller cue ball , that’s why they eliminated the old style white cue ball, it’s just to small or to large, they need to be made equal to the full set of balls, As a pool player we like when they are all the same . ( in weight and height )
Thank you for answering this, I'm beginning to start to build my own and this helped alot. I was going to do pouches instead of a return system and then I happened to see this video!!
