Digital fish scales for tension calibration

Hello to everyone and anyone who follows me. Many apologies for the delay between posts. Between my other blog, playing tennis, marketing and so on and so forth, I have had little time to post. But, I just invested in a moderately priced digital fish scale which I am going to use for tension calibration--similar to the picture on the left.

The reason for this is twofold.

Reason one: price. Tension calibrators made specifically for racquet stringing calibration are very pricey compared to fish scales. Even the most most expensive fish scales are only about $25, where stringing specific calibrators start at about $30 and can go upwards of $75.

Reason two: accuracy. Just based on what I have read, the stringing specific calibrators--even the expensive ones--tend to be wildly inaccurate. The fish scales are accurate up to .01 pounds; well, according to the company specs. Whether or not this is true remains to be seen.

I've even read that the ATP tournament stringers are mostly using fish scales now as well. Again, this is here-say. I'll take is as fact when I actually talk to some ATP tournament stringers. Once I get the fish scale, I am going to test it with a known weight. I have some dumbbells of varying weights which I will use. I'm assuming the weight of the dumbbells are true--so we shall see how this works. I'm of the assumption that my Eagnas is  about 2-3 pounds too low; but I don't want to blindly compensate by going up 2-3 pounds.

Of course, I might be a little less concerned if I upgraded machines. As I stated in an earlier post, I was thinking about getting a Gamma 5003. But I was thinking about getting a Gamma X-ST tabletop. It is essentially the same as the 5003, minus the base. The reasoning for doing this, other than the lower cost, is that I believe I can take the top off and put it on my Eagnas base. I know for sure that the tension pull is compatible with the Eagnas. I most likely would have to rig up a new breaking system, but that isn't very difficult. In case anyone reading this has tried this, or happens to have a X-ST and can give me the diameter of the shaft; I would greatly appreciate your input. We'll see what happens. I truly need to get a set-up with nicer clamps. The Eagnas, while sufficient, pinch a little too much no matter how much I loosen them--I can't loosen them too much, or I'll get slippage.

I will update my fish scale experiment as soon as I receive it and try it out. I welcome everyone's comments if you have tried a fish scale.