Hello all, I am new in this fantastic badminton forum, thanks all for creating such a great place! I am completely unhappy with the stringing of my rackets by my club little store. I used to re-string my rackets by bare hands and awls when I was a teenager, 17 years ago, but I guess I will be more happy with a simple and practical but yet robust stringing machine. My budget is max £300. I live in Sweden by the way. To make the story short, I have looked at this Victor machine, VICTOR M 300 manual machine, see the link below: http://www.victor-international.com/index.php?language=eng&page=product&id=226 The problem is I can't/don't find any manual, guide, review or even more info what-so-ever about this machine. Even Victor website is empty about this. I don't even know if any clamps are included! Anybody knows anything about this? Anyone used it? Is it good? it says " Stringing tension 6-12 kp"... is this enough tension one may need? I will appreciate any help. I need to order pretty fast, as next weekend I am playing a tournament and I need to re-string my three rackets with BG-80. Also any other suggestions are welcome. Thank you again, for reading this and for helping.
I have never seen or heard about this Victor machine and I don't know if it comes with tools or not. It does seem like a nice little machine, but you can probably get better for about the same price. I would suggest looking at machines from W&D: http://www.watdon.co.uk/wd-strings/acatalog/Drop_Weight_Stringing_Machines.html The prices are great (probably the best you'll find), and the machines are well known and used by most of the people on here. I would suggest the Pro's Pro Challenger 1/2, Pro's Pro Pilot or Pro's Pro Shuttle Express. All three are really nice and quality machines. The first two are Tennis machines, but can be used for badminton without much trouble. I suspect that they do not come with tools however. The Shuttle Express has less features (no fixed clamps), but is designed specifically for badminton rackets and I believe it comes with all the tools you need. Hope this helps
A slight correction if I may : prices at the Pro's Pro themselves are much cheaper than Watdon considering VAT/GST is already included @www.arfaian.com (the price including VAT is even cheaper than Watdon without)
Hi Hokaro, 1) Welcome to BCBF. 2) Yes, I have seen one before but I do not have manual for it. 3) You will need 2 fly clamps which I remember it come with 2 HiQua style. 4) 2 things you need to worry about and learn. a) how to mount string onto tensioning drum. It is basically loop around the drum 1 time (min at lease 1 time) loosely. Then put the string through the space between the 2 half circles. Then turn the drum before it gets tight then turn the drop weight and arm. b) if i remembered it right, there are mark on the bar but no number for kg or lb. so you need to get a calibrator or a fishing scale to figure out which mark is the right weight. ps, it is designed as a beginner machine. so 12kg is already already very high. good luck.
I can't seem to find the link to Pro's Pro own page where they sell Shuttle Express. Can you be kind and provide me with the link? This one seems to be a fine choice, better choice than Viktor M 3000 anyway. Thanks for the replies, by the way
I found it, but it is sold-out! :-( http://www.arfaian.com/default.aspx?PreKatNr=9 Which other one do you recommend? Those which are in stock, of course.
Re-stock in "only" one month's time or as mentioned above Challenger or Pilot. Or you can look for it in another webshop. Here they are selling for €195 but shipping to Sweden is €25 (for 5-10KG) since the new rate system has been introduced ... If you don't plan to string tennis or squash I would just wait .
How better are Challenger or Pilot vs Shuttle express? And which one is best of all three? I am estimating to re-string around 4 to 10 rackets per month, only for myself, depending on the frequency of tournaments. I use BG80 and then the rackets need new strings quite often. I don't play tennis, only badminton. Speed and durability, and tension precision as well, are the most important factors for me when it comes to a stringing machine.
