How hard is it to reshaft clubs?

[ualtim]

How much does everyone spend per grip? I have been buying the 3 dollar grips I see some going for 11 USD.

I was playing Winns at $3.95 a grip, did one set with Tour Velvets at $2.95 a grip, and just did a set with Decade Midsize at $6.60 a grip. The Decades are twice as expensive, but I must say I like the feel. The cordered section is not too rough and the softer red section is nice on the non-gloved hand. Hopefully, I will not have any wear issues with the Decades as they are too expensive to be replacing multiple times per year.

[Adam Pettman]

I think Im going to try some kind of cord next time because they dont wear down fast.

Your right the grips wont wear away but you'll be lucky if you have any hand left after a round

[Augster]

Ualtim has helped you a load. I will now commence to write my definitive guide so as to finally help you make that leap to amatuer clubbuilder.

Since you say you have a vice, it means you just may have a shop. i.e. various tools. It is EXTREMELY helpful to buy the Golfsmith basic clubbuilding book.

What I use in my shop for a reshaft:

Box cutter with a curved blade
Hacksaw
Vice
Shaft Protector
Grip tape 2" double-sided
48" Steel ruler
Grip solvent
Permanent Marker
Spine-Align tool (optional, but absolutely worth every penny of the $50)
Belt sander (or just sand paper)
Golfsmith Hosel Wire Brush
Propane Torch
Leather Gloves
Tape Measure
Golfsmith 30/60 Epoxy or normal epoxy
Masking tape
Shop rags
Acetone

Getting Started:

I will assume you are doing a standard reshaft 3-PW. I am also going to assume you hit these clubs okay and want the lengths to stay the same.

Take the 48" ruler and measure how long each of the clubs are, in the address position, before you do anything else. (pictures in the golfsmith book, very easy to do) WRITE DOWN THE LENGTHS.

Since you didn't know yet if they were .370 standard or .355taper, you will need to know this. If it's .355 taper, using TT DG's or RP Rifles are very common. If it's taper tipped, all you'll need to do is cut them from the butt end to size.

If your clubs are .370 and you wanted to use TT DG R300's, you would just hit up the Golfsmith site here:

http://www.golfsmith.com/cm/trim.php

That will give you the tip trimming for you TTDG R-300's. As you can see, you would cut 2" off the tip of your 5-iron.


I will now describe the process if you were to do 1 shaft. Of course, you'll be doing a set, but the process is just rinse and repeat. We'll use your 5-iron as an example. I will assume it'll be to "standard" length of 38".

REMOVAL:

Use your Box Cutter to cut off the Ferrule. (The black thing above the clubhead) Put the club in the shaft protector and put it in the vice with the clubhead pointing down.

Start up your Propane Torch and put on your leather gloves.

Apply heat to the hosel. Count to 10 slowly, then move the flame about 90* and count to 10. Repeat for all 360*. At some point you may hear a POP out the end of the shaft, or you may start to smell the sick smell of burning glue. At that point, you can most likely try twisting the clubhead off the shaft with your gloved hand.

Most irons take less than 1 minute. Some will take up to 2, but it is usually the technique. The better you get, the faster it is. Usually.

Don't mess around with a heat gun. It takes forever, and sometimes, it absolutely WON'T get the glue hot enough no matter how long you are going at it.

Discard the shaft. When the clubhead cools a bit, clean it out with the hosel wire brush.

NEW SHAFT:

Take your TTDGR300 shaft, put it in the shaft protector and put it in the vice. Take the tape measure and measure 2" up from the tip and mark it with your marker. Now cut it off with your hacksaw.

Take the shaft out of the vice and put the newly cut tip end into the 5-iron. Make sure the tip goes all the way to the bottom of the bore depth in the hosel. Put the club into address position and take the 48" ruler up the backside. Bend over so you are even with the numbers and the shaft, and make a mark with your marker 1/8" below the length you want.

In this case, it'll be 1/8" below 38". Remember you need to take this reading while the tip end is all the way down inside the clubhead and in the address position.

Take the shaft, put it in the shaft protector, then in the vise, and cut it off with the hacksaw on the mark.

OPTIONAL:

Put the Spine-align tool in the Vise. Put the newly cut to size shaft in the tool but end first. Put some masking tape around the shaft past the end of the tool.

Spine-align the shaft marking the NBP and the Spine on the masking tape.

ASSEMBLY:

Put the tip into the clubhead and mark with the marker on the shaft at the top of the clubhead. Remove shaft. Take the belt sander, or sandpaper, or whathave you, and rough up the tip of the shaft from that line down. Rough up the inside of the clubhead hosel with the Wire Brush.

Grab your Ferrule: http://www.golfsmith.com/products/392UI and epoxy.

Grab a piece of cardboard and 2 sticks for mixing. One for mixing, one for application.

Put the epoxy on the cardboard. Both the clear and the dark need to come out semi-equally. For one shaft, make about a nickel-sized "pile" of epoxy. More is better than less.

Mix the epoxy with a stick. Takes about 15-20 seconds. Just stir it until you don't see any clear and it's all black. Take the tip of the shaft and put a little epoxy on it. Put the ferrule on the tip. Push it on, vertically, with the shaft pushing down to the cardboard. Now the ferrule is flush with the tip end. Push the ferrule the rest of the way with the clubhead.

