Thanks to some of the posts here and my refusing to give up I finished my first string job with my Klippermate on a Head Liquid Metal 170. I figured I would post up my story and some observations to encourage or help other people who decide to take stringing on.

Anyone who knows what they are doing would have laughed if they had seen me the first day I tried to string the racquet. I had never seen a stringing be done and I had never used any of the equipment. I spent the first few hours just looking the machine over and trying to figure out why my floating clamps wouldn't work (needed to loosen the bolt at the bottom of the clamps) and how to properly clamp my racquet into place. There is very little information online that deals with stringing racquetball raquets so I felt pretty on my own. This forum helped alot. I wish I had spent more time reading threads that I didn't think would be useful because there is a lot of great information tucked in threads with titles that I just passed over my first time through and have now seen, after I finished my racquet.

Anyhow, the first day I spent probably six hours from taking the stringer out of the box to having my mains ready to tie off only to completely abandon the stringing when I started plucking strings and noticed the tones were all over the map. I had shorter strings with lower pitches and longer strings and almost none of them matched. At that point I was wondering if I would even be able to do it. I am really busy with a newborn at home and a new job and I started to think it just wasn't worth the time. But the responses to a thread I posted here as well as me not wanting to admit defeat made me give it a shot a month later. I'm really glad I did. Here are a few things I thought I would post up for other newbies who might see this.

1) If you have another racquet identical to the one you are going to string, keep that racquet out on the table and use it as a template for how to string.

2) Whether or not you have the luxery of #1, go to heads website and download their stringing information for the Liquid Metal racquets. The instruction book that comes with the Klippermate is basically useless for the mains on these racquets. Look at your racquet and the instructions from Head and follow the pattern around on your racquet. Notice how the mains are staggered and not one right next to the other. The instructions actually become very clear if you look at them and your still strung racquet at the same time.

2.5) Check your grommets. They might be the reason your string broke in the first place.

3) Clamp your racquet down right. The semi circles of the clamps follow the circular shape of the racquet. I know this sounds simple but the pictures in the Klippermate book are not good at showing this. I was actually stupid enough that I had one clamp backwards and was trying to figure out why the clamping of the strings was so hard.

4) #3 being said, there are times that you can not clamp strings right up next the the frame of the racquet. As long as you clamp onto a string next to, or the string starter you should be fine. Just clip it as close to the edge as you can.

5) FOR THE LIQUID METAL RACQUETS!! (Or any that you don't tension at the throat): I found that I had to prestring almost all of the mains. The bottom clamp was in the way of the holes in the throat and it became near impossible to get the string through them. It can be done with needle nose pliers and a flashlight but prestringing saved me a big headache. I just loosely strung all the mains and then pulled enough play into the string to be able to tighten it using the stringer.

6) Make sure that you do not have your mains crossed funny at the throat. If you prestring (#5) you can still pull them tight enough to see if any are crossed. I did not pay attention my first time and found out a little late that I had crossed mains at the bottom. This forced me to go back and redo it.

7) When tensioning, I found it good to let the weight down, and then regardless of where it sat, pick it back up and redo it. The string usually relaxed a bit. I think this is similar to pre-streching but I just did it during the stringing. What I found was my string tension seed much more consistant than if I didn't do it (like the first time I attempted it and ended up with strings giving wildly different tones when plucked).

8) When the mains are done but before you tie, you can give them a pluck to check for consistant tension. The longer strings in the middle should have a lower tone than short ones at the side.

9) Crosses are easy when you have reached this point. The Klippermate book has good info on this.

10) The knot and method shown in the Klippermate book was good. I suck at tying any knot other than my shoelaces and I found the knot to be easy to do and get tight. Use pliers to pull down and away from the center of the racquet to get it nice and tight.

11) Smile because you just saved yourself $35-45 and just learned a cool skill!

It took me probably 2 hours to finally do my first racquet once I had everything up and running. I think I could get it down to an hour next time, knowing what I know now. The job I did relaxed a bit after the first play with it and I think I will up the tension a pound or two next time to make up for that. Fortunately my other two racquets are Liquid Metal 180's so the stringing will be exactly the same.

