which cheap 1st stringer should I go with?

[aussie]

Originally Posted by WildVolley

I string on an SP Swing and it's a solid machine. Not perfect in all respects, but the clamps seem solid if they are properly adjusted.

For those of you that string on a Klippermate, how do you drop to parallel without a clutch? I've never seen a video of someone stringing with a klippermate.

To use the Klippermate, you just feed the estimated amount of string between the 2 string gripper jaws. The jaws then lock onto the string as you move the tension bar clockwise. If the rod falls below horizontal, lift the rod a little, and feed a little more string between the jaws and lower the rod again. Generally the rod is then at horizontal. If the rod doesn't quite reach horizontal, lift the rod and release a little string through the gripper jaws, and lower the rod again. Pretty simple process and works as well as a clutch system.

You get the hang of it fairly quickly. Yesterday I strung a Prince TT Scream OS in 50 minutes and I'm very, very pedantic with getting the tension rod to as close to perfectly horizontal as possible (not that you need to reach perfectly horizontal). If I was to string with the tension rod to be in the 1.5 inch range either above or below horizontal, I would take 15 minutes off my stringing time.

In short, the Klippermate will do as good a job as the other entry level portable drop weights such as Gamma X-2, SP Swing etc. And don't get too fussed about the 2 point mounting system of the Klippermate - it works well, is very easy to quickly mount a frame and I"ve never had frame damage on a large variety of racquets I've strung. The Klippermate clamps, as many will testify, look agricultural, but do a damn good job of clamping strings.