Agree, if I have to widen a shared hole, I use a narrow safety pin and make sure I do not hit the string. This always works well.
My ST-200 is very good but hindsight is 20/20, I should have bought an Easy-3. The fixed clamp is very useful.
You must be a bird killer as well. What do you eat to make your swing so hard and kill both (bird and string) in one shot?
Yes, I'm definitely a bird killer. I got through a lot of birds unfortunately. I'm an ABC (American Born Chinese) but grew up eating Chinese Food, what else?
Can you elaborate this for me? Do you use the floss to make way somehow? How? Needless to say it's not nearly stiff enough to go through a blocked hole and I found that in most cases, though it's thin, it's too wide to go through. So, I must not be using it correctly. What I do now is instead of using a metal awl, I use scraps of stiff strings like a BG-70Pro or even a thin gauge monofilament tennis string as an awl, if needed. Thanks in advance.
Can you explain how you do this? BTW, a string mover, is that the bit that looks like a wine cork opener except with a hook at the end instead of a screw? That's good for (repeat) business, though, no?
You move the existing string to the side to make the opening in the shared grommet larger... ...I don't have this problem because I always pre-string my rackets while I'm waiting for a court.
I thought about doing this, but when you're stringing at a high tension already, won't tugging on/moving the string stress it even higher? I know it's probably no more than when you hit a shuttle in play, but the length of time (the string is under extra stress) is much longer surely. I'll give it a shot, but if someone can post some pictures of the appropriate way of using the string mover for this purpose, I'll greatly appreciate it. Thanks.
Tie a loop on one end and stick the unlooped end into and out of the shared grommet. Put the tail end of the cross string into the loop. Pull the unlooped end and you should be able to drag the cross string into and out of the shared grommet. I hope my explanation is clear.
Shared grommets, which are used by both the main and cross strings, are found on the four corners of the frame. About half of these shared grommets are easy to pass a string through; the other half are more difficult. The reason is that the difficult ones have the main strings going one way on the outer frame and then going the other way on the inner frame, thus blocking the grommet hole. For these difficult ones, you just use the hook of the string mover and hook it on the string and then pull it to the other side slightly-this action unblocks the grommet hole. You then simply insert the string through the now unblocked grommet hole. For this to work well on multiple point machines you must ensure the side supports do not block any of the grommet holes. If necessary use a long nose plier to ease the string through the hole.
Thanks, Pete. I'll try this. I do have some additional questions, if you don't mind: do you find it difficult to thread the floss through a shared hole? I don't know whether there're any differences between flosses in HK and in the US. Here they're like very narrow ribbons. IOW, they're very thin, about 1mm wide and soft. Not round like a sewing thread. So, often times I find it quite impossible to put it through because it's too wide and too soft/limp. Also, when you tie a loop and put a string in it, do you have any difficulties passing that through a shared hole? I'd imagine that the string would fold---thus double in thickness---as it passes through. If so, wouldn't that simply be too thick? Thanks again.
Thanks. I'll try this too. May be a combination of this and a little chapstick will do the trick. A couple of problems with the B-696 from a stringing perspective in my view are that it's often times not stiff through to pass through a blocked shared hole, and that the cut end frays quite easily and gets tangled up with the existing string. Yonex strings are quite the opposite, I find. Anyhow, thanks again for the tip.
If there is a main string looping over the shared grommet on the outside of the frame, then you will have a tough time getting the floss into the grommet. I usually twist the tooth floss first, to compact the diameter. Pulling the tooth floss with the cross string in its loop takes slightly more effort. Yes, the cross string will fold at the point where it is looped by the tooth floss. I usually let less than 5 mm of cross string to stick out of the loop.
I'm still waiting for my package of tools from Eagnas arrives. So far I've not broken the B696 yet. However, the way I get through shared holes, is by using the outside of my pliers (curved and smooth) to push the string to one side and then get the string through. It's been working pretty well and it doesn't damage the string. Only problem is, on high tensions, you have to tug pretty hard, and with just 2 hands, it's quite a job sometimes...
I have to use one hand to pull string and the other drop the tension jaw and lock the string in place. This string requires quite a bit of work. Every string requires two to three pulls from the tensioner to get the slack out.