I hope this helps someone in the future. Thanks to everyone who takes time to respond to posts on this forum. It really is one of the only resources on the web for racquetball racquet stringing.

I also have a Kilppermate and have Head Royal Flush and Problem Child. I am pretty sure I struggled with all of the same things you mentioned and finally figured it out as well. One thing I did was when I first got the stringer, I used some of the cheap string that came with stringer and restrung an old tennis racquet I had laying around. This allowed me to get used to the stringer and how it works and not risk damaging the racquet I am currently playing with.
When I did my racquetball racquetball racquet for the first time, I also used cheaper string than I normally use because I knew that I would be restringing it. That is one of the great things about having a stringer, because I can play around with different strings and probably more importantly string tension. Sometimes you don't realize that you prefer a different tension until you try it.
As far as the Head racquets, and most racquetball racquets that I have done, I always pre-string the mains. I can't really see a downside to doing this.
I also think that you can read all you want, but until you do several racquets, you don't really understand it.
If all else fails, call Manny at Lawler Sports and he will walk you thru it. He is always very willing to help newbies and oldbies alike.

Jakelin

Thanks to some of the posts here and my refusing to give up I finished my first string job with my Klippermate on a Head Liquid Metal 170. I figured I would post up my story and some observations to encourage or help other people who decide to take stringing on.

Anyone who knows what they are doing would have laughed if they had seen me the first day I tried to string the racquet. I had never seen a stringing be done and I had never used any of the equipment. I spent the first few hours just looking the machine over and trying to figure out why my floating clamps wouldn't work (needed to loosen the bolt at the bottom of the clamps) and how to properly clamp my racquet into place. There is very little information online that deals with stringing racquetball raquets so I felt pretty on my own. This forum helped alot. I wish I had spent more time reading threads that I didn't think would be useful because there is a lot of great information tucked in threads with titles that I just passed over my first time through and have now seen, after I finished my racquet.

Anyhow, the first day I spent probably six hours from taking the stringer out of the box to having my mains ready to tie off only to completely abandon the stringing when I started plucking strings and noticed the tones were all over the map. I had shorter strings with lower pitches and longer strings and almost none of them matched. At that point I was wondering if I would even be able to do it. I am really busy with a newborn at home and a new job and I started to think it just wasn't worth the time. But the responses to a thread I posted here as well as me not wanting to admit defeat made me give it a shot a month later. I'm really glad I did. Here are a few things I thought I would post up for other newbies who might see this.

1) If you have another racquet identical to the one you are going to string, keep that racquet out on the table and use it as a template for how to string.

2) Whether or not you have the luxery of #1, go to heads website and download their stringing information for the Liquid Metal racquets. The instruction book that comes with the Klippermate is basically useless for the mains on these racquets. Look at your racquet and the instructions from Head and follow the pattern around on your racquet. Notice how the mains are staggered and not one right next to the other. The instructions actually become very clear if you look at them and your still strung racquet at the same time.

2.5) Check your grommets. They might be the reason your string broke in the first place.

3) Clamp your racquet down right. The semi circles of the clamps follow the circular shape of the racquet. I know this sounds simple but the pictures in the Klippermate book are not good at showing this. I was actually stupid enough that I had one clamp backwards and was trying to figure out why the clamping of the strings was so hard.

4) #3 being said, there are times that you can not clamp strings right up next the the frame of the racquet. As long as you clamp onto a string next to, or the string starter you should be fine. Just clip it as close to the edge as you can.

5) FOR THE LIQUID METAL RACQUETS!! (Or any that you don't tension at the throat): I found that I had to prestring almost all of the mains. The bottom clamp was in the way of the holes in the throat and it became near impossible to get the string through them. It can be done with needle nose pliers and a flashlight but prestringing saved me a big headache. I just loosely strung all the mains and then pulled enough play into the string to be able to tighten it using the stringer.

