Can I use all nylon tubing to restring a racket?

[bruno hau]

I have a few older rackets (Volkl T9 30, Rossignol F200) where the grommets are so brittle and cracked that I have to remove all grommets from the frames. Impossible to find original grommets for them.

Can I use all nylon tubing to restring the racket or is nylon tubing not strong enough as the original grommets especially for the corner position grommets where the strings would hit the frame at various angles?

 

[Loco4Tennis]

i just had this same problem/dilema
bought a roll of string tubing, it does not look like an easy good permanent solution to your problem, 1- because you have to reduce the diameter of the tubing first, its too thick to fit on most grommet holes, so some kind of heating is needed to stretch the tubing to have it be thin enough,
2- the other problem i saw was how do you attach the small tubing pice to the hole, friction itself when pulling the string with tension is gonna give me headaches, an alternative to this would be to cut a big enough piece to go in to 2 holes, like a U shaped wrapp arround thing on the frame on the strings
i ended up ordering some individual generic grommets, they come in pack sof like 20 or so from online, sorry, i forgot the name of it, but the price was not bad at all, i got like 3 bags of this stuff for the different sizes of grommets i'll need on the 1 racquet, this seemed to be more of a permanent solution to this issue
i'll look arrouond and see if i can get you the link for it sometime today after work

 

[YULitle]

The brand of the individual grommets is Fittex and is available on a lot of tennis web sites.

 

[Loco4Tennis]

The brand of the individual grommets is Fittex and is available on a lot of tennis web sites.

good catch YULittle, thats the stuff i got, worked good
it does not look as good as the orignal grommet strip, but it does the job

 

[bruno hau]

Where are you getting the generic individual grommets? I called Tennis Warehouse and they told me $5.99 was for 4 grommets, need something like 64 of these to restring a racket!

 

[stringwalla]

Tube away my friend!!! Pain in the butt though. You can save any racquet with no grommets. Tubing can be bought in bulk and Alpha and Gamma used to sell individual grommets. My first frame was an F-200 Wilander. Grommets are still OK after 20 years-

 

[Loco4Tennis]

Where are you getting the generic individual grommets? I called Tennis Warehouse and they told me $5.99 was for 4 grommets, need something like 64 of these to restring a racket!

the fittex ones i got online came in a small 3x3" bag, about 20+ per bag, each bag witch was a specific size was like 7.99 or something like that
i got 4 bags of 3 different sizes, all 3 sizes went on the 1 racquet, i still have more then enough for 1 more racquet after doing 2 similar frames, i also did see the ones your talking about, the ones sold individually, but i kept looking online until i found the other site, when i remember the site i'll mention it

 

[PBODY99]

the Fittex system is the best when dealing with the problem but their is also TEFLON tubing with has a smaller diameter that can also be used in a pinch.

 

[bruno hau]

the fittex ones i got online came in a small 3x3" bag, about 20+ per bag, each bag witch was a specific size was like 7.99 or something like that
i got 4 bags of 3 different sizes, all 3 sizes went on the 1 racquet, i still have more then enough for 1 more racquet after doing 2 similar frames, i also did see the ones your talking about, the ones sold individually, but i kept looking online until i found the other site, when i remember the site i'll mention it

I found a workaroud similar to Fittex individial grommets (expensive). Simply purchase 2-3 regular bumper guard/grommets set ($4.99 each), trim the bumper guard strip to like side strips, and then cut into individual (or maybe 2) grommets, then glue each grommet to the frame. Nylon tubing is not the way to go.

 

[YULitle]

I found a workaroud similar to Fittex individial grommets (expensive). Simply purchase 2-3 regular bumper guard/grommets set ($4.99 each), trim the bumper guard strip to like side strips, and then cut into individual (or maybe 2) grommets, then glue each grommet to the frame. Nylon tubing is not the way to go.

This is something people should do when they replace their entire strip, as well. Just cut the grommets that are still good off and save them for next time.