Hi, I have a Carbonex 15 that is a little worse for wear. The center main strings at the top of the head have cracked the graphite between the grommets. Photo of grommets - you can see where the grommets are distorted. Now a closeup of the center area - you can see the graphite strands. Another adjacent grommet pair - not as bad. So, what should I do, insert a spacer before I restring? Or leave it on my shelf. The racquet was strung at 16lb for a long time, maybe it has been weakened or may have had a manufacturing fault. I have another identical racquet that shows no signs of the graphite failing.
[Update] I have taken out the grommets. Has anyone ever tried using the MBS Grommet Protection Pads - to repair this? It might be worth trying, then I can keep this as a training racquet. Those protection pads are made of rubber and are supposed to protect against the string cutting into the frame, which is too late in my case, but is it worth a try, maybe with something else underneath? I already have spare grommets for this racquet from many years ago.
As there were no suggestions on what to do, I decided to try some Araldite epoxy resin. I coated the graphite area which had cracked with two layers of Araldite, then have put in some MBS grommet protection pads. These pads are actually quite soft, and I don't know how effective it will be - but it is now probably good enough to string. This shows the Araldite coating between grommet holes. The centre holes were cracked almost completely through - this had a larger amount of Araldite on it to soak through. Second coating was applied 24 hours later to allow for curing of the first coating. This shows the grommet protection pads with new grommets inserted. The have grommet holes which are wider than the holes on this Carbonex 15, so the rubber bulges up a little.
Certainly, I will provide an update once I string the racquet and see how well it keeps its tension. It is a very old racquet, one of my favourites for singles.
i am kinda speechless. esp since it is done at such a low tension. is this the 25 yrs old black cab15 with the black/silver t-joint?
Kwun, actually it is a 27.5 yrs old Cab15 - with the black/silver T-joint. I bought two of these in 1983 and only recently found that this one was like this. The other one strung at similar tension did not show any signs of cutting through, but then this one has had the most usage - mainly singles, but that was over 10 years ago. The tension I would have been using would be 16-18lbs maximum. Here is a photo of the head - you can just see the grommet protection pads sticking out on the left.
brings back some memories. unfortunately that way before my time. these days with modern rackets, we have seen grommet holes being pulled through, but cases we have seen are people going for 30lbs tension and the racket just self destructs structurally. no idea how strong these old rackets are.
Kwun, I just had a closer look at my other Cab15. The center top grommets are showing the imprint of the string that I was using at the time. This one is in much better condition, still has had a lot of games, but has less paint chips and clashes than the other one. I have put this frame away plus two Carbonex 8's in quite good condition.
I have now strung this racquet with Gosen GS-80 strings. I have used 17lbs for the mains and 18lbs for the crosses using my special single string pattern. I will have a play with it for some time and monitor the repaired area. This string is quite waxy and I have to be careful pulling the crosses as it can burn or score quite easily.
about 10 years ago I fixed my friend's Cab 15 which had the exact same problem. I think the bottom side of the frame had the same problem. I have a real easy solution to fix it, I used thick dense leather power pads. I originally use them at the the throat of the t-joint when I string up rackets, but then one day I thought that they would be an ideal solution to prevent the string tension from pulling the string through the frame. I fixed a few rackets with this technique and it seems to work. You don't even need to buy power pads, you can use a thick old leather belt and cut them up into small pieces. A few comments about my method: - It physically does not look good (you see small buldges stick out of the racket, like the original poster did when he put MSB grommet pads on) - adds a little bit of weight on - I restrung the rackets on low tension, less than 20 lbs To the original poster, I would not use any epoxy or resin because I believe the racket swinging and flexing will just cause it to crack off and possibly do more damage. The MSB grommet pads look like a good idea but I am hesistant about the sizing, most rackets have different spacing between grommets so that buldging may be a problem down the road. I am going to call my friends up and ask if they can let me take a picture of their repaired rackets for viewing. I personally think my technique is really good because it helps displace tension/force well with such a large surface area coverage. With the MSB grommet pad, the surface area of protection is smaller so I can still see the string pulling everything through the frame eventually.
