Cross Strings/One Ahead/Tension accuracy

luke715

New User
This question has probably been posted, but I'll ask anyway.

While I was stringing last night (on a drop-weight), I had a thought. While stringing crosses, if your cross string isn't at some tension before actually pulling tension, are you losing a fair amount of tension due to increased friction between strings. It seems as though, particularly on a crank machine, when pulling tension on a string with some slack in it, the increased friction with the mains would add resistance to the spring/sensor, which would actually result in lower tension on your cross strings. However, if you relieved most of that friction before tensioning the string, it seems as though you would get closer to your set tension. This seems even more likely when stringing "one ahead," as there is often a lot of slack in the cross you pull tension on, unless you pull most of that out before tensioning the string. Maybe the difference is significant, or maybe it is negligible.

Does anyone have any good evidence to prove or shoot down this theory? (or a link to where this question has already been posted....)
 

MAX PLY

Hall of Fame
You may be right (I am not sure how much you lose to friction but leaving varying amounts of slack does add additional variables) but I think the best practice is making sure that there is little slack on the cross you are pulling, even if you weave ahead--basically most good stringers pull the little loop from stringing ahead out, straighten the cross and then pull tension--in my case, I try to get my tension head as close to the racquet as possible, insert the string, pull tension, clamp, release tension and weave the next "one ahead"--rinse and repeat. Basically you want to do the same thing over and over for consistency's sake.
 

ricardo

Hall of Fame
This question has probably been posted, but I'll ask anyway.

While I was stringing last night (on a drop-weight), I had a thought. While stringing crosses, if your cross string isn't at some tension before actually pulling tension, are you losing a fair amount of tension due to increased friction between strings. It seems as though, particularly on a crank machine, when pulling tension on a string with some slack in it, the increased friction with the mains would add resistance to the spring/sensor, which would actually result in lower tension on your cross strings. However, if you relieved most of that friction before tensioning the string, it seems as though you would get closer to your set tension. This seems even more likely when stringing "one ahead," as there is often a lot of slack in the cross you pull tension on, unless you pull most of that out before tensioning the string. Maybe the difference is significant, or maybe it is negligible.

Does anyone have any good evidence to prove or shoot down this theory? (or a link to where this question has already been posted....)

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are you losing a fair amount of tension due to increased friction between strings.
Yes. Absolutely. I am sure 100%. You are losing a fair amount of tension.

Does anyone have any good evidence to prove or shoot down this theory?
Once your bar is at/near the horizontal level for at least 5 seconds, move the cross string you are currently tensioning sideways, back and forth.
In my case, the bar drops abruptly (not slowly but ABRUPTLY) when I do this. This is an indication of the S2S friction resistance.
If I don't move the cross string sideways, the bar stays level even if I let it sit for another 10 seconds.
This ABRUPT bar drop occurs even if the cross string is straight.
This is more pronounced when I string high-friction strings (multi/SG). Polys not as much.

I am using a dropweight stringer, Gamma X6FC (fixed clamps, 6 mount points).
 
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Wes

Hall of Fame
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are you losing a fair amount of tension due to increased friction between strings.
Yes. Absolutely. I am sure 100%. You are losing a fair amount of tension.

Does anyone have any good evidence to prove or shoot down this theory?
Once your bar is at/near the horizontal level for at least 5 seconds, move the cross string you are currently tensioning sideways, back and forth.
In my case, the bar drops abruptly (not slowly but ABRUPTLY) when I do this. This is an indication of the S2S friction resistance.
If I don't move the cross string sideways, the bar stays level even if I let it sit for another 10 seconds.
This ABRUPT bar drop occurs even if the cross string is straight.
This is more pronounced when I string high-friction strings (multi/SG). Polys not as much.

Absolutely. Couldn't agree more.
 

Muppet

Legend
This question has probably been posted, but I'll ask anyway.

While I was stringing last night (on a drop-weight), I had a thought. While stringing crosses, if your cross string isn't at some tension before actually pulling tension, are you losing a fair amount of tension due to increased friction between strings. It seems as though, particularly on a crank machine, when pulling tension on a string with some slack in it, the increased friction with the mains would add resistance to the spring/sensor, which would actually result in lower tension on your cross strings. However, if you relieved most of that friction before tensioning the string, it seems as though you would get closer to your set tension. This seems even more likely when stringing "one ahead," as there is often a lot of slack in the cross you pull tension on, unless you pull most of that out before tensioning the string. Maybe the difference is significant, or maybe it is negligible.

Does anyone have any good evidence to prove or shoot down this theory? (or a link to where this question has already been posted....)
This loss of tension would be desirable so that your high friction strings will be able to move against each other. And each time we try out a new string we have to make adjustments to the reference tension each time we string until we find our desired tension for that string. There is no absolute. Each reference tension means something different to each string.
 
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