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Ektelon Model H: necessary pieces

Now that I've strung a grand total of one tennis rackets, I feel entirely qualified to write this post and tell the internet the necessary pieces one should ensure a stringing machine (glide-bar style) has before one purchases said machine. 

Obviously, the above was sarcasm.  I am not very qualified, and any advice you take here is advice taken at your own risk. 

Anyway, on to the advice.  Please enjoy this lovely diagram with some very official labeling:


If you're looking for a glide bar machine and it has all of the pieces you see there, you're probably in good shape! 

I couldn't find anything like this online when I was trying to purchase this machine. 


The internet has told me that the glide bars and tension head are the most expensive things to replace.  I assume the clamps would be the next most expensive.  The person I bought the machine from said that the tool I marked with the purple arrow was very useful, and I should try to not lose it.  I definitely agree it is very useful.  It tightens/loosens/adjusts almost everything on this machine. 

If you can look at the machine in person, I'd recommend seeing how the tension head moves, how the springs in the tension head look, how the glide bars look (no obvious visual/tactile defects in the metal), how the clamps move, plus making sure there's no rust.  Surface rust is less of an issue than deep pits of rust, obviously.  I wouldn't trust a machine with substantial rust to handle high string tension. 

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