Date of Purchase:
June 1981
Price: $79.95
+ $12.95 shipping and handling
Pros:
Cheap
High reviews in Tennis
Magazine
Good instructions, especially
for beginners
Cons:
Cheap
Crank tensioning, takes a lot
of time to string.
Very little room for hands
under the stringbed
Lots of parts
Commentary:
Summer of 1981, I am a
high school junior tennis player. I was playing with a Prince Pro @ 80
lbs, going through a set of strings per week. I knew I had to buy a
stringer. Tennis magazine reviewed 5 personal stringers including the
T-145 and the Klippermate. The T-145 came out on top, edging out the
Klippermate because of the price. In retrospect, the Klippermate is
still around and still at the same price. The T-145 was the least
expensive and had the highest reviews so it was the obvious choice at
the time. Believe it or not, but I still have the original paperwork
and packaging for this machine. I have been meaning to throw this
machine away because it is so antiquated, but I am glad I kept it to
show these pictures.
This was the only
stringer you had to actually mount to a table. I ended up putting it on
top of an old swivel TV stand to make it look more authentic. Mounting
a racquet takes forever. It comes with 3 pairs of head/throat
adapters. One for wood racquets, one for Wilson T
2000 racquets, and one for graphite and aluminum racquets. The
adjustable side support was made for the new oversize racquets.
However, it will not fit todays wider bodies.
Once mounted, you
assemble a screw down starting clamp for the first main. Originally,
the machine came with 2 Magic clamps, as they were called. I purchased
a 3rd clamp later to eliminate the need for the assembled
starting clamp to make the process faster.
To tension the string,
you wrap the string around the tensioning post, clamp down on the
strings, and crank away until you get the desired tension.
About 30 or so rotations to tension, and just as
much to untension. Very tiring for
many, but I was 16 at the time and stringing was so fun, that it didnt
faze me.
It was a very exciting
time for me, because I was a poor high school student. The machine paid
for itself in 2 days.
