Few days back I re-strung my racket at 26lbs (max for this is 30lbs) and yesterday I noticed this crack in the arc which looks like due to string. Is it due to fault of stringer or bad quality of racket? How often you see this and what could be the exact reason? Sent from my LG-H930 using Tapatalk
That looks like it has been strung way too many times without replacing the grommets. Grommets exist to protect the string from the sharp edges of the racket, but also to protect the racket from the concentrated force of the string on the frame. After a few stringjobs, as well as playing with the racket, grommets wear down and lose their 'cushioning' ability and what happens is the string presses into the frame, if that happens too much the frame can crack in the way you see in the picture. It is a stringers job to replace grommets when they wear down to prevent this. To extend the life of the grommets, a technique many stringers also use is to rotate the grommet before restringing a racket to make sure the string sits on a 'fresh' side of the grommet and not on the worn down side. It's unsightly if you pay attention to it, but it works. However, here it doesn't look like any precautions have been taken. This doesn't really depend on the racket either. Some rackets with thinner frames or made of less dense material might be more prone to this happening, but at high tensions it happens to every racket eventually if the grommets aren't replaced.
It was strung twice or thrice at max . Bad grommet could be the reason, I agree. However is it normal to replace grommet after 2-3 stringing? If I keep this frame collapse aside, It was breeze to play with this one. Loved playing with it. I feel it was way faster than even my Apacs Featherweight 55 and power packed as well. I was planning to buy it again, but not available in India at moment. Stringers here do very casual job. Exploring other Mizuno options however at the moment <$100-120.
At this point these are just my personal estimations so take it with a grain of salt, but I find that if I'm stringing above 25, I can string over the same grommet twice, and at higher tensions, even that is pushing it. Every time you string over the grommet it immediately creates a groove in the grommet and every successive stringjob it makes the groove deeper. It might be fine, but I don't like to risk it since rackets are expensive and grommets in comparison cost nothing. Everytime I string a racket I like to turn the grommet to give the string a fresh side until the grommet runs out of sides and then I replace them. So usually I turn them a quarter so I get 4 'uses' out of 1 grommet. Some need to be replaced sooner because they have strings going over the edge in both directions. Some might say I'm being overkill with the grommets, but I've seen many rackets with sunken holes and I find that if you're not stringing above 30, then being meticulous about the grommets completely prevents it. At crazy high tensions, you'll get sunken holes no matter what, but I don't often get requests to string that high. Ultimately, it's a small price to pay to never have to worry about it.
