Double pulling Mains on racquetball racquets

[lionel_101]

I have a question about most current Head and Ektelon racquetball racquets that have no physical means to pull tension at the throat / bottom.

They say in their instructions to feed a main string from the top to the bottom and then back to the top again and then tension it and clamp. This goes on until all mains are done.

If you set the tension to say 32 lbs, will there be 32 lbs of tension on both mains. It doesn't make sense to me that it can be true and there has to be some tension loss on each main, otherwise it would be a common stringing procedure for all racquets including tennis.

Plus if the crosses are strung at 32 lbs on each string, will that mean they are strung tighter then the mains and thus not having the same tension thru out.

What do you think the tension will actually be on each main string if tensioning 2 mains at once at 32 lbs ? Another question, why don't they (the mfg) explain it some where that stringers can access to understand their reasoning for doing it this way.

 

[struggle]

certainly will be some loss.

use a calibrator and see what happens, an easy experiment.
then you could adjust accordingly for those type paddles.

a touch of silicon spray on those grommet "returns" might help too.

 

[lionel_101]

Thanks for the reply.

I have an X-2 drop weight machine and never occurred to me to use a calibrator. I would think the mfg R/D department of these racquets would have done this sort of conversion factor to get the desire tension when tensioning 2 mains at once.

I will look into buying one and see what kind of results I get.

Thanks.

 

[struggle]

Thanks for the reply.

I have an X-2 drop weight machine and never occurred to me to use a calibrator. I would think the mfg R/D department of these racquets would have done this sort of conversion factor to get the desire tension when tensioning 2 mains at once.

I will look into buying one and see what kind of results I get.

Thanks.

you can pick up a digital scale for cheap

some have this one:
http://www.amazon.com/BestDealUSA-P...qid=1403359726&sr=1-25&keywords=luggage+scale

some have this one (i do).
http://www.amazon.com/DIGITAL-TRAVE...qid=1403359726&sr=1-32&keywords=luggage+scale

actually i have this one:
http://www.amazon.com/American-Weig...m_sbs_e_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=05TJH1JDBXXTBGZ7FWGC

 

[lionel_101]

I don't have an amazon account, so got a chinese knock off version of the last one you listed off of E-bay for 10 bucks. I will get it in a couple of days from Monday.

I will search the database to see how to use it correctly and it will be nice to see how accurate my X-2 drop weight really is. It would be a quite kick in the butt to see that it has been off, after assuming it was accurate from the factory all these years.

Thanks again and hope other might have some comments about the double pulling of the racquets. You tennis guys are lucky with the nice round/oval hoops...

 

[struggle]

i imagine your dw tension is fine, but you'll lose some tension stringing in that configuration.

you can rig the scale up in the racket and find out.

 

[esgee48]

Since you are using a DW, try this (recommended by Drakulie?) Push/pull on the string that is not in gripper. The weight should drop as the manipulated string starts to lose static friction against the grommet. Then do the same with the string that is in the gripper. This seems to add tension back to the string though you won't get the exact same tension as pulling 1 string. That's due the length of the tensioned string (2 mains.) 2 cents.

 

[gamerluke]

I've had this exact same question for my E-Forces. Double pulling seems like a really good way to get a bad tension across the stringbed, especially when there's extra friction being introduced. I've just been pulling really slow on my lockout machine and sort of "pushing" on the strings as I go to try and overcome some of that tension.

Seems like you're in a little better boat with a constant pull machine, actually...

 

[lionel_101]

I've had this exact same question for my E-Forces. Double pulling seems like a really good way to get a bad tension across the stringbed, especially when there's extra friction being introduced. I've just been pulling really slow on my lockout machine and sort of "pushing" on the strings as I go to try and overcome some of that tension.

Seems like you're in a little better boat with a constant pull machine, actually...

It is funny you mentioned E-force racquets, especially the ones with strings going through the handle.

The E-force instructions say you might have to add additional lbs to get it to feel like what you want. I called them and they said to add 5-6 lbs more to the desire tension you want. So if you want a tension of 32, you would set it to 37 for the mains and 32 for the crosses.

This is why I am confused about the Head and Ektelon racquets that require you to pull the mains at the top and 2 at a time. I thought there should be some kind of adjustment needed as in the E-force racquets. So far no one has complained, but just doesn't seem right.

I hope to figure what the actual tension are on each of the 2 mains being pull at once are using the scale device mention previously. I am not sure how to go about doing it yet, or if it is something I am just over thinking and just keeping doing it the way I have been.

 

[lwto]

It's a racquet ball racquet and it's strung loosely to begin with, they hit a soft ball. I"ve strung quite a few and as long as it's approximate, it seems to be ok.

You can always double pull on the crosses I guess to keep it consistent with the mains.

