Nightmare stringing the liquidmetal 4

[Pr0DiGy]

Today, I spent 4 hours trying to string a lquidmetal 4, and I've been defeated. I'm refunding my friend's money, and telling him to get his racket strung somewhere else.

So what warrants a 4 hour attempt to string one racket? A stupid blocked hole. The hole where the very last bottom cross goes through. Again and again, I tried to get the string through the last hole, and to no avail. The main was just in the way.

I string the racket up the first time. Going along nicely, looks like it's going to be a nice, easy, normal, 30-minute job. Soft string (Reaction), open pattern, 16x19, easily mounted (usually have a bit of trouble mounting rackets on my machine). Turns out I cut the strings short by a foot. 5 dollars down the drain.

Second time. Cut a little extra, and make sure I have enough. Get to the last cross, and it REFUSES TO GO THROUGH. I use the awl, cut the string to a sharp point time and time again, for 15 minutes. And what happens? The MAIN SNAPS!!

Third time. I decided that I would use a more durable string for the mains, SPPP. I even stick a piece of dummy string in the blocked hole before I start. Everything's going fine, SPPP is surprisingly easy to string for a poly, btw. Weaving goes well. And then....the main snaps again.

So what am I left with? 2 and 1/2 wasted sets of Reaction, and 1/2 set of wasted SPPP. Wasted 4 hours of time. Have to return my friend's money, and he's not going to be happy.

Anything left for me to do? Any advice for blocked holes?

 

[nickb]

Get some poly and cut it to a sharp point at the end....before you insert the bottom cross use the poly to open up the blocked hole...the poly will go right thru because it is so stiff...as you pull the poly from the blocked hole follow slowly with the last cross string. Hope you get what I mean!

Nick

 

[YULitle]

Oh man that sucks. Pushing a sharp string through a grommet shouldn't snap mains. the awl might have, but you should check the grommet for wear. There may be an edge that the string was catching on inside the grommet where perhaps it has worn away to reveal the graphite frame. If this is the case, new grommets are needed, not a new stringer.

 

[Mike Cottrill]

Another case of SPPP breaking. Good chance that is not you.

Putting a piece of thick heavy string in that blocked hole before you string over it works most of the time. Multi filaments can be a bear sometimes especially on new grommets. I have only had to deal with hard hole to get through once that the string in the hole prior did not work. In that case the string would fray as I was trying to put it through the hole. A little glue or nail polish on the end helped.

 

[diredesire]

One tip that I like is:

Keep a scrap piece of string handy (you should have no trouble finding one ), when you reach the main that blocks the hole, lay a piece of string against the frame on the outside (perpendicular to the main string). Thread ad tension the main, you should now have the blocked hole, and a piece of string laying across the OUTSIDE of the frame, UNDER the main which creates the blocked hole. You give yourself a handle that you can pull on to un-block the hole.

I'd post a picture, but I'm not at home.

Good luck!

(Also, Head is kind of notorious for bad grommet design, and not being friendly with guide channels, you're not alone.)

 

[bigmatt]

You might want to buy a "pathfinder awl" for things like this: place it in the hole and you'll be able to put the string in the hollow awl, pull it through, then remove the awl.
I got mine from Gamma, and I'm sure other companies sell them, as well.

 

[LoveThisGame]

My solution for similar situations (I just strung X-one Biphase in a pair of LM4s for a customer) is to wax the tip area of an awl and carefully insert around the blocking string, picking the side which shows more of the string hole (not much space on the LM4). I push the awl in being careful not to hit the main string, and I will rotate the awl back and forth. I will go in as far as I practically can. Then I will start the pointed string with the point aimed at the prepared side of the blocking string and pushing with needle-nosed pliers.

Also, before stringing, consider using the waxed awl to enlarge the potential problem holes.

I also resort to using a scrap stiffish string, cut to a point and shaved farther with a box opener knife, waxing that string point and using it in place of an awl. After pushing it through, I pull if farther, wax it well on both sides of the frame and pull it back and forth through the hole and bearing/pushing against the blocking string.

Yes, it *would* be nice if the string hole was drilled larger.

I think all frame companies thing about how a frame will be to string, but only a few go further and really help the stringer. Volkl is the consistent champ from what I've seen.

 

[ChappyOnIce]

You might want to buy a "pathfinder awl" for things like this: place it in the hole and you'll be able to put the string in the hollow awl, pull it through, then remove the awl.
I got mine from Gamma, and I'm sure other companies sell them, as well.