Take your applicator stick and rub epoxy on the tip from the ferrule down. All the way around. Mind where the NBP and S lines are if you spine-aligned. Take the clubhead and push it on. Then pull it half-way back up, rotate it so the N is as 9:00 and the S is at 3:00 and push it back down.

Pour some Acetone onto a shoprag and clean off all the excess epoxy.

Set the club down, in the address position if you will, and make any corrections necessary to get the Spine and NBP in the correct positions.

Leave it alone. If using 30/60, wait an hour or two to put the grip on. If using normal, put it on tomorrow.

GRIP:

Put the club in the shaft protector in the vise with the clubhead pointing UP. Take the grip alongside the shaft and mark a little short of how far down it goes. Put the tape on, shaft in the middle of the tape, and cut it off a little longer than the butt end. Put the double-sided grip tape on about halfway around, peel the excess off, then push down the rest of the tape. Push the extra into the end of the shaft.

Take the grip in your hand vertically, and put your index finger over the small hole at the bottom. Pour a bunch of solvent into the grip, maybe a 3 count or so. Take your other index finger over the big hole and shake the solvent around inside for 5-10 seconds.

Put the little hole, over the grip tape. Take your finger away. Move it back and forth along the grip tape letting the solvent leak onto it. Remove your finger over the big hole to make it come out faster. Take you hand and run it up and down the tape to make sure it's slippery everywhere. Count to 10, then slide the grip on.

Make sure the "Golf Pride" or whatever that is on the butt of the grip is perpendicular to the score lines on the clubface. Take the shaft out of the vice, put it into the address position, and make sure the grip is good enough for you alignment-wise.

Take a rag and wipe off any excess solvent.

Let it sit for a few hours to a day.

Put on the queer True Temper sticker if you really want to.

Finito.

COST:
8 shafts @ 9.10 = $72.80
8 Grips @ $4 give or take= $32
Acetone=$2 at Wal-Mart
Ferrules= $2
Grip Tape, Solvent, Epoxy=$14.50
Utility Knife=$5
Clubmaker book=$16
Rubber Vise Clamp=$2
48" Ruler=$11
Hosel Brush=$15
Propane Torch=$15 Wal-Mart
Curved Blades=$2
Spine-Align Tool=$50 (JB on Ebay)

Total Rough Cost: $239.30!!!

And now you see why so many of us have gotten into building and reshafting and regripping ourselves.

I will tell you this, it took so long to write that, I could have reshafted your clubs for you, and another set to boot.

It seems like a lot to get your shop "started up". Really though, if you have a vise, and a bench and a few tools lying about, it's not that expensive.

Once you have all the tools on hand, it's quick and dirt cheap to "tinker" with your clubs. You don't like those grips, change them out. Want to try some RP 5.0's? Change them out. Don't like em? Change them back. It only takes a few hours. And you know absolutely that the spine-alignment and length is done exactly as you want it.

Now, if you want to get your clubs "custom fit" you can most likely dynamically fit yourself. You can at least get a good idea whether you need to have them fit for you or not. Either buy the Golfsmith "Lie Board" or get a thin piece of plywood or masonite. Put some masking tape on the bottom of your 5-iron, put a ball on the lie board, and hit some shots. See where the tape is ripping.

The Clubmaker book explains dynamic lie fitting.

After all this, all you'll need is a bending machine to check your loft and lie angles, and to bend your clubs to your spec. I got mine used off of Ebay for $200 I think. Even with that added in, if you could get the same deal, your total price would be just over the $400 to get fitted and reshaft.

I hope this opus helps a little. It was a LOT harder to describe how to do it than to actually do a reshaft.

[Rockford35]

Nice work, Aug.

Not to be a dink, but...Golfsmith Shaft removal Demo

R35

[obagain]

Some little things that expand on reshafting.
When you insert the shaft, put a small piece of fishing line between the hosel and shaft. That will tighten the shaft and you wont have to worry about the head coming off.
After the ferrule is dry, make sure you sand it so that the ferrule and the hosel are the same size, it's a little thing but it looks so much better. After sanding the ferrule use a light coat of acetone to bring back the shine.
VERY IMPORTANT! Acetone will take the paint off anything so if you are useing it around graphite shafts be very careful.

[DrBrown]

You guys are awesome. Thanks for all that info Augster! You are right though, I could have shipped my clubs to you and you could have done them in the amount of time it took to write all that haha.

My only concern about all this is I want to do it right the first time, not so much the building part but the actual specs of the shaft tips and what brand I need to go with. I might just buy some new club heads as well and do it all from scratch. I hear loads of good news about the new snake eyes 600B blades and htey are ~$29 each.

I read an article a while back that talked about how different players load the shafts and the timing involved in how they do this. From what I understand the smoother the downswing is the earlier the shaft releases its kick/energy. So I should be looking for a shaft that can retain its flex longer since I probably load it close to the top. If I load it early and use a fairly low flex shaft I will still have enough flex at the bottom to give me the distance and desired ball flight I need. Does that make sense to everyone else??