Awesome Pool

Inspired by the stainless steel pool ball made by MyMechanics, Cool Again Restoration set out to make their own. They used different techniques to set their pool ball apart and incorporated copper and epoxy resin. They started by machining cylindrical sections, gradually refining into a spherical shape. We’d love to see a whole rack filled with these.

Florian “Venom” Kohler is one of the world’s best pool trick shot artists. As he’s perfected his craft, he has developed over 10,000 tricks and techniques to make billiard balls do his bidding. WIRED met with Florian to demonstrate some of his wildly inventive trick shots. His mastery of ball physics is truly something to behold.

Playing pool requires skill and precision more than brute force. But that didn’t stop I did a thing from building the world’s most powerful pool cue. To motivate his killer pool stick, he built a mechanism that smacks the cue ball with the explosive power of a gun ammo blank. It’s terrifyingly potent – enough to split a cue ball in half.

The most powerful pool breaks rarely exceed 30 mph. At least, that’s the case with human players. But The Slow Mo Guys tend to do things with a bit more impact. So they got their hands on a special canon that’s exactly the right size to launch a pool ball. Once they dialed in their aim, they recorded the carnage at 80,000 FPS.

We’ve seen what’s inside of a typical pool ball, and also a cool version made from stainless steel. Now, BensWorx is here to show us how to make a cast resin 8-ball from scratch. He started with a cup full of black resin, which he cured and then turned on a lathe. The trickiest part was creating the numeric insert.

A normal pool ball is made from polyester or phenolic resin, which makes them hard and durable. But the idea of playing billiards with metal balls intrigues us. My Mechanics rises to the challenge with this impressive stainless steel and brass 8-ball he made from scratch. We’d love to see a complete set of balls made this way.

“I don’t have skill, but I do have technology!” Shane of Stuff Made Here adds to his collection of robotic sporting goods by engineering a pool cue that automatically lines up the best shot. We love how Shane shares his failures and troubleshooting process along the way. Also, we learned a cool new word: fiducial.

Domino master Lily Hevesh got together with some friends at her local billiards hall to play a little pool. But you know she couldn’t resist bringing along a few hundred of her favorite dominoes and figuring out a way to work them into the action.

Adult Swim Games and Rekim present “the world’s least realistic pool simulator” – a ridiculous new spin of the classic table game, in which all of the pool balls are alive and capable of walking places. Available on Steam and the Nintendo Switch now.

Frank Howarth knows a thing or two about making spheres, so we couldn’t help but be transfixed as we watched him turn an ordinary block of walnut wood into a beautifully-smooth replica of an 8-ball. The round clamp he built for holding it on the CNC table is ingenious.

No, that’s not a Baby Ruth in the swimming pool. This amusing inflatable float looks like the familiar poo emoji we all know and love. You’re sure to have the pool all to yourself with this giant floating doodie. Measures appx. 59″ x 65″, and supports two people.

We’ve seen pool champion Florian “Venom” Kohler work his magic in miniature, now watch as he literally takes aim at the hyperactive Dude Perfect dudes, then turns in a epic round of trick shots bouncing balls from table to table, across the room, and always hitting his target.

Master and commander of the pool table Steve Markle is back to show off his uncanny ability to command ball physics like a boss. That shot at 1:45 made our brains hurt. If Steve were one of the X-Men, his name would be Pathbender.

Space-saving game room furniture that switches between a 7-foot billiards table and an air hockey table by turning over the playing surface. Locks securely in place when flipped. Now we want a three-sided version with a foosball table.

The only thing stopping us from buying one of these 70-inch-long inflatable landspeeders for floating around the pool is its rather exorbitant asking price. Also, the fact that it’s probably going to snow any day now in Chicago.

Like Hydrofloors, Agor specializes in building swimming pools with moveable floors. The pools are equipped with hydraulics that raise and lower the floors. The company can also make hidden whirlpool tubs and hot tubs.

At just 20, Steve Markle is the youngest ranked trick shot player in the world, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have skills. Watch as he makes pool balls obey his every whim. (Thanks Mike!)

Why would someone need a self-leveling pool table? To hustle suckers on their yacht of course. Spotted on board a cruise ship, this table uses a gyroscope to keep balls in place in rough waters.

Got $35K burning a hole in your pocket? Consider Billards Toulet’s steel and resin Black Light bil­liards table, with inter­nal lighting and inte­grated juke­box that connects an iPod, iPhone or MP3 player to it.

IBM’s Deep Blue may be a chess champ, but Queens University’s Deep Green is a hustler-in-training; the team is also working on human-friendly augmented reality pool.

Hurricane’s Force 12 pool table was designed for a world-class yacht racer; it features stainless steel rigging, aluminum plate, teak rails with mahogany trim and 1″ Italian slate.

Craig Nottage’s G-1 Glass Pool Table is topped with an innovative Vitrik glass/resin top that simulates felt; it’s then mounted on a sleek, minimalist steel and aluminum frame.

Hurricane Custom Billiards’ Predator pool table is a thing of beauty; it exudes cool industrial vibes with powder coated steel, maple veneers, glass rails and stainless steel cables.