Disintegrated grommets, old racquet, now what?

SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
A friend just dropped off an old Prince Response 110. The frame sticker date reads 1987! The frame itself is in beautiful condition, with totally 80's metallic flake burgundy paint perfectly in tact. But the grommets are cracked, crumbling, and unusable. Some grommets simply fell out as I removed the old strings from the frame.

I only began stringing about 10 month ago and I've never had to use products like nylon or Teflon tubing, power pads, Fittex grommets, badminton grommets, or Guardit bumper strips. But I love a good challenge so I'm researching those options. The challenge I'm running into is that all the information I've found on those products is fragmented and not easy to piece together. So I thought I'd call upon the expertise of this board and see if we can get a consolidated thread of the best methods for stringing frames with broken grommets and no available replacement kits specific to that frame.

Does anyone have an opinion of what my best course of action is?
 
SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
Thanks for the suggestion Struggle. I was reading another post in here from 2007 and someone had tried that for this particular racquet but it didn't work.
 
J

jim e

Legend
There Is a place called tennis meanace that if they don't have the grommets, they could make them , but that comes with a good price.
 
ItalianStallion

ItalianStallion

Rookie
I have a Rossignol F-200 in the same boat. Half the grommets crumbled after I restrung her. I had to cut the strings out as they were cutting into the graphite! I think Fittex individual grommets may be the only solution as in my case.
 
MAX PLY

MAX PLY

Hall of Fame
jim e said:
There Is a place called tennis meanace that if they don't have the grommets, they could make them , but that comes with a good price.
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Agree with jim e. Unless you or your friend are really devoted to that stick, I am not sure the menace is worth it. Fitex will work but will be labor intensive--but since you've never used them, it might be good practice. Are you charging for this job?
 
SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
MAX PLY said:
Agree with jim e. Unless you or your friend are really devoted to that stick, I am not sure the menace is worth it. Fitex will work but will be labor intensive--but since you've never used them, it might be good practice. Are you charging for this job?
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I am charging, but not much. It’s for a friend of a friend. Since this will be a learning experience, I’m just looking to cover my expenses.


10SNE1?
 
10shoe

10shoe

Professional
I agree with MAX PLY. Fittex is your best option. The grommet barrels on the Response are too narrow to accept tubing well. Ditto for badminton grommets. The Menace probably has a grommet kit in stock but will cost a fortune and no guarantee they won't start crumbling right away either. They are after all about 25 yrs old.
 
B

BenC

Professional
I've also seen cases where someone bought a cheap grommet set for a different racket (see the 'Bay) and cut it into pieces that could be placed individually for each hole.
 
10shoe

10shoe

Professional
Another grommet repair technique that works well with barrels that bend at the end (string exits barrel at an angle) is to back the grommet out of the hole and cut it at about the halfway point. Then turn the upper portion of the barrel around so the broken tip is now inside the frame and you have "new" plastic where the string exits. Personally, I usually discard the upper portion and replace with something newer and tighter fitting, but unlike the OP I've had years to accumulate lots of old grommet strips.

Another technique is to cut the strip and rotate the entire grommet barrel 180 degrees so that the cracked tip is facing the opposite direction and the string is sitting on uncracked plastic.
 
graycrait

graycrait

Legend
A number of weeks ago TW was selling Prince Graphite 107 grommets. I picked up 5 sets for 7.99 each. As far as I can tell they fit on all iterations of the POG OS 107.

I see they are no longer available but there seems to some available on the auction site for 39.95. I wonder if someone made a big order from TW, essentially wiping out reasonably priced grommets to ensure that 39.95 or higher seems to be a reasonable price. Or maybe there weren't that many available through TW in the first place.

I chopped a Wilson grommet set and used those individual grommets to work on an old Donnay Pro 25 but you can do the same with Fittex grommets. When one of my racket mods goes haywire I always pull the grommets before the racket hits the trash bin.
 
S

Steve Huff

G.O.A.T.
I have some Synergy grommet strips, but there are 4 kinds. I have Response 90 grommets, but that won't help. If you were in the Richmond area, we could hold up some of the Synergy strips to see if the holes aligned.
 
1HBHfanatic

1HBHfanatic

Legend
Sometimes you gotta ask yourself
"is the juice worth the squeeze?"
Ive turned rakets away for that reason
not worth the time or effort.. put all that money towards a 40$ fleabay raket from this century. ?
 
esgee48

esgee48

G.O.A.T.
@SPMoney: 2 sets for the Prince Precision Response OS are available a/o 10/7/18 0715 PT on the GSS website. Unsure if this is what you require since you only say Prince Response 110. You have to learn how to search since I have mentioned this site several times.
 
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SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
esgee48 said:
@SPMoney: 2 sets for the Prince Precision Response OS are available a/o 10/7/18 0715 PT on the GSS website. Unsure if this is what you require since you only say Prince Response 110. You have to learn how to search since I have mentioned this site several times.
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Thanks. The precision response is the wrong racquet.
I know how to search. And I have searched. Which is why I'm not looking the exact grommet set for this racquet. From what I can tell they don't exist. I'm asking the question: when there are no grommet sets available, what's the best course of action?

Sent from my KFTBWI using Tapatalk
 
J

jim e

Legend
SPMoney said:
From what I can tell they don't exist. I
Sent from my KFTBWI using Tapatalk
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As I said above, the meanace can typically make you a set if they are not available
Comes at a price, but should be able to get you one if you want it bad enough.
 
graycrait

graycrait

Legend
SPMoney said:
what's the best course of action?
Click to expand...

