Custom-Made Stringing Machine Parts

Discussion in 'Badminton Stringing Techniques & Tools' started by Pete LSD, Dec 24, 2009.

  1. DarthHowie

    DarthHowie Regular Member

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    yep.. buy new (longer) screws that mount the turntable to the stand and buy washers/nuts to put between the turntable and post....( i already have washers present...about 8mm). So in total you need about 1" more to raise the turntable.

    I know where to get the screws..but they only open 9-5 on weekdays and i'd rather see the screws in person then just simply buy them online here
     
  2. DarthHowie

    DarthHowie Regular Member

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    Currently the gripper is far enough away from the turntable, such that the mounted badminton racket handle will always hit the gripper preventing 360 rotation.. you'll have to raise the mounts and/or the turntable the height of a racket handle in order to get 360 rotation.

    Honestly, if you want 360 racket rotation with the Gamma 6004 + Wise combination, the end result will be that your racket will be mounted higher then the gripper on the Wise.
     
  3. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    oh right. i am so used to the Shuttle Express dimensions where the part that hits the gripper is actually the shaft. with the gripper moving further away and the gripper contacting the handle, it will take extra vertical distance to get 360.

    yikes.

    and of course tennis don't have it as bad as badminton as the frame is so thick it is pretty much the same vertical displacement as the frame.
     
  4. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    this is kinda of related. with the recent thoughts of upgrading to a machine with a tennis sized turntable, i have started to wonder if there are way to have the gripper closer to the racket head.

    we know moving the WISE closer is not going to work as the huge turntable is going to block the WISE body.

    but can we move the gripper closer? the gripper is just two piece of black Aluminum (the gripper shell) wedged against another piece of aluminum (the drive body) which is driven by the worm gear inside the WISE. what if we machine an extension that is the same thickness as the drive body and then mount the gripper shell on it, and mount the extension on the drive body?

    this has the potential of extending the gripper as close as we can to the actual mounting post.

    the advantage is that we will now back to an equivalent compact setup. no more long segments of strings going from the frame to the gripper. furthermore, moving the gripper below the shaft instead of the handle, there is less vertical shimming needed to get 360 degrees rotation.

    the downside is that we need to make this piece. which is likely need to be precision machined, at the minimum matching the thickness of the drive body exactly for the gripper to function. this will likely be a CNC job. another potential issue is that there will now be extra force asserted on the drive body. but i am not too concerned about that as the body is supposed to handle 80lbs+ of tennis stringing stress and it should handle it with ease.
     
  5. Pete LSD

    Pete LSD Regular Member

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    Master Howie,

    How are Michal's shoulder supports so far? Do you still need +10% on the cross after further experimentation?
     
  6. DarthHowie

    DarthHowie Regular Member

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    Please don't call me Master.. that is undeserved.

    Since I still do top down for the crosses, i've used your suggestion of proportionally raising tension to the +10% as i move downwards (starting with last top shared grommet or the grommet just before). I noticed i was getting better frame shape as a result of this.

    I have not yet had enough time to test out applying same tension on main and cross (the thought scares me) .

    My opinion still hasn't changed of the Chudek supports. I find it far more superior in terms of support and finish compared to the Gamma (slide-in) supports. Michal Chudek gets top marks for being a one man army of design, manufacturing and customer service. We are lucky to have him help us all out.
     
  7. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    I can imagine exactly what you're after - I think it would end up looking fork-shaped, with the prongs fitting where the gripper assembly currently attaches. Essentially it would reproduce the gripper attachment point further down the WISE.

    While we're on the subject, I've thought a tilted tension head would be a good WISE improvement - wouldn't affect the pull height, but it allow more of the gripper to engage string coming down at a steep angle from higher turntables. This would also be the work of a CNC process. I feel the old CAD itch coming on...
     
  8. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    actually, i went and took a look at the WISE in more detail.

    the cleaner way is to replace the whole assembly. including the drive body (the vertical AL piece that the gripper shell attaches to). the body is attached to the worm gear unit with 2 allen bolts. if we take that the drive body out, and then machine a piece of L-shaped aluminum (Aluminium ;) ), and then attach it using the same allen bolt holes, then we don't need any forked shaped or other hack. it will be simpler to machine and much cleaner result.

    as for the tilt head. i am not totally convince the utility of it given the presence of the diablo.

    if indeed just something simple U shape, we just need access to a mill and while CNC would be nice, it probably won't be needed.
     
  9. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    Yeah... I did consider going into the bowels of the WISE and designing a completely new "gripper carrier" piece - has the advantage of being completely flat, so it could be cut out of sheet aluminIUM, and there'd be total freedom to have the tension head wherever and pointing whichever way we wanted. If I had the equipment... but I don't. I can CAD with the best of 'em, though:D.

    The diabolo certainly forces the string into line with the plates, but that's the ONLY reason I use the diabolo, and it puts the gripper a good few inches further away from the turntable. I've done test-pulls on many strings and concluded that gripper marks only manifest with mine after three or four pulls (and we shouldn't be pulling the same string three or four times anyway!).
     
  10. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    the sheet aluminunumium piece is actually 18mm thick. which i think mean we can bypass the mill and go straight to a waterjet.

    let me talk to my machining friend to see how much that will cost...
     
  11. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    Well, if it's cheaper for each of us to get one, I'll design mine if he/she is amenable:D.
     
  12. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    certainly will save raw material cost as 2 L's can fit into a rectangular block better than 1 L. only slightly better though.
     
  13. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    an alternative would be a custom shop.

    custom CNC shop will charge less for more pieces. but they also charge an arm and a leg if there are many cuts.

    i roughly tried to price something like this and it came out to US$80/each for a quantity of 2 pieces.
     
  14. Pete LSD

    Pete LSD Regular Member

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    How much would it cost if there is a demand for more than 10 pieces?
     
  15. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    Pete are you interested? do you use your WISE anymore?
     
  16. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    We can infer from his query that he uses at least eight of them:D.
     
  17. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    10 pieces is $27.xx each
    6 pieces is $31.xx each
    5 pieces is $33.xx each
    4 pieces is $36.xx each
    3 pieces is $41.xx each
    2 pieces is $50.xx each
    1 piece is $80.xx each

    something like that. i am just doing a rough drawing. the more detail i add, the higher the cost.

    this is for custom CNC milled part.

    more params to be tweaked as well.
     
  18. kwun

    kwun Administrator

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    Mark A, any chance you can make a CAD drawing for the piece? my CAD skills dates back to the early 1990s. there are places who can give us a quote for CNCing the part if we give them the DXF file.
     
  19. Mark A

    Mark A Regular Member

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    kwun, if you can email me a dimensioned drawing or photo (even a hand-drawn sketch would do), I can reproduce the original and do some mock-ups of the proposed mod.

    I'd rather not go into the guts of my WISE if I can possibly avoid it - I just took the cover off and I don't fancy messing with anything I found underneath...
     
  20. ckyew

    ckyew Regular Member

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    I certainly agree to that!!!! Cheers Michal^^
     

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