I second the pathfinder suggestion. Received one with my Gamma X-6FC and it's worked like a charm in these situations.

 

[YULitle]

I second the pathfinder suggestion. Received one with my Gamma X-6FC and it's worked like a charm in these situations.

Gotta be careful with these devices. Apart from thes risk you run stabbing a string already in the grommet, they are usually very delicate.

Doesn't take much to bend them and once they are bent they are useless.

 

[ChappyOnIce]

I string the racket up the first time. Going along nicely, looks like it's going to be a nice, easy, normal, 30-minute job. Soft string (Reaction), open pattern, 16x19, easily mounted (usually have a bit of trouble mounting rackets on my machine). Turns out I cut the strings short by a foot. 5 dollars down the drain.

I came up short about 6 inches on a Touch Turbo stringing (only 39 feet in the pack...assumed 40 :?). I could not reach the tension head on the final cross. Being a sailor during the summer, I grabbed a short length that was left from the mains and tied a square knot (could have used a sheet bend as well) which is used to join two sailing lines together of roughly the same thickness. Worked like a charm and held up under tension. For those interested, you can find sailing's most common knots at the US Sailing site.

I'm not sure if this would have helped you out, but it sure helped me!

 

[volusiano]

I came up short about 6 inches on a Touch Turbo stringing (only 39 feet in the pack...assumed 40 :?). I could not reach the tension head on the final cross. Being a sailor during the summer, I grabbed a short length that was left from the mains and tied a square knot (could have used a sheet bend as well) which is used to join two sailing lines together of roughly the same thickness. Worked like a charm and held up under tension. For those interested, you can find sailing's most common knots at the US Sailing site.

I'm not sure if this would have helped you out, but it sure helped me!

Or if you have a starting clamp, just clamp it on the 'short' string, then wrap an extra piece of scrap string around the holes of the starting clamp and tension the extra string. If you starting clamp doesn't have these holes for the extra string, I supposed you can also clamp the extra string as well.

 

[jim e]

Today, I spent 4 hours trying to string a lquidmetal 4, and I've been defeated. I'm refunding my friend's money, and telling him to get his racket strung somewhere else.

So what warrants a 4 hour attempt to string one racket? A stupid blocked hole. The hole where the very last bottom cross goes through. Again and again, I tried to get the string through the last hole, and to no avail. The main was just in the way.

I string the racket up the first time. Going along nicely, looks like it's going to be a nice, easy, normal, 30-minute job. Soft string (Reaction), open pattern, 16x19, easily mounted (usually have a bit of trouble mounting rackets on my machine). Turns out I cut the strings short by a foot. 5 dollars down the drain.

Second time. Cut a little extra, and make sure I have enough. Get to the last cross, and it REFUSES TO GO THROUGH. I use the awl, cut the string to a sharp point time and time again, for 15 minutes. And what happens? The MAIN SNAPS!!

Third time. I decided that I would use a more durable string for the mains, SPPP. I even stick a piece of dummy string in the blocked hole before I start. Everything's going fine, SPPP is surprisingly easy to string for a poly, btw. Weaving goes well. And then....the main snaps again.

So what am I left with? 2 and 1/2 wasted sets of Reaction, and 1/2 set of wasted SPPP. Wasted 4 hours of time. Have to return my friend's money, and he's not going to be happy.

Anything left for me to do? Any advice for blocked holes?

Since your orig. question asks for help with blocked holes, as this has happened to me, (I am just getting back into stringing, been away from it for 33+ years,), I used a dental sickle explorer,(had one handy as I am a dentist) it is a lot smaller in diameter than any awl that I have ever seen is , and I slid the explorer under the main that was blocking the hole, and gently raised the string up a little to get the string needed through. You can't place a great amount of force with this explorer, as it is so small, you will bend the explorer,(there are different diameter ones out there, thicker ones will take more force), but it did work for me with out damaging the string, just have to be careful, like anything else.(Only needed to use it once so far, but I just started stringing again, only have done a couple racquets recently so far, but I just put together my new Promaster machine last night!),years ago the bulk of my stringing experience was with woodies and never had a great problem with blocked holes, at least like the new racquets now have. The woodies had their share of problems, most were manageble. I have seen these explorers in some hardware catalogs, but I'm sure if you ask your dentist he would supply you with one, as it may just help you out in a tough situation like what you had.
I also heard that if you feed dental floss through the blocked hole and then lift up, or push down on the string blocking the hole, it should help give you some space to get the string through.