First machine-need advice! Centring 7000 or premium stringer 3600 or others? Thanks

Discussion in 'Badminton Stringing Techniques & Tools' started by TheNotoriousLIG, Jun 20, 2013.

  1. TheNotoriousLIG

    TheNotoriousLIG Regular Member

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    Hi guys, I have been on the hunt for a stringing machine to start stringing with for a little while now and this one looks fairly well built, comes with basic set of tools and an hour long training session and just about fits in my budget (£350, although it could be subject to a downward change in the future) but I'm not willing to rush into it with that much money. http://www.tennisnuts.com/shop/othe...nes/centring-7000-tabletop-manual-492407.html
    I am also looking at the premiumstringer 3600 from W&D and buying the tools and clamps separately. This would be a little bit cheaper overall but the dropweight would be slower and also it doesn't have a raised turntable like the centring 7000 does (raised turntable is a big plus for me, would be better for me as I'm a little limited on space and would also mean I can keep everything in the tray, no need to find other storage) however it does have single control for the supports (centring uses individual controls) and it is easy to upgrade to wise later on. It is also compatible with the custom attachments available from another BC member (that seem to be pretty popular).

    I plan on stringing for myself and as many others as I can find (part-time) once I have had some practice (don't want to start with a bad first impression). I am pretty OCD about little details and I fiddle a lot with whatever is close to hand so I think stringing will suit me. I also break strings depressingly frequently so I hope to save myself some money too. As such I want a machine that will last at least long enough for me to make a good enough profit to buy a better model or wise head (or both if it goes well :D). I have read through almost every thread related to beginner stringing, stringing machines and tips and tricks over the past 12 or so pages of the stringing section and been in contact with several retailers and stringers for advice so I'm not just jumping into this but I'm having trouble getting an overall opinion so I hope some of you can help me.

    I plan on learning to do a string job I would be happy to receive and I have been offered racquets to practice on from some friends who are pretty regular breakers (apparently only charging people for the strings is popular... who knew:p) who are also going to be giving me feedback on them to help me do a better job since its in all of our interests to do so. Once I have a consistent good quality job nailed, then they have agreed to bring racquets from their respective clubs to me and also spread my name around. Since a couple of them are pretty high level, I imagine they will have little trouble convincing others to allow me to string their racquets but first I have to prove I'm worth putting their names on the line for so I do need a good machine but I'm not able to raise my budget any further so any advice is welcome.

    Btw, I will be charging normal stringing prices so as not to undercut other stringers so any clients that use me instead of their previous stringers will only do so for a better service although I do expect I will do trial prices e.g.first string with me might only be the cost of the string+what you think it deserves, then normal price after if they decide to return. That would only be to allow people to try since they would understandably be unsure of quality. Thanks in advance for your help. :)
     
  2. yan.v

    yan.v Regular Member

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    Never heard of Centring machines. However it seems very nice. It can also be upgraded to WISE without much trouble.

    Only thing I'd worry about is build quality since I've never seen these machines. But if build quality is good, I'd certainly choose this machine over the PremiumStringer 3600. Also, I don't like the side supports, but they should be ok. Maybe you could ask Michal if he can make custom supports for that machine.
     
  3. TheNotoriousLIG

    TheNotoriousLIG Regular Member

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    Thanks Yan.v :) It looks very similar to the eagnas 810 and alpha revo 4000 but a little bit more solid in the pictures. Hopefully I will have time to go over to the shop and see it in person over the next few days and see what the build quality is like in person although I doubt its going to be poor considering its tennisnuts selling it. They are phenomenally reliable, I know many people who have made many orders from them, they have never put a foot wrong with any of us. I have seen a lot of posts about 'k' supports not being great for badminton racquets so I'll see if Michal can knock something up for me once I finalise which machine I get. I thought this would be easily upgradable but I wanted to check that with people who know a lot more than me about this stuff. :D

    Just in case anyone is interested btw, Tennisnuts is one of my favourite suppliers for sports stuff. Their range is great (only smaller than Direct sports and Central sports in my experience) but unlike their aforementioned rivals, their customer service is very consistent. Its not amazing insofar they won't be throwing in free tshirts/ racquets etc but they do everything they can if you ask nicely and they are very polite and knowledgeable and once they actually recommended me to another distributor because they didn't have the N90 in stock which is unheard of in my experience! I ended up buying a VT80 from them instead because I knew I could trust them if anything went wrong.
     