 

[lionel_101]

i imagine your dw tension is fine, but you'll lose some tension stringing in that configuration.

you can rig the scale up in the racket and find out.

I was searching around and found things on how to calibrate the tensioner, but didn't find anything about how to set up the scale to test the actual 2 main strings to see they have the same tension that I want on each. Can you tell me how you would set it up to do this?

For example, if I pull both main strings at once and my DW is set for 32 lbs, will both strings have 32 lbs on them when I clamp it? Or will the 1st string be less and the 2nd string be right on. This stuff is pretty confusing to me.

Thanks for any info.

 

[Irvin]

There is no way the tension could be th same on both strings because of the friction at the 180* turn. Don't worry about it you can't get around it.

 

[lionel_101]

There is no way the tension could be th same on both strings because of the friction at the 180* turn. Don't worry about it you can't get around it.

If you had to make a guess,and if I set the tensioner to 32 lbs and pulled 2 mains at the same time, what would you estimate to be the tension on the string going down to the throat area and on the string coming back up to the head. When I tension and clamp the strings, one of them should be 32 lbs...right?

Like you say, I can't get around it and will just not worry about it. If it feels to loose or to tight for my customer, then I just have to add or subtract more lbs the next time and keep a record of it. As I mentioned, no one using these types of racquetball racquets has complained about it yet, so I must be in the ball park.

 

[Irvin]

I think it would depend on the string gauge and the lubricity of the string. The one pulled directly would be at the reference tension and the other would be maybe 2-6 pounds off depending on how long the tension was pulled and whether or not you used a CP stringer or not. With a LO machine the difference would be much greater so I would pull twice at least.

 

[David 110]

The video linked below shows a technique for double pulling main strings that works good on tennis racquets. Not sure about racquetball racquets, but it might be worth a try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHaUrtUqS_M

 

[Irvin]

David some of those racquetball rackets have tubing the string goes through when traveling through the handle which may deaden the sound of the string and throw off the tunes but worth a try for in the ballpark.

 

[gamerluke]

David some of those racquetball rackets have tubing the string goes through when traveling through the handle which may deaden the sound of the string and throw off the tunes but worth a try for in the ballpark.

I play with E-Force (with the tubes) and using sound doesn't work at all =)

 

[Irvin]

^^I did not think so I would just string it and go play.

 

[gamerluke]

I love how when we're talking about tennis racquets everyone is concerned with every tiny nuance, getting everything just perfect, worrying about tying knots correctly, etc.

Then as soon as we bring up racquetball everyone's like "it's fine, it's racquetball, it doesn't matter."

Don't worry, I'm not trying to be a jerk or call anyone out at all (and I actually agree with the "don't worry about it" advice in this case), it's just a funny observation. Then again, this isn't really a racquetball forum or a place (probably) with many experts on the topic.

 

[Irvin]

If racquetball racquets were strung at the tensions tennis frames were strung at or if the manufacturers did not recommend this pattern I could see your point.

 

[gamerluke]

I suppose you're saying something along the lines of "these patterns that go through the handle or don't allow a way to pull through the throat are going to have inaccuracies no matter what by design" and I suppose that's exactly right. With that said, why is it less of an issue at lower tensions? Isn't the % inaccuracy actually *higher* with lower tension?

 

[lionel_101]

I am not positive, but I think Racquetball Warehouse is a sister company of Tennis Warehouse. I wish they would have a forum like this dedicated to racquetball related questions / issues.

It is very hard to find answers about stinging / tensioning the various "can only tension at the head of the racquet", especially like the one I have mentioned in this thread. If there was only a way to get the mfgs to publish something on properly stringing / tensoning their racquets.

 

[gamerluke]

I am not positive, but I think Racquetball Warehouse is a sister company of Tennis Warehouse. I wish they would have a forum like this dedicated to racquetball related questions / issues.

It is very hard to find answers about stinging / tensioning the various "can only tension at the head of the racquet", especially like the one I have mentioned in this thread. If there was only a way to get the mfgs to publish something on properly stringing / tensoning their racquets.

Yeah, pretty sure they're the same company, but unfortunately the racquetball community is tiny compared to tennis, and I assume that's why they haven't started a separate forum. You could possibly ask the question on the RbW facebook page (not sure if they have any qualified racquetball stringers that would see it there or not). Actually, I'll go ahead and ask myself and see what they say =)

 

[lionel_101]

Got my clone luggage scale and tested it out on my X-2. I set it up like some of the videos on you tube.

It shows that at every setting I changed it too, it was .25 to .50 pounds lower with the bar perfectly horizontal. Assuming the scale is accurate, I then must add an extra .5 lbs to my desired tension when stringing racquets.

I wonder what is making it off by this amount, instead of almost spot on?