Hi all, i just restrung my racket and for the first time, i actually saw how the person did it. there was a part that was puzzling me and i wonder if it shld be the way and if it matters. after the machine pulled the string to the desired tension, the person would use the clamp to clamp the string before releasing the tension from the machine. however, when he did this, i realised that the clamp actually moved about 0.5cm. this happens all the time for all the string. hence my concern is, is the movement of the clamp normal as in is this expected or is it because the clamp is not secured enough at the hinges? will this affect the overall tension of the string bed??
Generally speaking a drawback of an 1/8" (~3mm) or so is all right as the slack will be taken out on the next pull. If it's more than that, then you should look into what's causing the excessive drawback because it will affect the stringbed stiffness (i.e., the actual tension string tension will be considerably less than what you ask for, hence a softer overall stringbed). I had this issue once and it's due to one of the clamp sleeves coming loose from its base. The manufacturer (i.e., Alpha) sent me a replacement set---a pair of complete clamp bases with their glide rails assembly---and that was it. On top-of-the-line machines the manufacturing precision should be such that there's no noticeable drawback. But, we're talking about $3500+ machines here.
