Broke crosses on knot, and main tension after that

[fmaddin]

My son was stringing 2 piece Wilson Spin Cycle on our Gamma Progression ES-II and broke the ending cross tie off on the first half hitch knot before he even had a chance to rock it back. He said he didn't think he was pulling that hard. This is the second time he's done this in the last 15 racquets or so. Both times with a new gamma starting clamp and the first time he broke one was his first use of the starting clamp. Before getting the starting clamp, he was using an old Klippermate flying clamp.

My theory as to why he is breaking strings tying off now: He got used to pulling really hard with the Klippermate flying clamp which would typically slip some if you pulled really hard because he didn't balance out the other side of the clamp with string and it worked "good enough". The starting clamp of course does not slip at all.

Cutting out the crosses to restring them, the mains seem quite loose. I'm assuming that the tension pulling on the crosses have stretched the mains. Is this the case? Ok to restring the crosses at the same tension or should tension be lowered to account for less friction?

 

[esgee48]

If this happened on your own rackets, skip the last cross and just tie off. If it is a customer's, then yes, re-do the crosses. Regarding your 2nd question, the mains have relaxed since their initial pull. I would pull the same or actually 2-3# higher to get the same string bed stiffness, otw it may feel too mushy. 2 cents.

 

[Wikky]

I actually did the same thing the other day. I luckily still had enough string to tie off a knot but it wasn't easy. Just tell your son to increase the tension on the last pull and not to pull on the knot as hard or quickly. Firm even force will get all the slack you need out of the outside of the racquet without sacrificing tension loss.