Stringing on a klippermate is more annoying than I expected.

max said:

OP:
....
I'm still confused, by the way, that somehow you've found the Kmate to be off the mark; how this happened.

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I don't know what to tell u. According to my fish scale, my kmate is off by 1 lb 4 oz. I dont think thats too bad though. Do you? Or maybe the fish scale IS off like you suggested.

CHOcobo said:

I agree, the last pull is the worse due to the tie off but it doesn't feel like it affect or have any difference for me. It's too far away from the impact zone.

That sounds really accurate. I wanted to try the fish scale method too but I never had one.

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It's just a frame of reference thing. I look at stringing from both a client and provider side. If you string for others (service provider), the last string can be an indicator of quality. I agree with you that it's more or less a non-issue for play purposes, but clients can (and have often) use(d) the "check the outer mains" as a reality check to see if you're a "good stringer' or not. It's silly, but it happens. I nitpick on these things because it matters in some scenarios. I agree with you, though. If you string for yourself, it really shouldn't make any difference (and actually might make more sense in practice -- look up proportional stringing).

Digital fishing scales are super cheap, and it's a nice tool to have in your repertoire (<$10 online)

max said:

OP: I think the "secret" here is that you learn to live with what your machine gives you at the ostensible tension. Once I had to work with two stringers: one man's 64 pounds was very different from the other's. I learned to tell him to go 62.


I'm still confused, by the way, that somehow you've found the Kmate to be off the mark; how this happened.

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That's way too logical, max It's a funny thing -- as stringers, the concept of reference tension should be very intuitive, but as customers, it's not obvious that this is the case. "I've strung my racquets for 60 lbs for years! Why are your string jobs so tight/loose?!" I've found that there are just customers that really don't want to be educated.

pmata814 said:

I don't know what to tell u. According to my fish scale, my kmate is off by 1 lb 4 oz. I dont think thats too bad though. Do you? Or maybe the fish scale IS off like you suggested.

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Note: "According to my fish scale..."

It's entirely possible that your fish scale is offset, although accurate (linearity wise). Note that there is/was some standard that the scale was calibrated against. You should be using at least one reality check measure to confirm your scale. Generally speaking, dropweights should be VERY accurate at horizontal, within margin of manufacturing tolerance (which should translate into negligible offset). The tension pulled is simple physics -- the loss you should account for is friction loss in a frame. If you're calibrating "through" a frame (aka with a frame mounted), that could explain the difference. What's your calibration scheme/setup look like?


With no frame

OR
with a frame in the machine, stringing the calibrator through the frame (mains).

Generally, you'd calibrate without a frame, but I personally like to calibrate with a frame [When calibrating at a tournament, though, I'll match calibration procedures to the rest of the machines]

diredesire said:

...What's your calibration scheme/setup look like?

With no frame

OR
with a frame in the machine, stringing the calibrator through the frame (mains).

Generally, you'd calibrate without a frame, but I personally like to calibrate with a frame [When calibrating at a tournament, though, I'll match calibration procedures to the rest of the machines]

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I have my scale set up WITHOUT the frame. I just mount the scale on the front post, tighten the top frame plate to secure it, and pull tension directly on a string that I have tied to the chain. My only explanation is that A.) the scale is off or B.) the sticker wasn't put on the bar perfectly. Both could be possible right? When I had the WISE tension head I seem to remember the scale was pretty much spot on. But that was years ago.

I love stringing on my Klippermate. My usual procedure is to set up the racquet in the machine, pop the top of a fine IPA and focus on stringing and enjoying the IPA for around 40 minutes and bingo, a freshly strung racquet.

mrw said:

I love stringing on my Klippermate. My usual procedure is to set up the racquet in the machine, pop the top of a fine IPA and focus on stringing and enjoying the IPA for around 40 minutes and bingo, a freshly strung racquet.

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I know what you mean. I best like to kmate early Sunday mornings, listening to news radio and casually drinking black coffee.