A first for me, I forgot to weave the last cross

beernutz · Aug 16, 2014

I guess after stringing almost a decade it had to happen and thank goodness it was my personal racquet and not a friend's or worse my wife's. I was supposed to play at 8 this morning but I was wide awake at 5:30 so after frittering away some hours on the computer I thought I'd restring the trusty Head Microgel Radical OS which is an 18 x 19 pattern before heading to the courts.

I should say that usually it is 18 x 19 but mine today is 18 x 18 because I took so much time stringing and didn't want to be late to play that I missed weaving that last cross before I tied off. I've been stringing Signum Pro Tornado on my last several restringings using this super slow stringing/clamping method I read about and the time just got away from me.

I noticed the missing cross in the warmup but the racquet, my only one, played about like usual and my partner and I won 2 of 3 tough sets.

Assuming the racquet plays ok is there any other concern about not playing with a full compliment of crosses? Any danger of damaging the racquet?

Irvin · Aug 16, 2014

I don't think it will damage the racket any. It does allow you to legally move the vibration dampener farther up the racket for a more dampening effect if you use one.

osutennis24 · Aug 16, 2014

I had a buddy for the first time because he got in a rush forget to tension the last cross, he weaved it, got distracted a bit, then tied it off

He felt so guilty he cut it all out and re did the entire racquet. Would he have been fine if he just left it?

am1899 · Aug 16, 2014

^^ More than likely would have been fine.

Irvin · Aug 16, 2014

osutennis24 said:
I had a buddy for the first time because he got in a rush forget to tension the last cross, he weaved it, got distracted a bit, then tied it off

He felt so guilty he cut it all out and re did the entire racquet. Would he have been fine if he just left it?

That would create a lot of slack in the bottom cross which would bleed over into the stringbed and make it very loose. I would have restrung it too.

HunterST · Aug 16, 2014

Irvin said:
That would create a lot of slack in the bottom cross which would bleed over into the stringbed and make it very loose. I would have restrung it too.

Hey, Irvin, my bottom cross always feels way too loose. I have trouble fitting my flying clamp on the very bottom cross. I think I also could be losing tension when tying the knot even though I try to really rock it back and forth to tack out the slack.

Any ideas on what the issue is or how to fix it?

loosegroove · Aug 16, 2014

You'll be fine. I've done this once before too. The only reason to restring is if you're OCD and it just bothers you too much to play with it.

Irvin · Aug 17, 2014

HunterST said:
Hey, Irvin, my bottom cross always feels way too loose. I have trouble fitting my flying clamp on the very bottom cross. ... Any ideas on what the issue is or how to fix it?

That's a problem you will have with flying clamps. Problem may be able to be solved with a triple clamp, or you may be able to solve the problem string the next to bottom cross last.

bluegrass_stringer · Aug 17, 2014

Irvin said:
I don't think it will damage the racket any. It does allow you to legally move the vibration dampener farther up the racket for a more dampening effect if you use one.

You can put a vibration dampener at the top of the racquet if you want.

Irvin · Aug 17, 2014

bluegrass_stringer said:
You can put a vibration dampener at the top of the racquet if you want.

You can put put it right dead center of the hitting area if you want.

bluegrass_stringer · Aug 17, 2014

Irvin said:
You can put put it right dead center of the hitting area if you want.

Not "legally". Has to be outside the cross strings, though it can touch the outside strings.

Irvin · Aug 17, 2014

bluegrass_stringer said:
Not "legally". Has to be outside the cross strings, though it can touch the outside strings.

That's correct but you can do it. The thing is the closer the vibration dampener is to the center of the racket the more the vibration is dampened. Leaving out the bottom cross allows you to place the dampener in the mains closer to the center that placing it above the top cross. Many people like to put the dampener above the bottom cross.

bluegrass_stringer · Aug 17, 2014

beernutz said:
I guess after stringing almost a decade it had to happen and thank goodness it was my personal racquet and not a friend's or worse my wife's. I was supposed to play at 8 this morning but I was wide awake at 5:30 so after frittering away some hours on the computer I thought I'd restring the trusty Head Microgel Radical OS which is an 18 x 19 pattern before heading to the courts.

I should say that usually it is 18 x 19 but mine today is 18 x 18 because I took so much time stringing and didn't want to be late to play that I missed weaving that last cross before I tied off. I've been stringing Signum Pro Tornado on my last several restringings using this super slow stringing/clamping method I read about and the time just got away from me.

I noticed the missing cross in the warmup but the racquet, my only one, played about like usual and my partner and I won 2 of 3 tough sets.

Assuming the racquet plays ok is there any other concern about not playing with a full compliment of crosses? Any danger of damaging the racquet?

No reason to worry about damaging racquet. It will be fine. If it plays ok then I would keep using it, unless you want to restring it and string cost isn't a worry.

am1899 · Aug 17, 2014

Irvin said:
You can put put it right dead center of the hitting area if you want.

LOL:mrgreen:

Triskadekaphilia · Aug 17, 2014

osutennis24 said:
I had a buddy for the first time because he got in a rush forget to tension the last cross, he weaved it, got distracted a bit, then tied it off

He felt so guilty he cut it all out and re did the entire racquet. Would he have been fine if he just left it?

I've done that. The low tension on the last cross seemed to bleed into the next bottom cross or two but not further up, as far as I could determine. Playability seemed fine.

Cobra Tennis · Aug 18, 2014

I've forgotten the bottom cross a few times. It's really no big deal. But, a lot of tennis players have that mild case of OCD so it really starts to mess with them....

MisterP · May 10, 2016

Irvin said:
Leaving out the bottom cross allows you to place the dampener in the mains closer to the center that placing it above the top cross.

Old thread, I know, but I just accidentally did this the other day. I was distracted while measuring the cross piece and when I got to the last cross I didn't have enough to make it through to the other side. I decided to tie it off and not waste the string. I does feel slightly more lively, but I was wondering what you thought about how omitting the last cross on an Ai98 would affect the stringbed.

scotus · May 10, 2016

No big deal.

Some racquets leave more spaces in the margins than others.

I have 16X19 racquets that I frequently string as 16X18 leaving the last cross unstrung, because that makes it look very much like the venerable Head PT57.

A first for me, I forgot to weave the last cross

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