Hi all I have recently purchased a stringing machine, and got 200m of some mega-cheap 0.8mm string. Once I used more of that by just stringing then cutting, I moved to the ZyMax 62 Fire which is what I actually want in my rackets. I could reliably string to 26/27 lbs with the cheap stuff, but in the same racket the Zymax keeps snapping. It's a new racket, and it's snapping at different places - so I don't think it's a grommet issue. I am following the stringing pattern for my racket. I wonder if maybe I have a bad batch of this string or something, as I have managed to do the mains a few times, then the cross strings will snap, or sometimes it snaps when I am doing the mains. It's also something of a pain on the shared holes - but that's a whole other story just needing practice I think. Any helps, advice or experience with this string would be appreciated. I have an Exthree EX-2500 stingers with a pair of build in clamps, plus one flying clamp. I am not rushing, and making sure I don't damage the string feeding it, or pulling it, so am reaching a point of just being a bit frustrated now! Thank you!
I bought it from Stringersworld. It's snapped a few times on mains, and most often when starting the crosses - as the string is fine it pulls the knot through, so I have tried larger knots and tieing round the mains without much success. After a few tries much faffing on the crosses that tends to cause a main to snap, and also causes much cursing!
Some piece of your machine is damaging the string. It's either the clamps are slipping (or are set too tight) or the gripper is nicking the string. My money would be on slipping clamps.
Thank you, I will investigate how to adjust them. The cross aren't getting as far a clamp sometimes :-(
So does the cross only snap very early in the process or does it happen later on too? And did I get you correctly that it also happens on the mains? And a more general remark - if you have to investigate how to adjust the clamps, I would say that you definitely need to get to know your machine a lot better and maybev start with learning some basic things first too. Practising to tie proper (starting-)knots would be top priority imo.
Hi Thanks for the advice, I am entirely new to this and have a lot to learn for sure. The knots don't trouble me too much, they seem to largely be the same as stopper knots and other knots used in sailing which I am very familiar with. The clamps being too tight is good advice though, I have prodded the machine (I only got it a week ago) and discovered how to adjust them, so I will experiment to get them gripping without damaging. I guess they'll need adjusting to suit whichever string I use, if I change from say a .8 to a .62 string size that will have an effect. I did successfully string with BG80 which came with the machine, and with some nasty cheap stuff I bought to practice I can do a whole racket with no problems - which is why I moved for the ZyMax 62 Fire as I thought I had it sussed! Alas that doesn't appear to be the case. Thanks again for your advice, I shall do some reading on here and am very much open to any good resources people can point me in the direction of please. Thanks Ben
In addition to the excellent advice on the clamps, also make sure you are pulling the crosses through the mains (and through the shared grommets) without too much force/friction. Videos of good stringers show how they avoid "sawing" through the mains when pulling crosses. And do you "pre-string"? I have always found that to lead to twists and kinks, which weaken the string. (As a sailor, you are likely very careful with your lines, but I thought I'd mention these items, anyhow). Best of luck!
Thank you I am not pre-stringing, I am doing it one at a time, alternating out with the mains. Then with the crosses (72 hole pattern) I am starting at the bottom, being careful to thread the bottom 2 before pulling the stopper knot tight which would stop me getting the second cross string into place. This worked fine with the BG80 and budget string. When I switched to the finer string however, I am failing. When pulling through the cross string I push the string up the racket and let it some down and repeat this to stop it sawing across a single spot. I think the clamps must be part of the problem, and I will have to revisit my knots to see if they are part of the issue too. I have a luggage type scale arriving soon to make sure when I dial in say 26lbs that I am not actually pulling 45 of something in case the tensioner is mis-adjusted as well.
Here's a good clip on how to correctly adjust the clamps: Of course you need to change the setting of the clamps if you switch from a 0.80 climbin rope to a thin 0.62'ish string. Your machine has a crank tensioning system, right? It's highly recommended that you check that tensioning mechanism is calibrated correctly on a regular basis - so investing in a cheap luggage scale is mandatory imo (like this one: (something like this is fine: https://de.aliexpress.com/item/Hang...32363630669.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.SSDdeH).
Thank you all for the helpful tips and advice. I got a luggage scale, tested it with some free weights to be sure it was reading correctly. After adjusting the clamps I attached the luggage scale, set the machine to my desired tension and cranked... And it was about 10lbs over what I wanted! So a little you tubing, and a frantic search of the house and garage for allen keys... And success! I now have 3 rackets strung with this string, and did 2 hours on court tonight with them and all was well. I have found this finer string needs a bigger knot as the cross starting knot tries to pull through - that is also my one point of failure. I have taken to clamping the cross with with a static clamp rather than tying it off, until I have a few rows on, then holding the string with the tensioner and moving my flying clamp to the start so I can tie it off. This is working well, now I just need more practice to get the time taken down. Shared grommets cost me a lot of time, I try everything before getting the awl out, but sometimes it seems like the only way to get it done! It makes me nervous using it, but so far so good. 0.62mm string isn't that tough for poking into the grommets, so resistance makes it break down and not stay straight at the end for long, but I snip the end and keep trying. I wonder if there are fine Fids or needles anybody has used for string before?
Most of the times, it's the easy reasons that causes the problems. But good that you have identified it before you caused any damage to a racket. With a 10 lbs. overpull this would have been only a matter of time. So well done! With more routine, you will find the shared holes easier and easier to thread. Here are two clips with some techniques that are really working well: And the rest is simply practise, practise, practise. But in any way, be very careful with pushing the awl into the grommet when there already is a string in there. It happens so easily that you stab the string that way.
