Based on the glowing recommendations from Arvin and some others, I also picked up a 300 cs. Ordered it from Clarke Distributing, who gave me the best price and had it on my doorstep in just a few days. I also liked the Alpha Apex and Gamma 5000 machines, but with the way everyone else (particularly Alpha) does shipping, they came to a few hundred more that I couldn't justify.
This was a replacement for an elderly Alpha Pioneer III, which is kind of like a poor man's Neos with a drop weight. I've done a few racquets now, so would like to add my first impressions as well.
I really like the self leveling feature as Arvin described. I was worried at first since it didn't have the positive hold down, but racquets are very very secure. The crank was within a pound of tension from my calibrator, and easy to adjust to put it right on. The clamps work really nicely, and I have no real desire to have the gravity assist feature--I'd rather be able to torque them down. The turntable is smooth, love the lock. Works so much faster than my old drop weight machine.
I do have some suggestions and criticisms for both Xpider and Tourna. First, I am going to assume that as with most East Asian production, the design comes from the buyer and they build to print. Apparently this is very similar to one of the Eagnas machines and the old Jazz model, so Tourna may have just inherited the design. I've done enough work with Asian production to say that any engineers that trust details to the producers are either fools or are very naive. There are several cases in point with the 300 cs where Tourna needs to go back to the producer and tell them how to do things correctly. Here we go:
1) Stapeltonj and Struggle had a discussion about the unit being wobbly. True enough about the feet, but part of this is just sloppy production. The square post for the main unit fits into the stand with a LOT of slop--nearly 5 mm clearance, so that it is nearly impossible to tighten it down completely. This is just sloppy production, but easy enough to fix with a roll of duct tape to increase the size of the tail so it fits in snugly.
2) Along with 1), they advertise that the height is adjustable. Yes, but you can only get about 5 cm high to low, which is hardly worth talking about. Adding another 20 cm or so to the tail would actually allow some reasonable height adjustment and stability to boot, and add essentially nothing to cost or weight.
3) The tool tray is nice, but again suffers from fit and finish issues. The tray opening to bolt on is about 4 mm larger than the post, so in order to clamp it down solidly you end up bending the bosses on the tray. You might say that the washers go in the inside next to the post, but this makes it impossible to assemble. Once it is torqued down it is nice and solid though.
4) The hook for a string reel below the tray is really not very useful and gets in the way. Replaced with a bolt so it doesn't snag on things.
5) They put a stop on the front side of the crank so that you can't get the crank too close to the unit. An easy mod (about 15 minutes with a drill press and tap) is to put another M6 x 1.0 hole about 9 cm closer. This lets you use the full range of the gear track, which is handy to get closer when you are doing crosses and small jobs like racquetball racquets. I keep a 6 mm thumbscrew handy to put into the original hole when I am doing large racquets.
Saying all that, I think the Tourna 300 cs was the best deal around for the capability, ease of use and solid construction. I have no regrets about buying it, find it much much easier and faster than its predecessor, and plan on getting years of good use out of it.
Tourna 300 CS_01 by Arvin Castro, on Flickr
Tourna 300 CS_03 by Arvin Castro, on Flickr
Tourna 300 CS_04 by Arvin Castro, on Flickr
Tourna 300 CS_05 by Arvin Castro, on Flickr
Tourna 300 CS_06 by Arvin Castro, on Flickr
