Help with Beginner/Soon to be Stringer

Tbh this very low amount of stringing jobs don't justify to buy a stringing machine. Why not looking for a different stringer if the price is too high. I did a look at the website of this stringer and would never bring him a racket. Is 1980 or why does he use such prehistoric machines. He strings on a 2-point machine badminton and call himself expert - lmfao.

If you wanna start stringing you will spend 1-1.5 hours on a racket. Since you are a fan of calculations: This equals 24-36 hours. You will improve very slow if you just string a few jobs per year. Also count in that you will mess up jobs or damage strings, so all time and money you spend in the beginning won't result in playable jobs. You will waste string and time for the first 20 jobs. Strings will break earlier or on machine due sloppy technique, wrong clamping and not replacing grommets. You will learn that, but you can't say: "I buy a machine and every job will be same quality like an experienced stringer".

to 1) a drop weight has a different mechanism. It will slightly slow down the routine compared to ECP. IMO nothing wrong to go for a drop weight. IIRC I reached 35 minutes on a DW, but this involved much time and jobs for the routine to get it so short. First jobs will be around 2 hours, will drop to 1-1.5 hours. Normal DW time must around 45 minutes if you know how to weave but didn't optimized your routine. Mostly a highend machine has a better built quality, you can get spare parts more easy and the table is more solid. The clamps are higher quality and more gentle to the string, the clamp base is easier to move around and to fix. Cheap clamps crimp a string or string will slip and break. Cheap clamp bases don't move to smooth on the table and the fixing needs some force to get the tight without slipping. Clamps, clamp base and the solid table/supports are the main difference between an expensive 3000$+ machine and a 400$ DW.

to 2) As stated above a clear "NO". You will string 2-6 jobs per year. You will need some time to get the theory, you will need some string and time to learn the technique until you produce solid jobs. Like said before you can't calculate that simple. You need on top 100$ which you will waste on the learn process and need some time to improve.

I needed 12 stringing jobs per year, I played and trained over 12 hours per week at my peak. This made me starting stringing. I also needed to travel to a reliable stringer, which was time consuming and some distance (35 miles). If I had a reliable stringer next door I would never think about start stringing and pay for it. I live in a small city, you in a world metropole. So you will have a much better chance to find a better stringer at a good price who will do your 2 jobs per year.

 

There are different reasons to want to string for yourself. I inherited stringing and my machine from my father. So I got my machine practically for free. If that hadn't happened I probably wouldn't be a stringer now since I'm too cheap to drop a significant sum of money on a machine with limited prospects of ever earning it back. By now it would have paid itself back many times over(if I had bought it myself), but that certainly wasn't guaranteed when I started.

When it comes to price it's probably a better idea to find a good stringer you can trust instead of doing it yourself. Just ask around where other people have their rackets strung and how their experience is. If there is a prospect to eventually string for an entire club or at least a few dozen people, then you will slowly but surely make your money back. However, you should definitely string a whole bunch (30-50) of your own rackets first before you string for others. If you do decide to string for yourself, get yourself a cheap racket and a roll of relatively cheap string and just string that same racket over and over and over again. When you're confident, string your playing racket and see how it plays. Don't try to become faster. If you do, the quality of the stringing will go down. Just try to do the best job you possibly can and you will get faster with time without actively trying to get faster.

Also, if you can find yourself a mentor to teach you, that would be very helpful.

So, when it comes to price, it may or may not be a good idea to start stringing. However, there are other reasons to want to string for yourself.

Time: No need to wait a week, or even a couple days for your racket to be strung. Strings breaks on Friday and you have a match on Sunday, no problem.

Control: you can string your racket exactly how you like it. you can experiment with different tensions and strings to see what you like best. There are undoubtedly many stringers far better and faster at stringing than I am, but they won't be able to string my racket exactly how I want it better than I can on my machine. And if there are, they are not local and probably expensive.

 

Don't know if the stringer is bad, but a stringer who string badminton rackets on a two point machine is nobody who I would trust or would call a serious badminton stringer. I think he is more into tennis. If I need to pay 20$ for just labour, I await to get a job from a modern up to date machine, otherwise I get the feel somebody just want my money, but don't invest in his tools. For 20$ labour you should find somebody who string on a modern machine for badminton.

