Acquiring a Stringing Machine

Pre-weave from 200m reel-to min wastages

4 point Fleet Crank Type Stringing Equipment

My first racket strung was my daughter's beat up Yonex

Done! After more than 3 hours for a first timer.

I was just lamenting how easily racket string snaps nowadays. At the rate the strings were giving way, I might as well string the rackets myself and that was exactly what Aaron has suggested to me one day. I was warming up to the idea but only a used stringing machine was all I could afford at the moment. As I was sourcing around, I met coach Collins during one of the boys training sessions. A connoisseur on badminton subject matter, my chats with him has always been enlightening. When I brought up my desire to acquire a stringing machine, I hit the jackpot. Immediately he sold me his manual stringing machine just like that.  

Thanks to coach Collins, I have bought over his Fleet crank type stringing machine c/w all accessories. When I brought it home two days later, being a curious person he is, Aaron couldn’t stop fiddling with it. I immersed myself into the art and techniques of stringing rackets and I had to accelerate my learning curve because Aaron couldn’t wait to sting his first racket. Being a fast learner, Aaron can now fully weave a racket without supervision. There were loads of “how to” videos in Youtube and great stringing resource sticky pinned in Badminton Central forum which is easily available.

The good thing about stringing my own rackets is that I could experiment with different string types and string gauges and different combinations of string tension to meet the playing preference of the boys. It has become my SOP now to pre-stretch new strings (to reduce tension loss, post stringing) and have Aaron to fully local weave the racket first before I take over on the stringing machine to save time. Our rackets now get proportional tension treatment to enlarge the sweet spot on the racket. My first racket, Kiera’s Yonex took me more than 3 hours to complete. Since then, the time has tumbled down to less than an hour (including grommet adjustments). Perhaps there is no pressure for me to speed up the stringing process since I am a meticulous DIY person by nature and pride myself in the quality of work produced. Nevertheless, the duration will come down as I get to string more rackets. For the record, the rackets I have been tweaking so far are as follows :

Yonex Arcsaber 009DX - Kiera’s                               Main 20 Lbs / Cross 22 Lbs (2 knots)

Dr Pro Ultrapower 569 – Aaron’s                               Main 22 Lbs / Cross 24 Lbs (4 knots)

Babolat X Act 85 – Colin’s                                        Main 25 Lbs / Cross 26 Lbs (2 knots)

Yonex Nanospeed 990 – Ryan’s                               Main 24 Lbs / Cross 24 Lbs (4 knots)

Protech Legendary Platinum – Aaron’s                      Main 25 Lbs / Cross 25.5 Lbs (2 knots)

Yonex Nanospeed 990 – Ryan’s                               Proportional Tension 20 – 26 Lbs (2 knots)

Protech Legendary Grand – Kiera’s                           Proportional Tension 18 – 22 Lbs (10 knots)

Wilson Dynapower 9500 – Customer’s                       Main 25 Lbs / Cross 26 Lbs (2 knots)

Protech Racket Repair

This grommetless racket has 5 strings and 10 knots strung at 18 to 21 Lbs proportionate tension.

Protech Legendary Grand - has seen better days. Its duties now relegated from competition to recreational use by my 6 year old daughter.

The frame cracked right through a string hole.

Close up on the inside after the DIY glue job.

DIY the logo stencil for a good measure.

Hi. I'm back after a 6 months hiatus due to outstation work commitments. Secondly, my pc was infected by ransomware which resulted in all my data being encrypted. I had to recover and update all lost data from my backup. Im still updating as I write. 

Anyway in my absence here, I have acquired a used stringing machine. This has occupied part of my time learning how to string the boys rackets. There will be another post for this.

One of the rackets which I bought last year, a Protech Legendary Grand, developed a crack on the frame at 10 o'clock. I love the feel of Protech rackets. Although it is light headed but with the longer and slimmer shaft, it gives a whippy feel about it. Unfortunately these rackets are fragile and need lots of care playing with it.

So Aaron clashed this new racket during his doubles sparring and what a waste to toss it away. So I decided to repair it using industrial '2 in 1' epoxy glue. Then I strung it using 5 offrun strings at proportional tension between 18 to 21 Lbs. Yes you heard that right. Thats 10 knots.The result are as in the pictorials above.

I dont expect this battle weary racket to last long anyway. It will be for Aaron to hone his stringing  skills and knotting techniques.