  4. yan.v

    yan.v Regular Member

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    Oh I'm sure it's more solid than Eagnas machines, I think I could build something more solid than their machines with spaghettis...

    If their service is as good as you say, then I wouldn't worry much about the machine if it's decently built, I'm sure they will help you should something bad happen with the machine.

    Don't forget to buy a load spreader and a badminton awl/string mover :) They seem to include the string mover in the image, but don't actually mention it in the included tools.
     
  5. TheNotoriousLIG

    TheNotoriousLIG Regular Member

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    If you do that, I will build an idol of you and place it on my bedside windowsill so every day before I wake or go to sleep, I can be reminded of the great potential of humankind and aspire to be as great.

    I haven't had a problem with them yet, would be unfortunate to make this the first if it did happen. MBS to the rescue it seems. :D I'll call tennisnuts and see if the string mover is included. Thanks for the advice.
     
  6. wlotus

    wlotus Regular Member

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    Centring 7000 looks identical to a Eagnas Combo 810 to me. It could be that it's made by Eagnas and selling under a different brand name in UK. Even those tools have the same part number and pictures when you compare it with Combo 810 from Eagnas web site.

    Another thing I'd like to mention is the clamp. It's tennis swivel clamp. I'm not sure if it'll work well with badminton. See http://www.eagnas.com/tools.html#swivel for the different clamps. My assumption is that you're likely to encounter some issues when using tennis swivel clamp.
     
  7. TheNotoriousLIG

    TheNotoriousLIG Regular Member

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    Yep I thought so too. Although that machine has had consistently good reviews. I have read very few complaints about it. I'll try and call tennis nuts tomorrow and find out more. I noticed the part numbers were identical as well but alpha revo4000 has a lot of the same parts too so I'm guessing this model has been modified slightly by each brand that used it.

    I already checked and they sell the badminton clamps for this machine for £15 each on their website. The clamps are fairly popular it would seem, so I'm not concerned too much about that. I'll see if I can get a deal on them or I may buy the £25 clamps on watdon that are pretty popular on here as I suspect they are better value but we'll see. I may decide to learn tennis patterns as well in the future so the clamps may yet have a use. :)
     
  8. joyping

    joyping New Member

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    yeah,I'm sure they will help you should something bad happen with the machine.[​IMG]
     
  9. TheNotoriousLIG

    TheNotoriousLIG Regular Member

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    Called them up, they are happy to give me badminton clamps instead of tennis clamps, and it comes with an awl, diagonal cutters and some pliers. If anything goes wrong I should just take it to the shop and they will contact the manufacturer if they can't repair in on site, but they wouldn't tell me who the manufacturer was so its a 50:50. Since Alpha and Eagnas are the only companies I see with an almost identical machine to this, I'm guessing its one of them. So either going to be great or not so great. The tools all have eagnas part numbers though so I'm guessing its probably Eagnas but I hope tennisnuts stays true to their usual good service in the event something did happen.

    Even so, the eagnas 810 is pretty popular all things considered and I haven't seen many people with problems with theirs so I guess that would make CS unimportant if this is an 810. They are having the badminton clamps sent to the store hopefully by Monday so I'll look at build quality and part quality of the machine and clamps so I can decide although I have high hopes. Any tips on things to look out for? E.g. Loose screws, or poor fittings etc? Is there anything that usually goes wrong in crank machines that can be checked in advance like which parts of the crank itself are common problems etc.

    Thanks
     

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