I know it is ugly but it works. This is a Donnay Pro 25 that is great condition but the grommets were brittle and broke so I took one or two old grommet sets and cut it up. If there is a next time for this sort of thing I will use Fittex grommets and super glue them in place. I have done that before when I needed to replace 10 or 12 grommets in an older Prince MP. I was clueless but anxious to get this thing on the court so the stringing pattern might be pretty iffy, but you can get the idea with the grommets.
QzJTy45.jpg
 
10shoe

10shoe

Professional
SPMoney said:
I know how to search. And I have searched. Which is why I'm not looking the exact grommet set for this racquet. From what I can tell they don't exist.
Click to expand...

According to the Tennis Menace website, he has grommets in stock for the Response 110. Could be he hasn't updated the list. For sure, if he has them, he is charging a fortune for them.
 
B

BenC

Professional
graycrait said:
I know it is ugly but it works. This is a Donnay Pro 25 that is great condition but the grommets were brittle and broke so I took one or two old grommet sets and cut it up. If there is a next time for this sort of thing I will use Fittex grommets and super glue them in place. I have done that before when I needed to replace 10 or 12 grommets in an older Prince MP. I was clueless but anxious to get this thing on the court so the stringing pattern might be pretty iffy, but you can get the idea with the grommets.
QzJTy45.jpg
Click to expand...
Is super glue really necessary? Won't the strings hold the individual grommets in?
 
SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
jim e said:
As I said above, the meanace can typically make you a set if they are not available
Comes at a price, but should be able to get you one if you want it bad enough.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim E. I looked into that. And he has partial sets for the response 110 but he doesn’t have the bridge grommets. And he wanted $75 for a partial set. While this is probably a decent option for someone with deep pockets and a strong love for an old frame, those aren’t exactly the criteria I’m working with.


10SNE1?
 
SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
graycrait said:
I know it is ugly but it works. This is a Donnay Pro 25 that is great condition but the grommets were brittle and broke so I took one or two old grommet sets and cut it up. If there is a next time for this sort of thing I will use Fittex grommets and super glue them in place. I have done that before when I needed to replace 10 or 12 grommets in an older Prince MP. I was clueless but anxious to get this thing on the court so the stringing pattern might be pretty iffy, but you can get the idea with the grommets.
QzJTy45.jpg
Click to expand...

Great photo. Thanks for the response. I’m going to give the fittex grommets a go and post some photos when I finish, provided those photos are worth sharing. ;-)


10SNE1?
 
J

jim e

Legend
If you use the fittex grommets, be sure you mark the tie off openings to be sure you have proper diameter grommet for proper tie offs. I have a few players that give me their racquets to string, and some of them string different even though they are the same racquet, but somewhere in past someone used a different model grommet set on those racquets and tie offs are different.
You can also cut up a grommet set that is close to what you have, and rig it up to work if you have the time.
I use cut up grommet sets in place of fittex sometimes as I can cut out exactly what I need for fit and looks good as well, but that is for only replacing a few grommets.
 
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Y

ywh

New User
@SPMoney : I just got a Prince Response 110, and the bottom half does not have grommets. Please let me know if the Fittex worked for your friend's racquet. I see Fittex on tenniswarehouse, but not sure what size to buy. I image the ones at the throat need to be longer.
Thank you in advance.
 
SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
@ywh They worked but they are far from a perfect solution. You will definitely need the longest ones for the throat of your Response. I found the Fittex grommets were narrower than the holes of the response. The original response grommets used thicker plastic barrels. To help hold the Fittex grommets in place, I ran 2 layers of grip finishing tape along the frame where I used the Fittex grommets. (Electrical tape would have worked too and racquet head protection tape may have been a better choice.) Then I poked a pin-hole through the tape where each Fittex grommet was to be inserted. This seemed to help hold the grommets in place during stringing and serve as some measure of frame protection in addition to the Fittex grommets.

In the end this was a fun project and my friend was happy his racquet could be salvaged. However I advised him to begin searching for replacement frames on ****. A quick search revealed some cheap options. There was no guarantee the grommets would be in better shape but since he loved that frame I left it to him to decide if the investment and risk would be worth it.
 
SPMoney

SPMoney

New User
ywh said:
@SPMoney Thanks for the details. I string my own racquet, but never used Fittex before. From this list https://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Fittex_Individual_Grommets_Pack/descpageALPHA-GROMMET.html. What size should I get for Response 110 ? Currently only the top half has the head guard grommets.
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@ywh I bought the 4.0mm and they were too thin. I don't have experience with the 4.3mm or the 4.7mm but I suspect both would be better choices than the 4.0mm. In terms of length, if you buy the 35mm, you can always cut them down to size and you will need the extra length for the throat. But the 13mm are long enough for the sides of the racquet.
 
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J

jim e

Legend
sp1derman said:
Do they do grommet/ bumper for ps85 originals
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They list that if they don't have grommet set they can make it, (it has been a few years since I have on their site and spoke with them) , but it comes at a price most wouldn't pay. Call them and ask.
 
sp1derman

sp1derman

Professional
jim e said:
They list that if they don't have grommet set they can make it, (it has been a few years since I have on their site and spoke with them) , but it comes at a price most wouldn't pay. Call them and ask.
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I may do that! Thanks!
 
sp1derman

sp1derman

Professional
Irvin said:
I have bumper guards for the Wilson Ceramic midsize same mold but the bumpers are white head guard is blue.
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Are you willing to part with these? I have 2 of the white wilson ceramic frames and both have no grommet, bumper or head guards...
 
Irvin

Irvin

Talk Tennis Guru
sp1derman said:
Are you willing to part with these? I have 2 of the white wilson ceramic frames and both have no grommet, bumper or head guards...
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What’s your address? You can send me a PM if you want to keep it private. You do have the mid 85 si and not the OS right?
 
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