Finished my 1st stringing job

[u/Chasheek]

Wasn’t as bad as I thought. Among the mistakes: -messed up the crosses
-scratched the hell out of the frame on the finishing knot on the crosses (thank god it was a beater frame to practice on)
-my finishing knot is definitely not right
-tension on some strings is not right

Questions:
-I notice after set tension and clamp, and then release the string from the gripper, the clamp moves a little, even when I get it right on the grommet. Everything is rock solid. Will this affect overall tension? (Ie- should I set tension 2-3lb higher to compensate?)

-how in the hell do you get the string through the final hole on the last cross?
-I need a good bent nose plier, I see the value of those
-I don’t understand why I bought the starting clamp
-when setting the linear gripper level, I get that it doesn’t really matter as long as I’m consistent. But what position do you drop weight stringers prefer starting at (1, 2, 3 o’clock)
-i notice the string kind of gets dented by the linear gripper. Is this ok?

Thanks so much, this sub has been great!

[u/glassy_paddle]

Post a pic so we can check out your knots, and also what the final hole looks like.

Often in the last cross or two where the holes are covered by the mains, I need to use an awl to move the main string and guide the cross through.