Should I purchase a stringing machine?

Discussion in 'Badminton Stringing Techniques & Tools' started by TimothyHsu, Feb 25, 2012.

  1. TimothyHsu

    TimothyHsu Regular Member

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    I'm a sophomore in highschool and I've been playing for about a bit more than a year now and I've been constantly breaking my strings once a month. I go to a local store and pay 15 dollars for just labor at the store. I plan to continue playing past college and will probably keep going unless the world ends this year. I'm considering a crank machine, perhaps the eagnas st-250 (a bit more than 300 dollars). Do you think I should invest the money? I'm only a sophomore in highschool and don't have a source of income yet. I normally use my parent's money to pay for stringing services but I don't want to waste excess amount of my parent's money when I could just string myself. Your opinions? Thanks
     
  2. kingzzz

    kingzzz Regular Member

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    If you plan to string for friends too, then it's a very good investment. Mine paid off in about 3 months (~$300).
     
  3. Andy05

    Andy05 Regular Member

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    Hiya,
    I was wondering what tension you play at? and where your strings keep breaking?

    I bought a drop-weight machine a few years back, the amount of money I have saved by stringing my own racquets will have saved me several hundred pounds. So they do work out as a good investment.
     
  4. TimothyHsu

    TimothyHsu Regular Member

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    Normally I play at 25 lbs but I've gone up to 27 and usually in the middle unless I hit the racket xD Thanks for the advice guys
     
  5. TimothyHsu

    TimothyHsu Regular Member

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  6. yan.v

    yan.v Regular Member

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    I would highly suggest to stay away from Eagnas. The machine they will send you will most likely be used and maybe even broken, that is if they send you everything.

    I had to repair mine out of the box, and the machine had clear signs of usage. I'm also still waiting for the rest of my order (that was placed in January 2011, more than a year ago), after sending them an email every week for the past year. They were always answering with the same thing: "We should receive a shipment of your items next week".

    I'd suggest going with a drop weight Gamma machine. They will be of higher quality, and drop weight machines also usually do a better job than crank machines.
     
  7. silentheart

    silentheart Regular Member

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    Hi Tim,

    Good idea. If you can string for friends and charge $5 for labor+whatever sting cost, you can make recover very soon and soon be able to save some money for your new racquets. However, since you are only HS. I want to make sure you understand the issue of time to string a racquet. It will take a very long time to string your first ~10 racquets. My initial one was about 2 hr. Much faster after that. It was under 1 hr after 13 racquets because I figure out several tricks to speed up process.

    My question to you is as follow.
    1) I assume you are a straight A student and homework and study does take a lot of time on weekdays. So are you going to string during weekday?
    2) Do you know people in your group who does a good string job as a side job?
    3) Will you be stringing tension higher than 27lb in the future?
    If any of the answer is yes, then you should not get a stringing machine and you know the reason why.
    If you are still want to get a stringing machine, I do have a Eagnas ST200 (older model) I can sell you. It includes Yonex clamps and all the tool. I have serviced the machine and calibrated to the spec. PM me if you are interested.
     
  8. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    at $5-10 profit per racket, it will take around 50-100 rackets to cover your cost.

    between now and you graduating and moving to college, you have around 100 weeks. do you think you can do 1 racket a week?

    also you need to keep stock for the strings. unless you get them from Asia, they are rather expensive to find locally.

    the market for home stringer is pretty small and the revenue is quite small. once you start hitting the $20 mark, people will start going to store stringers. i can only charge between $15 to $17 including strings, depending on the string.
     
  9. silentheart

    silentheart Regular Member

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    given kwun's calculation, you have 100 weeks to graduation. you break 1 racquet a month. assume 4 weeks a month, you need 25 string job. given you save $10 labor a job, you save total of $250. A new machine is going to cost you more than $300. at the end, you lost $50 and time you spend to string...
     
  10. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    over the long run, if sustained, one should be able to make up the cost of the machine pretty easily. but the problem is how long can you sustain it and how much do you value paying a few hundred dollars upfront now for the gain a few years off in the future. do you plan to go to college and bring your machine with you too?

    do you think you will enjoy the process of stringing? do you value learning a new skill to be of some value? some people do. some people don't.

    these are the questions that you have to ask yourself.
     
  11. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    other high and low points are.

    knowing that you are your own stringer, when you have a working flow, the stringjob will come back more consistent. everytime you string a racket you know exactly how it will feel. if you bring it to a store or even worse a gym, they have different stringer or different kid stringing your racket everytime.

    the low point is that you need the time to hone your skills. i'd say it take around 10 rackets to get the hang of it and 20 rackets to narrow down to something consistent. do you have the turnover rate to achieve that?
     
  12. Alexccs

    Alexccs Regular Member

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    IMO, you have too many very good stringer in your area and all of them have electronic machine. I would say you should go at least with Wise 2086 to stay competitor in that environment. Wise will help you job done with consistence. A machine is not for short time, it can be stay with you longer them you will play badminton. Usually you will get your investment back with a year to 2 year. Most importance, you will have high quality stringing job for you self at the beginning.
     
  13. silentheart

    silentheart Regular Member

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    Usually you just claim you have a need for medicinal weed and you got your highs...
     
  14. CanucksDynasty

    CanucksDynasty Regular Member

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    We got BC Bud up here :p
     

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