When purchasing a shuffleboard table for home play, there are a few things you need to be aware of for maintenance purposes. Your beautiful shuffleboard should last for years and years of hearty gameplay, but proper care will keep your table looking and playing great.
Most casual players know about using shuffleboard wax and silicone spray. However, once you own a shuffleboard, you need to pay attention to tension of the play surface. Climate adjusters are what keeps the surface tension of your shuffleboard ideal for playing.
Today, we’re going to explore climate adjusters—what they do and how to use them to keep your table in its best playable condition.
What are Climate Adjusters?
Most shuffleboard tables are crafted from hardwood, which is sturdy and durable, but it is also porous. In humid weather, the board can actually expand. In drier, cooler weather, the wood can contract, or pull away. This expanding and contracting can cause warping and misalignment. As you can imagine, a warped shuffleboard does not make for good playability. Warping effects speed and accuracy. Climate adjusters are a mechanism typically consisting of a threaded stud that sits between two brackets and allow you to adjust your shuffleboard board table according to the temperature and humidity throughout the year.
The ideal shuffleboard is slightly concave, to prevent the weights from falling off the board and into the gutter. To maintain the slight concave, climate adjusters are often included in with quality shuffleboard tables or they can installed underneath the board. Climate adjusters are made of a pair of straight support beams, kept in place with four or six bolts. Each beam has at least one bolt on either side for ideal tension. The sets of adjusters should be placed about three to four feet apart from each other.
Testing Your Shuffleboard
To test how concave your shuffleboard is, lay a straight edge ruler or leveler on the surface of the board. If you can slide a piece of paper under the leveler , your board is just the right amount of concave. The center of the table should be less concave than the ends, creating a smoother play surface.
Adjusting Your Shuffleboard
If your table has too much of a dip in the middle, it is time to adjust it. To decrease the distance between the climate adjusters, leveling out the playfield, first loosen the bolts located between the adjusters. Next, slowly tighten the outer bolts, bringing the adjusters closer together.
If your table is convex, with the center bending upwards, it needs to be adjusted in the opposite way. First, loosen the outside bolt on both sides. Then, tighten the inside bolt using two turns and repeat on other side.
For more information on adjusting shuffleboard climatic adjusters, read: How to Adjust Climatic Adjusters.
Taking Care of Your Shuffleboard Table
As you get more familiar with your table, you will be able to tell when it needs to be adjusted. Taking care of your shuffleboard, before and after playing not only helps keep your table in top shop but can help you become a better player in the long run.
Climate adjusters are crucial for a great shuffleboard table. At Shuffleboard.net, each table in our collection has been specially selected for high quality craftsmanship, durability, and remarkable playability. Find your next shuffleboard for your home or business, with superior climate adjusters in our easy-to-navigate catalog.
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