I'm probably not the only one who has ever gotten a bit of a stiff neck from stringing too many rackets in one sitting. The problem goes away if I raise the machine, but then, too high and it gets tiresome on the arms. This is just an idea I'm throwing out in the open, but has anyone ever considered/ tried suspending a mirror angled at about 45 degrees to the racket being strung, so that you could look straight instead of bending your neck to look down? If i'm not being clear, think of it like the way most north american arcade machines are actually a screen that's horizontal that's actually reflecting in a 45 degree mirror so that you look at it straight ahead.
A very interesting idea. But, IMHO, mounting or suspending such a mirror would be a bit of a hassle, not to mention having to retrain your brain to interpret the reversed images. How about a CCTV camera and showing the display on a monitor that's mounted at eye-level? No reversed images and, depending on how tech. you want to pursue this, you can add height, pan, zoom controls and more, too. May be foot-controlled. A pro. tourney stringer told me to adjust the height of the machine, assuming a stand-up model, such that the stringbed is just slightly higher than your elbow. IOW, your elbow would bend slightly less than 90deg, with respect to your upper arm, to touch the stringbed.
With the amount space we have, guess most setup will be "less than perfect" here or there. With my own experience, the easiest way to avoid (not 100%, of course) soreness/stiffness is to take a bit break here and there. I am not saying leaving 30lb work half way done, and u go to a movie. I am referring to a break like 20 sec or so, get up, move a around, stretch urself a bit. If using a drop weight machine, u need to wait for 10-20 sec to let the string to settle to begin with. Therefore, don't just lock urself in 1 mode, move a bit, let the blood flow. Another thing is, don't let any A/C or fan directly blowing to u, especially not the joints.
Heh. CCTV-- now THERE's an idea. Seriously! I'm not kidding about the mirror thing. We have one of those suspended magnifier lens things with a built in flourescent ring light-- attaching a mirror to it won't be that hard. I'll give it a shot and let you know the reuslts. It's true, learning everything upside down will be tricky at first but meh, I think it'll be just like learning the interface to any videogame I hear about stringers who do like 5+ rackets in a row, I don't care how fast you do it, you people are monsters.
Last thanksgiving day, I did 7 rackets in a row, before get a chance to get to dinner table to chop the turkey. My hands were shaking for sure...
just to revive this...But I have a question..do you people stand aroundyour stringingmahine? I did the same before and got some really backache (Tall guy..)... I put my table-top dropweight on my desk (desk is 73cm high) and the top aprt of my stringing-mount reached 1m from the floor. My chair can be highted so that the seat is 0.5m up to floor. and I then sit while I string... I have to be carefull my seat isn't too close, because else I can't swing the arcket around..But the job certainly got more relaxing or I'm just lazy...
