string jig; rigidity.

geoffretired

Supporter
Supporter
There is a very nice string jig on another thread. Nicely made and built to last. Costs enough to keep upgrades away from the mind,too.
One feature of a string jig that is important is, rigidity. I see the point of that.
However, my wooden jig is not as rigid as it could be. I don't see that as a real problem, though.
I look at it this way. One thing I try to do is get even tension on all the windings.I guess we all want that.If I make one winding tight followed by a loose one, the second one sags and shows up, so I correct before moving on. If I make one or two medium windings, followed by one that is tighter than the others, the others go loose and sag as the beam bends.So I go back and correct.
If the beam was much more rigid, it would not bend so readily under different tensions, so they might not show up, until the string was almost finished.
 

buzz lite beer

Well-known member
If you do have a rigid beam on your string jig you can use that to your advantage to pre-tension/stretch your string after the end loops are made should that be required, if you can make a string with relatively even strand tension you don't need a rigid central beam.
 

EVC

New member
When I make the string I apply tension just enough to make the strands straight between poles. Once finished winding the thread I then pull the mobile post to increase tension for end loop serving. The jig is far from rigid but has allowed me to make decent strings so far (I make the center serving with the bow.) This is not to say a pretty rigid jig is not a good idea but one has to decide if the cost/benefit is good. OTOH if you can afford it...
 
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