Took the plunge!!

Discussion in 'Badminton Stringing Techniques & Tools' started by Jay Ng, Jan 16, 2019.

  1. Jay Ng

    Jay Ng Regular Member

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    347DB137-C78B-4137-BAF3-FE7A7BD1F4BF.jpeg 9E3E0B02-9A10-43F9-8D20-6DC1544CE522.jpeg After many months of debating on whether I should try to restringing my own racquets, decision was made when a local ex badminton player offered me his machine. Took the plunge and bought it as we live on an island so it would have been a headache getting a new machine shipped here.

    The seller promised to teach me how to restring so I took him up on the offer and got him to show me on an old racquet which belonged to a friend. Took 1:42 mins (recorded session on phone) yesterday as I made quite a few mistakes .

    Decided to restring on my own today as I wanted to try it out with the process still fresh in my mind. Took out my spare Astrox77 ( a bit of a gamble I know!!) and thought I’d give it a go armed with a few YouTube tutorials, Yonex pattern page and my other strung Astrox77.

    Had a few hiccups but have now ended up with one still intact restrung racquet.

    I’d like to thank this forum for giving me the confidence to do this and look forward to reading up more posts to speed up the process!!
     
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  2. thyrif

    thyrif Regular Member

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    Great start! Be sure to check the "Things I learned after xxx amount of string jobs"-thread, it has some great tips!
     
  3. Jay Ng

    Jay Ng Regular Member

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    Will definitely check that thread out!

    Learnt something very basic today! Double check that racquet is central in the machine before starting on the main. Learnt the hard way when I was ready to tie the second main that something wasn’t right, had to undo all the hardwork and start over
     
  4. thyrif

    thyrif Regular Member

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    Haha yeah that happens to everyone sometimes, I always pre-weave all/most of the mains so I notice really really quickly before any tensioning if I've been asleep mounting the racket (happened like twice with old weird rackets). Good luck and go slow in the beginning. It is more important to learn to do it well, and it will speed up later. Learn to check the mounts and slipping on the clamps and stuff, and some good knots.

    The BadmintonCentral video on How to conquer the shared hole is also nice and helped me around some real time slurpers when I got started, but I would never put an awl into the tubes, but the other tips are nice and I never have any issues anymore:
     
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  5. Jay Ng

    Jay Ng Regular Member

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    Thanks for the link!

    Wished I’d seen that video yesterday as it was an old racquet with a lot of shared holes. My Astrox today was a lot easier but video would have still helped a lot.

    Another thing I learnt today is to wear a plaster on my right index finger as I’ve got a couple of nice cracks in the skin!!
     
  6. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    been there. done that. no worries. it is part of the learning curve!
     
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  7. s_mair

    s_mair Regular Member

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    Haha... it's exactly what happened to me too on my very first job as well. On the second one, I managed to stab the string to death while poking around in a blocked shared hole right at the end of finishing the crosses. #3 then went surprisingly smooth then.

    Anyway, I've put together a playlist of various stringing technique clips that helped me significantly. I guess some of them could be interesting for you as well. Check it out:

    https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYrw9BAzfs6fJn8KltcIg98q6SaUY0sHV
     
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  8. Jay Ng

    Jay Ng Regular Member

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    Thanks for the playlist!!

    I’ve already started doing things differently on the second job so I know there’s much more to learn to improve speed and quality of the job. It’s amazing how even having the machine at the right height makes a big difference!

    Another brave soul locally has offered me a cheap racquet to restring so more practice for me
     
  9. flyingcords

    flyingcords Regular Member

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    Yeah I protect mine too. With a piece of overgrip. It could be interesting to share that kind of finger protection. I'm sure other stringers have better protection than mine.
     
  10. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    interesting. I think different ppl have different skin type. and the weather also affects it. I never have issue with skin cracking from stringing despite the overall dryer california weather. but then i am also not the most prolific of stringers. 4 string jobs in one go is the max i can handle.
     
  11. Jay Ng

    Jay Ng Regular Member

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    Cracks have turned into deep cuts today so a little sore.

    Watching another YouTube tutorial and guy had a plaster on the exact same part of his index finger so it might be only for certain skin conditions. My skin gets really dry in the winter!
     

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