I've seen worse from tournament stringers - seriously. And I've got the pictures to prove it. Aside from the loops on the outside of the frame, I would suggest tying the mains one grommet further toward the middle (#8, rather than #9). That way you won't have to push your first cross through the knots. You can tie your cross at #6. I would also straighten all the strings before removing the racket from the machine, particularly the crosses (which always bend upward when strung from bottom to top); bent strings are artificially tight, putting the frame under extra stress. 2 hrs is pretty much exactly how long my first go took (but I had a crank machine back then).
I have a hard time believing a newbie can string a racket in about 2 hours with a dropweight. Especially stringing with such a good technique and precision. Take it as a compliment. Good job!
Good job, but for my liking the grommets of the outer mains at the top (both shared) are cut too short. At serious tension the frame can get cut easily inside. I suggets to let them slightly longer. Optional you can flare them a bit.
Grommets are just the original ones with the racket. I have ordered spare grommets and will take your advice on board for where I am replacing them. Had another go this morning at a 2nd racket. Took around 1h45 which could have been a bit quicker I guess except I had to re do the mains at the start because I forgot to lock the base of the clamp at one point . Tried to straighten the crosses more this time but still need to work on it. Apologies for the poor phone photos.
Looks good to me You mentioned the straightening yourself. Shoutout for also using the good old Arc10!
It's looking good, I would move your knots down one grommet as Mark has suggested. What tension did you do those two at?
Tension is 24lbs mains and 25 crosses. Will try moving knots down. Was trying to follow Alan Kakinami's technique for the tie off locations. Thanks.
Handy trick for you, when you pull your last mains (with the loop back) it's hard to clamp close to the frame with fixed clamps right? Put flying clamp close to the frame, then put the fixed clamp directly behind it. Helps reduce tension loss.
Alan only does it because he adds an extra cross at the bottom which occupies the usual Yonex tying points at #8. The rest of us can use #8 for mains and #6 for crosses (on that pattern, anyway).
Thank you both! I will certainly try using the flying clamp for that last main - sounds like a good idea. Mark, I will go to the standard Yonex tie offs then, I was just using the video from Alan: I don't think there is an extra cross here (looking at time around 10:34), unless I am missing something? I assumed it was being done this way to reduce length for tie off. Thanks again for your input!
No cross at 8, I just tie my mains off at 9 and tie my cross at 8, making my tie offs shorter, less string to stretch or lose tension. Thanks for watching my video! Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk
