Cracked my first squash racquet, why?

[maxspin01]

Hello All, I’ve been stringing tennis racquets for about two years, so I’m not an expert but I feel I do a decent job, never broken a racquet before. Anyway I was given a bunch of squash racquets for the first time to string on my gamma progression II 602. The first racquet went fine, strung at 25lbs.

However the second one cracked right at the bottom of the racquet face, near the “V” and the bottom grommets. Not severe, it’s still all together but it’s noticeably cracked from tension. I think I heard the crack when I pulled the last cross, (I was doing a two piece job and was doing top to bottom, BTW). I’m not sure why this happened. I’ve been doing reading but I just wanted to get some other thoughts.

-Poor mounting? (how tight exactly should it be? Perhaps did it too loose? I’ve watched YUlitle’s vid on this so I’m somewhat familiar on correct technique)

-Pulling knots too hard?

I would rather asses my own technique than defer blame but could it just be a cracked racquet? I did not inspect beforehand but I have learned my lesson! Thanks!

 

[bbulla]

What kind of racquet was it? There are many squash racquets that are an alloy with graphite overlayed, that almost always crack in the throat area when stringing, unless you use very low tensions.

 

[maxspin01]

It was a RKEP blaster II squash racquet

 

[bbulla]

Hmmm....never heard of that brand before. Looks like an teardrop design according to the web. Did it break right in the middle between 1L and 1R main??

Could have been mounting, too much tension, cheap racquet....who knows. Maybe it was already cracked and the process of restringing it just did it in??