Hi BC Stringers out there, A few days ago I saw a stringer from a reputable shop, string a racquet differently. The racquet was pre-strung and he started from left to right for the mains, I am a stringer too,and own a Stringway ML 90 with swivel clamps and I follow the Dink's way of stringing, starting from the middle. Can anyone let me know how good or how bad the stringer's method is, and what effect it has on the racquet. Cheers Jurong.
One piece 2 knots? How did he do that?will it damage the frame due to overloading on the side of the frames?
Going from left to right puts a lot of stress on the left half of the frame. If the machine doesn't have good support (six points), the frame symmetry may be at risk. Stringing by definition deforms the shape of the head, but at least going from the centre outwards gives a symmetrical frame at the end. As long as your stringer had a decent machine and did the job quickly, you should probably be OK (but centre-outwards should be standard from now on). Have a look at this http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26624&highlight=painful for an extreme example
1) if it is at lower tension (less than 24lb for mist of the racquet) with supports in the right position, it should be OK with no damage to frame and minor uneven tension from right to left. 2) i actually will not go back to that shop if i can string the racquet myself.
Whether you use one or two piece stringing, the mains should be strung first and must always start from the centre, one string on each alternating side at a time, and work towards the sides. After the mains are strung, you then start stringing the crosses at 10% higher tension than the mains, to ensure that you get the same "effective" tension as the mains because the crosses are expected to lose about 10% tension by having to go up and down 22 main strings which will increase resistance. You can start the crosses from the throat or the top end. The top end start plus a starting knot instaed of any other knot is the gold standard for the best quality stringing job, AOTBE. Another key to distortionless stringing is to tailor-fit the locations of the 4 side supports to the shape and cross-section of the racquet. If the above is followed there should be almost no stress on the frame, even if the racquet is strung to 30/33lbs because the net pressure or stress on the frame is zero-courtesy of the balanced state of the 660 lbs of mains pressure and 660 "effective" lbs of the crosses. The devil to achieve this zero stress state is in the beginning of the stringing job. Again the wallpaper QC check is useful.
Going from left to right using high tension is very risky. It can create uneven balance during the process, which result in damage the racket frame. It's safer to start from the center, and alternate between left and right no more than every 2-4 pieces. Of course, going from left to right speed up the process time by a little bit, that's why some stringers prefer to do so, especially if they have a lot of rackets to work on within a short period of time.