 

You've been given some really good advice so far! There are other benefits of stringing your own rackets. You get to experiment with the gear a lot more. You get control over what you want from your racket. But that's just it, if you want to start stringing your own rackets, do it because you want to string your own rackets, not as an economic venture. Making a bit of money from it is a happy bonus to start with. I stopped using my stringer because I kept getting back poor or damaged string jobs (and we ended up falling out over it severely) and as such, I wasn't happy when I was playing. I wasn't happy having to take it into the shop almost every week/two weeks. I've been much happier with my own string jobs since. Not to say they've all been perfect, I've had some I've hated.

If you want the gear... Find, from a good vendor (not Pro's Pro, Eagnas etc)
- 6 point mounting system
- Dropweight/constant pull
- Fixed semi-auto release clamps (trust me on this, it's worth the money, bolt-style clamps are AWFUL)
- A set of tools (such as needle nose pliers, side cutters)
- A set of extra grommets; be aware cheap rackets often use odd grommet sizes
- Flying clamps/starting clamps are a nice, useful extra
- The string you want to use

 

I admit I gave a conservative estimation (30-50) of how many string jobs it will take for you to become proficient. I still stick to that statement when it comes to stringing for other people who pay you money. Your friends might give you the benefit of the doubt in the beginning, but if you have people paying you to string their rackets, your stringing needs to be consistent and of good quality every single time.

There are many techniques, handlings and checks that will eventually become automatic, but in the beginning every action needs to be conscious, which takes a lot of time.
You're not going to get a perfect string job on the first racket, but you'll quickly get more fluent after about 5-10 rackets. However, there are more specific things that you need to know that might not occur with every string job.

What if you can't get a cross through a hole because the main is in the way.
What if the racket doesn't conform to the standard pattern.
What if the racket you need to string is a victor lightfighter and you're afraid you might sneeze and break the racket,... twice.

So you will get the hang of the basics pretty quickly and you will get to know your machine, but there is still a lot to learn from there, most of which you will learn from trail and error.

 

1. It's not that straight forward, honestly. It shouldn't take you too long to get *good* at stringing a racket, to say, doing a string job with good quality and playability. But then, being fast at it is another thing (and honestly, I think, is more about the frequency at which you string rackets), and being adaptable is another. With most rackets, it takes me 40 minutes to an hour. Sometimes, just sometimes, I get a racket that takes me bloody ages because something hasn't lined up well. (The worst offenders for this are cheap 72 holes with thick string at higher tensions; the holes are small, and some strings are soft, and it can make threading a blocked hole an absolute chore).

2. I use a Penta Premium, but you also have brands like Superstringer.

 

This information is in the stickies!

The Alpha Shuttle Express is a Crank/Lockout machine, it has a spring and will lock the tension device when the speing has reached the desired tension. The spring doesn't do any work aymore, in stead the tension device is locked on the rails, and this keeps the string at the same length.
A constant pull device (like a dropweight) will keep pulling, there is no lock.
The difference becomes clear when you realise the string will stretch when it is tensioned, and will continue to stretch quite a bit for a couple of seconds after the tension has been pulled. This means that a crank lockout will drop in tension (holds the length, not the tension) and a constant pull will keep stretching the string some more for a couple of seconds. Some people with cranks will tension a string twice before clamping for this reason.

I would recommend the same as Charlie: a 6 point support drop weight machine, preferably with fixed clamps, but that is a personal preference. And if you can get semi auto unlocking fixed clamps that is amazing. The brand depends on what you can get in your area.

Watch Kwuns videos and learn some knots (I like the parnell). After 10 rackets you hopefully will be doing decent jobs for/ wih your friends. Just remember to have more string than you need, you might break some during stringing or tying a knot too tightly.

Good luck!

 

Yeah, T20 is great, I've got one too. But if you're quoting usd prices you might not be in the right region to get a Superstringer due to imports and shipping (heavy, so its expensive) and stuff. The others are good choices too, depends on the region. Look for a more local webshop if you can.

 

I'm not too familiar with them, but the one you linked doesn't have fixed clamps, but flying ones. I suggest you read up some more on the stickies with types of clamps and machines.

I think Tennisman has some clients overseas, but all I'm saying is to take it into account when making your decision. Indeed Gammas may be more readily available for a reasonable price, but maybe not.

 

Flying clamps are servicable, but fixed do a better job overall.

2 point is not fine. 6 point. 'Being careful' will not change the material properties of the racket.