6) Make sure that you do not have your mains crossed funny at the throat. If you prestring (#5) you can still pull them tight enough to see if any are crossed. I did not pay attention my first time and found out a little late that I had crossed mains at the bottom. This forced me to go back and redo it.

7) When tensioning, I found it good to let the weight down, and then regardless of where it sat, pick it back up and redo it. The string usually relaxed a bit. I think this is similar to pre-streching but I just did it during the stringing. What I found was my string tension seed much more consistant than if I didn't do it (like the first time I attempted it and ended up with strings giving wildly different tones when plucked).

8) When the mains are done but before you tie, you can give them a pluck to check for consistant tension. The longer strings in the middle should have a lower tone than short ones at the side.

9) Crosses are easy when you have reached this point. The Klippermate book has good info on this.

10) The knot and method shown in the Klippermate book was good. I suck at tying any knot other than my shoelaces and I found the knot to be easy to do and get tight. Use pliers to pull down and away from the center of the racquet to get it nice and tight.

11) Smile because you just saved yourself $35-45 and just learned a cool skill!

It took me probably 2 hours to finally do my first racquet once I had everything up and running. I think I could get it down to an hour next time, knowing what I know now. The job I did relaxed a bit after the first play with it and I think I will up the tension a pound or two next time to make up for that. Fortunately my other two racquets are Liquid Metal 180's so the stringing will be exactly the same.

I hope this helps someone in the future. Thanks to everyone who takes time to respond to posts on this forum. It really is one of the only resources on the web for racquetball racquet stringing.

Great job!!!

One thing I would recommend that I didn't see you mention.

Knot...

when you are ready to tie off...

Take your pliers....pull string tight towards you and stick your awl in the hole to keep the string tight and the chances of losing your necessary tension is very small.

With your awl in there you should be able to make your night.

I hope that makes sense.

Manny

Thank you for that tip Manny. I didn't see it in the Klippermate manual and I did not figure that one out on my own. They suggested that you string the last string at 5 pounds higher to compensate for the knot loosening up the string. I like your suggestion and I was wondering what use the awl was anyway since I didn't use it. I will give it a shot when I do my two LM 180's. I really appreciate you bringing this up as well as all of your responses on this forum!

The main purpose of the awl is to help install the grommets. Almost impossible to get most of them installed without the use of an awl.

I appreciate that headman. I have two LM180's that I am going to restring and I need to replace the grommets on both of those.

Jakelin

I appreciate that headman. I have two LM180's that I am going to restring and I need to replace the grommets on both of those.

When putting on new grommets, the first half (one side) will be easy. The tricky part is getting the last few grommets in place on the other side. You'll need to use the awl and put it in the grommet and sort of pull a little and put it thru the frame hole. You'll need to do the last few holes like that one at a time till you get them all in. I find it easier to just do the holes in order rather than skipping 1 or 2 then trying to get the skipped ones in after you're done. One trick to help if the grommet keeps pulling out before you get the whole thing done is to use some zip ties or those little wires that they put around loaves of bread (can't remember what they're called) every few inches around the grommet/frame to keep it from coming back out till you're done.

Jakelin

Thanks to some of the posts here and my refusing to give up I finished my first string job with my Klippermate on a Head Liquid Metal 170. I figured I would post up my story and some observations to encourage or help other people who decide to take stringing on.


7) When tensioning, I found it good to let the weight down, and then regardless of where it sat, pick it back up and redo it. The string usually relaxed a bit. I think this is similar to pre-streching but I just did it during the stringing. What I found was my string tension seed much more consistant than if I didn't do it (like the first time I attempted it and ended up with strings giving wildly different tones when plucked).

Question: How many mains are you having to pull at one time when stringing a Head LM with a Klippermate? I have not figured out a way to pull just two at a time since the floating clamp has to be able to grab onto another string. I end up having to pull tension on the four inner mains (I also pre-string the racquet before putting in the Klippermate), so if anyone has a trick to avoid this on the Klippermate , please let me know. Thanks!