Aloha! I do have my own stringing machine (drop weight) and since I play with 30/32, I do want my strings to keep the tension as long as possible. My BG-80 lasts for probably 1-2 weeks with that tension (I do actually hit quite hard) So I've been pre-stretching my strings for quite a quite. Just a brief explanation of how I do the pre-strech: Pull the tension once release that thing that stops the weight of getting up bouncing the weight 5 times more do it over and ove again... So since this is really time wasting, I wanted to know if there's a better method. I know that trying to stretch the string by pulling it before even stringing is one method, but I don't actually have the time for that.... hope you guys can share your methods...
I manual pull the string prior to stringing but since I string slow and not for money, I can do that. It really doesn't take that long. By the sounds of your stretching, doesn't it take longer than one pre-stretch before stringing? Not sure by what you mean by bouncing the weight and also doing it over and over again. Sounds like it's more time consuming than one manual pre-stretch. Plus, why bouncing the weight?
what I mean by bouncing is that after I release the blocking-thing I push it up, and let it pull the string more and more... The thing is, that when I pre-stretch the string before stringing, I have the feeling that the stretch is not, like, enough... If you know what I mean. I have the feeling that when I pre-stretch it's not as stretched as when I do it stringing
I know what you mean about the ambiguity in a pre-stretch. Did you ever do a manual pulling pre-stretch AND the method you are using now? If so, did your current method show that the already pre-stretched string required less time to do your job? If not, try manually pulling before stringing. I know you stated it is too much time for you but maybe it work enough for you. Worst case is you do it once and it does not please you. It's likes strings, we can argue and ask for opinions on a specific string, but in the end, one has to try it for themselves to know if it works for them. I don't pre-stretch too much, I like elasticity in my string bed. I think if one tries to pre-stretch to the point of no more elasticity in the string, the string would feel dead or lifeless. I recall discussions here, a little is nice, too much results in a less than satisfying string bed.
I haven't done that yet, but I sure will... maybe it's gonna be perfect then hehe but then again I wonder if this won't be too much of pre-streching, I mean I do like really high tensions... but as I said it's always the problem that the tension goes off quite easily... maybe stretching the string to its limit will work I'm gonna try tomorrow, we'll see how it performs
I would say try it and come back with the results. If you like it, so be it, it doesn't matter if the majority of people disagrees, it's your own satisfaction during play that matters. Maybe stretching it to the limit and past does work for you?
okay just geting back to you... I did pre-stretch the string by hanging a weight of 5 kg for about 10 hrs. after that I strung my racket 30/32 the way I am doing it, normally. been playing with it in 2 session à 5hrs... so far it's good really hard in play, but I do like it, I feel I have stretched the string up to its limit. let's see how long this string will last though... I don't normally break strings, but I feel with this stringing job, this will change soon. anyway thank you for your answers and ideas
No problem, glad to help, what's next is if this method still satisfies you over a longer period (past 2 weeks?) compared to your previous method. If you don't break the strings yet.
how much did the string stretch over 10 hours with a 5kg weight? i also wonder how you go about stretching a 10m long string with a 5kg weight? do you have pulley system? i also wonder if 5kg is enough giving that your final tension is 30-32lbs which is around 14kg. the idea of pre-stretching is a sound one. our experiment before have shown that a freshly strung string in a racket will lose a couple lbs of tension just sitting there unused. so to get rid of that tension loss ahead of time in out-of-racket prestretch will prevent that from happening.
I used to tie strings to a metal post, and wrap it around the 2 posts in my basement, then hang a 10 pound kettle bell off of it. Works really well. I was considering getting a 20 pound kettle bell so I can do maybe 5 strings at a time.
I don't remember how much the string actually stretched, but it was a bit. not that much though. I actually just hang the string from the ceiling of my room... since I do 4 knots, of course they were already cut in half. So basically I do both, like out-of-racket pre-stretch and while-stringing-pre-stretch (lol sounds weird). And now that I've been playing with it for a week, I do feel that the string has stretched, it's still enough and of course to expect. But as far as I remember, the string isn't as stretched as it was with the stringing jobs before. So over-all I think it's a better way, but I'd like to go to the limit, even if I won't like it, I still wanna know how it feels
