Teflon tubing string saver experiment

[treo]

I bought some teflon tubing that is used for grommet repair and tried using it as a string saver. I put the pieces on most of the mains only. It made the stringbed very stiff, locked the crosses but the mains slid easily without any notching.

This tubing is also used for electrical, medical and other uses and I ordered some more the next size smaller since the one for grommets is bigger than 15g strings and adds too much weight. I'm going to try less and shorter pieces on the crosses only with lower tension. Hopefully I can find a setup that doesn't play stiff so I can use syn gut or nat gut that won't notch because of the teflon covering.

 

[mad dog1]

the stringbed is stiffer because you're effectively increasing the tension of the strings because the layer of tubing between the mains and crosses creates more string deflection. try lowering tension a few #s and it won't feel as stiff.

 

[Muppet]

My question may seem antithetical, but why aren't you just using string savers like Babolat ElastoCross? Even with them, you may still need to decrease tension by a couple of pounds. But your string bed would meet regulations.

 

[treo]

It's just an experiment for a practice racquet. The tubing costs $5 for 10 feet and is reusable unlike elastocross although I might try them in combination. I might try very low tension and see if I can get a soft outer bed with a firm contact area which could prevent the high launch angles that come with very low tension.

I think it is stiff because the strings don't stretch inside the tubing. My first experiment felt stiffer than a kevlar/poly hybrid and made my arm hurt.

 

[mad dog1]

since teflon is supposed to be slippery, my guess is treo probably wanted see if this set up generates more spin by allowing the strings to slide and snap back with less resistance.