Tremont Research T-145 II

My 1st stringing machine was the Tremont Research T-145 II (now using a different stringing machine).

Bought the T-145 2nd hand from my flatmate when flatting in New Zealand - circa 1989. The following pix shows the unit with the various components provided.

My T-145 came with the following accessories - a awl, a setting off awl (blunt), a hex key (for adjusting the position of the mounting arms), three clamps, pair of mounts/nuts and a pair of long screw/nuts with a gripper at the ends. My (then) flatmate bought only the basic necessities required for stringing badminton racquets with him (to NZ).

The T-145 was designed to be a portable unit, to be mounted via securing the unit to the side of a furniture via gripper(s) and screws. I used to secure the T-145 to a microwave table with a layer of cloth underneath to prevent damage at the anchor site.

The tensioner was alike a modified fisherman's scale mounted onto a platform with the scale in KG and LB(s). One of the three clamps would be required to secure the string to the tensioner to perform the tensioning. Hence the other two clamps are for the stringing process.

I "fondly" remember the unique Tremont clamps which permitted clamping of 2-main strings with 2-cross strings simultanously eg in '#' pattern. The locking mechanism for the clamp was alike a locking plier with a adjustment screw at the rear of the clamp, to vary the tooth's width to accommodate different string thickness. In theory, a very handy design. However I experienced slippage once I started stringing at higher tensions! And if you over-tighten the clamps, they tend to became unusable. A minor annoyance was that these clamps were easily disengaged eg accidently when weaving a new string nearby and you just happened to nudge a clamp in-use at the wrong angle!

However the T-145 major drawback was it's tensioning mechanism. To tension any string, you need to crank the tensioner to move it down a horizontal track. Unfortunately the tensioner has to be crank (again) to return it to the starting position once you have completed tensioning a string - no auto return as this was a budget unit! Hence took double the effort to tension a string! You could delay the return process once there was additional slack eg say only return the tensioner to the initial position after tensioning every 3-5 strings. Thus you had to be quite ENERGETIC as much more effort was required to complete the stringing processes!!!

Kept the old reliable till 2002 when I relocated to South East Asia. Decided to let it go then as getting a racquet re-strung was MUCH cheaper in South East Asia than Down Under!!!

When I checked in early 2012, I discovered the company was no more. The company was registered as TREMONT RESEARCH CO INC., CHICAGO, ILL, 60610 USA with patents at http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3823609.html