Well guys, I've been talking about wanting a stringing machine since a year ago. It finally came in the mail this morning! I immediately assembled my new toy. The Laserfibre MS200TT Standard/ECO. Luckily my order from Hi-Qua came at the exact same time or else I would've had no string and I'd only have tennis clamps. The machine itself is a rock, but the mounting system was just great. I used a steel Carlton Attack Ti racquet I got from Wal-Mart as my test subject. I thought for sure the same would change. However the 4 point inside mounting system with the 3 point hold down system really does its job. The job took about 2 hours... the Hi-Qua clamps worked great although I was only doing 22 lbs of tension. I also tried using the LF clamps for a few strings. They are huge and don't fit in lots of places but when you fit them they work very good. I feel like I could put any amount of tension on the string without the clamp moving. I also ordered a starting clamp, string mover, and an awl which are not here yet so it slowed me down a lot. I ended up doing a search and used LB's method of starting the mains with the keychain ring and a peice of string. I will try much higher later and see how the clamps hold up. I also ordered a pair of Eagnas clamps (the black klippermate rips) Maybe I'll get a pair of Yonex's too. Weaving wasn't as hard as I thought although I was very slow. Also my stringbed was screwed up... I used the Yonex stringing method but it didn't work out on the Carlton. It really feels great to have a racquet that I strung all by myself. I've still got lots to learn. Need to weave better and faster... need to be more familiar with the stringing patterns and choosing the correct ones. Need to string faster as well. I would really like to thanks BFers who helped me through this. I don't think I could've got here without you guys. Next target : Yonex ISO 25 VF @ 28/26 lbs. xD
Congratulations on your first stringing job. You will learn to love stringing. Hopefully, you will become a high tension convert and propagator. The more players string their own racquets, the greater their choice of tensions to try out.
It should have worked OK on the Carlton, if it's a normal 36 hole frame. (23 cross strings is more usual for Carlton Oval frames, though) P.S. congrats
Congratuation. Enjoy your new toy. Can you post some picture about the one pull / any angle tensioning.system? Only the pulling system.
It's not that special... it does look a little fancy but the design is quite simple. I will post pictures very soon, but meanwhile check this out: http://www.stringway.com/dwm.htm
I found out where I screwed up... basically for weaving, I started every weave over, then under and so on... I realized I have to look at the string before it to determine if I start weaving over or under.
Well... I did my AT500 today, with BG65 at 24/26 pounds. I really liked the feeling. Ever since my local shop switched stringers it's just horrible... she wouldn't do a mint condition CAB30MS at 24 lbs. She said, oh your racquet is only SP. This is a 2U version too! She wanted me to do 22lbs, I finally convinced her to do 23lbs but it still didn't play like I wanted... what I really wanted was 24 lbs! Anyway, my dad came home from china. He has a friend there who's girfriend was a pro athelete. She was on the Guandong provincial team. She's about 25 now so she works at a sports store and coaches on the side. She gave us huge discounts. Strings were about 5 dollars Canadian each, so dad bought 10 packs of BG65 and 10 packs of BG85. I was quite tempted to string with BG85. (btw he also got the new SHB99s for 70 canadian, and victor shuttles for 5 canadian a tube... quite a deal ) However when I was trying to get the string through B8 to tie the knot for the mains, it just woudln't go in... I stupidly stuck my paperclip and BAM the string snaps... half a pack of BG885 gone... I saved the other half... just in case somehing like that happens again... or otherwise I could try a hybrid or something like in tennis xD. Anyway I opened another pack of BG85. Strung my MP100 at 25/27. I'll test it out tomorrow and see.
