One Cross String Smiling at Me

pyk64

pyk64

New User
Apologies (and flame suit on) if this has been discussed before.

I recently strung my racquet (Head IG Radical Pro) with a full set of SPPP. I'm pretty meticulous about keeping the cross string straight as I pull(crank), but for some odd reason, one of my cross strings came out and smiled at me - meaning it came out curved as if I hadn't straightened it out. No big deal I thought...but when I try to straighten out the string, it always goes back to that curve.

Any ideas as to why?
 
S

scotus

G.O.A.T.
One cause is that your clamp might not be tight or clean enough, so the string is slipping a bit.

In the past, I've seen it happen when I used a starting clamp to start the crosses, so after weaving and clamping a few crosses and spent extra time to tie-off the first cross, I went ahead and finished the rest of the crosses.

Later, I would find that the one cross that was clamped longer (because of the delay involved in tying-off) was much looser than the rest. At first, I thought the tension would normalize across the stringbed after hitting for a while but that never happened. It would stay like that for the entire life of the stringbed.

So clean and tighten the clamps appropriately.
 
pyk64

pyk64

New User
scotus said:
One cause is that your clamp might not be tight or clean enough, so the string is slipping a bit.

In the past, I've seen it happen when I used a starting clamp to start the crosses, so after weaving and clamping a few crosses and spent extra time to tie-off the first cross, I went ahead and finished the rest of the crosses.

Later, I would find that the one cross that was clamped longer (because of the delay involved in tying-off) was much looser than the rest. At first, I thought the tension would normalize across the stringbed after hitting for a while but that never happened. It would stay like that for the entire life of the stringbed.

So clean and tighten the clamps appropriately.
Click to expand...
Hmmm...that sounds pretty plausible. It didn't happen exactly as you speculated, but I do recall that I had the second to the last cross (the one that is smiling at me) clamped for a while as I fiddled with something else. Wonder if that's the cause, if I should just re-tension?
 
esgee48

esgee48

G.O.A.T.
That section of string could be channeling Bozo, the Clown! Could be some notching in the mains there and that is the cross strings final resting position? You can straighten out THAT SECTION of the cross strings. Push the crosses below that string up, that string and a few above that string. Then straighten them and you smiley should be straight.
 
S

scotus

G.O.A.T.
pyk64 said:
Hmmm...that sounds pretty plausible. It didn't happen exactly as you speculated, but I do recall that I had the second to the last cross (the one that is smiling at me) clamped for a while as I fiddled with something else. Wonder if that's the cause, if I should just re-tension?
Click to expand...

If you have not cut off the string and can undo the knot, I would re-tension it. Clamp the cross above and re-tension.

But if that's not possible, I would not sweat it. It's only second to the last cross. It would hardly affect your play.
 
S

struggle

Legend
I wouldn't sweat it this time. Be more careful next time.

It's likely just slightly notched in already, depending the string as well.
(I'm not familiar with SPPP characteristics, not that it matters).
 
Irvin

Irvin

Talk Tennis Guru
Brokenstrings said:
Only time I've had it happen is when I misweaved my crosses. Unfortunately, I may have done that once or twice... Maybe​
Click to expand...
That's what I was thinking but it would have to be several miss weaves on one cross. Hold the racket flat and look across the string bed at an angle.
 
Karma Tennis

Karma Tennis

Legend
Irvin said:
That's what I was thinking but it would have to be several miss weaves on one cross. Hold the racket flat and look across the string bed at an angle.
Click to expand...

That's what I am thinking too. I can get the smiley effect even if I only miss weave once on one cross especially if the miss weave is across one of the outer main strings.

The other day I was stringing black poly crosses over black poly mains in very low light. Finished the racquet. Noticed that the 2nd cross from the top had 2 miss-weaves, one on each of the outer mains. But the cross string has stayed straight and is playing straight.
 
Brokenstrings

Brokenstrings

Rookie
Yeah, I strung some Solstice Power and missed one weave at the last main and it created a nice arc on the string. Annoyed me to death, but it played fine and gave me an excuse to cut it out a little early
 
Irvin

Irvin

Talk Tennis Guru
pyk64 said:
I'll take a pic and post tonight...curious if it could be a misweave. I would be a whole $1 that it isn't, but I've been wrong,wrong, and badly wrong before. Just ask my wife!
Click to expand...
When you take the pic take it so you're looking across the stringbed at an angl from lower left to upper right. If there's a miss weave it sticks out like a sore thumb
 
eelhc

eelhc

Hall of Fame
What cross is it? Why type of a stringing machine?

It may not be that cross at all. If the adjacent crosses are significant in tension, you will get the smile as the tighter cross will push the middle cross towards the looser one.

This could happen on a drop weight where there were several inconsistent drops.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
pyk64

pyk64

New User
pyk64 said:
I'll take a pic and post tonight...curious if it could be a misweave. I would be a whole $1 that it isn't, but I've been wrong,wrong, and badly wrong before. Just ask my wife!
Click to expand...
Aargh! I owe the universe a dollar. The last cross is mis-weaved.
 
Irvin

Irvin

Talk Tennis Guru
pyk64 said:
Aargh! I owe the universe a dollar. The last cross is mis-weaved.
Click to expand...
My guess is your last cross was the first cross you ran on a racket you used an ATW pattern on. But who knows I'm just guessing.
 
Last edited:
Karma Tennis

Karma Tennis

Legend
It's really funny how different mis-weaves present in different ways visually. One could possibly do a PhD on the subject.
 
Muppet

Muppet

Legend
What can cause a mis-weave in that part of the racquet is stringing the crosses and passing the outside main, but failing to go over the first main rather than under it (or the reverse.) Each time you pass a main string as you move down (or up) the racquet, you need to switch how you pass (over or under) the first main. Missing this switch will give you a very flat weave rather than a wavy one and it may give you a smile or a frown.
 
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