Am I doing something wrong?

[Robocheme]

I'm a newbie stringer and use a basic drop weight machine (Gamma Progression 200).

I test the tension after finishing stringing with a Gamma Tension Tester, primarily to have an initial data point to determine when to restring. After stringing my Babolat Pure Drive at 53 lbs, I tested the tension and the mains were pretty close to 53 lbs, but the crosses were in the 30-35 lb range. Am I doing something wrong or is that normal?

Thanks,

Cliff

 

[Steve Huff]

No. You lose a lot of tension due to friction when stringing the crosses. How did the racket play? That's the important thing.

 

[esgee48]

Move the cross string up and down at least once to remove interstring friction. Then clamp. With a DW, that is logical thing to do. Your cross string will get a lot closer to ref tension.

 

[MathieuR]

The gamma tension tester is just as reliable as the Stringmeter (NOT!). And only L-strings can be measured, not the cross- strings.
You do the right thing: use it as a reference point, that's it.

(with the stringmeter, the only "accurate" measurement is on a "free" string; you can check that easily with a dropweight to measure a l-string while tensioning)