Club Builder Help Needed!

[Darkfrog]

Hoping there are some experienced club builders in the community that can provide some advice.

Feel free to skip the intro and get to the issue below if you want...All the golf courses around me are closed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. While this is a bummer to me because I believe that golf is a low risk activity that can be accommodated into the physical distancing concept, I am willing to temporarily sacrifice golf for the greater public health.

To keep myself busy and engaged with golf, I have started some long overdue reshafting of my irons. I am not an expert club builder, but I have assembled several sets of irons, with no cataclysmic failures, so I'm comfortable with the process, and have a hobbyist set of club building tools and a decent working space in my garage.

I've been doing one iron a day, mostly because I work slow and deliberately to make sure I get it right (I've learned the hard way before).

What happened:  I epoxied my 9 iron head onto the shaft. Shaft was brand new and the tips were pre-prepped for me. The hosel was very well cleaned out using a hosel cleaning brush with my drill, and a light abrasive grinding bit with my dremel (visually verified). I used Golfworks 2-part shafting epoxy mixed in the correct proportions, with a small quantity of shafting beads. After getting the head on, I let it sit for about 18 hours - usually by this time, the epoxy is cured to the point where I can turn the ferrule and put on a grip. But this time there was still some play in the clubhead (rotating slowly on the shaft), seems like the epoxy wasn't fully cured. So I set the club back down and am currently letting it fully cure. The last few nights have been cooler than usual in California, and my garage is detached with no temperature control, so it could be the cool weather is causing longer cure times.

My question is - did the clubhead rotating (guessing it rotated 45-60 degrees) before the epoxy was fully set compromise the bond, and should I remove it and start over?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[Adam C]

If it was cold or damp outside that can add a good bit of time to the process. Did you only do the 9 iron or the whole set? Also did you keep the epoxy you mixed up?

[Darkfrog]

2 minutes ago, Adam C said:

Did you only do the 9 iron or the whole set? Also did you keep the epoxy you mixed up?

I did the 9-iron and PW, but I didn't touch the PW after noticing the epoxy wasn't set completely on the 9-iron. It was cold last night, and rained all day before, so damp and cold must have impacted the curing.

I unintentionally saved the mixed epoxy because it was left sitting on a piece of cardboard on my work table. It's still a little tacky to the touch right now, about 24 hours later, so doesn't seem fully cured.

[Adam C]

I would give them another day or carefully bring them in the house overnight to set faster. Bring the leftover too, so you know when it's set. I always tell people to save the leftover epoxy so you can check it's process without disturbing the clubs.

I don't think you should have any issues with the bond even if you moved the shaft a bit before it was set.

[billchao]

I think I twisted the 5i on the last set I built a little bit before it was fully cured and it hasn't flown off yet.

[boogielicious]

I agree with @Adam C. It is a time/temperature issue. My basement is cold in the winter. I now heat the epoxy up to about 90F before assembly. If it’s too cold, the head can loosen if I hit it the next day.

[Buckeyebowman]

2 hours ago, Darkfrog said:

I did the 9-iron and PW, but I didn't touch the PW after noticing the epoxy wasn't set completely on the 9-iron. It was cold last night, and rained all day before, so damp and cold must have impacted the curing.

I unintentionally saved the mixed epoxy because it was left sitting on a piece of cardboard on my work table. It's still a little tacky to the touch right now, about 24 hours later, so doesn't seem fully cured.

Is your work table also in the garage? If it is, that could explain why the epoxy is still tacky. Why not bring the clubs inside and stand them in a corner? 

[Darkfrog]

2 hours ago, Adam C said:

I would give them another day or carefully bring them in the house overnight to set faster. Bring the leftover too, so you know when it's set. I always tell people to save the leftover epoxy so you can check it's process without disturbing the clubs.

I don't think you should have any issues with the bond even if you moved the shaft a bit before it was set.

I brought both clubs into the house, along with the remaining epoxy, which is pretty solid now. I’m finishing the set with my GW this evening, and I’ll let it cure in the house and also save the epoxy to get an idea of cure time. 

1 hour ago, billchao said:

I think I twisted the 5i on the last set I built a little bit before it was fully cured and it hasn't flown off yet.

Good to know - seems like this one will be okay. 

53 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

I agree with @Adam C. It is a time/temperature issue. My basement is cold in the winter. I now heat the epoxy up to about 90F before assembly. If it’s too cold, the head can loosen if I hit it the next day.

Heating the epoxy is a good idea - how do you this? In a water bath, or just use a heat gun or something to warm it up?

Thanks everyone for the advice 😀

22 minutes ago, Buckeyebowman said:

Why not bring the clubs inside and stand them in a corner?

Yeah, that’s what I should have done. Definitely will do next time, but hope to not be doing this again for awhile.

[boogielicious]

9 hours ago, Darkfrog said:

Heating the epoxy is a good idea - how do you this? In a water bath, or just use a heat gun or something to warm it up?

I just heat some tap water to 90 and put the bottles in it for about a half hour while I get stuff ready. It works fine.

[Darkfrog]

Finished up the set with my GW, and let it cure in the warmest room in the house overnight, along with the two clubs that were experiencing longer curing times. Saved the epoxy, and when I checked it, it appeared fully cured. I blew on the new Pure grips, turned the ferrules, and giving them another 24 hours in the heated house, along with the rest of the set before I test them out hitting balls.

7 hours ago, boogielicious said:

I just heat some tap water to 90 and put the bottles in it for about a half hour while I get stuff ready. It works fine.

I'll give this a try next time. Still need to reshaft my 55 and 60 degree wedges, but waiting on the shafts to arrive in the mail. I don't mess around with woods/hybrids with graphite shafts because I don't have the equipment to pull the shaft off the adjustable hosel adapter cleanly, so I'll have those professionally done once life starts returning to normal.

[Adam C]

39 minutes ago, Darkfrog said:

Finished up the set with my GW, and let it cure in the warmest room in the house overnight, along with the two clubs that were experiencing longer curing times. Saved the epoxy, and when I checked it, it appeared fully cured. I blew on the new Pure grips, turned the ferrules, and giving them another 24 hours in the heated house, along with the rest of the set before I test them out hitting balls.

I'll give this a try next time. Still need to reshaft my 55 and 60 degree wedges, but waiting on the shafts to arrive in the mail. I don't mess around with woods/hybrids with graphite shafts because I don't have the equipment to pull the shaft off the adjustable hosel adapter cleanly, so I'll have those professionally done once life starts returning to normal.

Do you have a shaft puller? You can get a basic one for under $80. You can use it for hosel adapters also, just need a 1inch or longer machine screw of the same diameter as the hosel thread and a couple 3/4 or one inch washers to pull against.

[Darkfrog]

16 minutes ago, Adam C said:

Do you have a shaft puller?

No, but if there are tools for this under $100 I'd certainly consider it. The only ones I've seen all seem to be $200 or more. Granted, I haven't researched this extensively as I've only really dabbled in building irons.

[Adam C]

This would do the job. Like I said, get a machine screw and couple washers and you can do hosel adapters also.

Value Shaft Extractor

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THE GOLFWORKS - VALUE SHAFT EXTRACTOR, VALUE SHAFT EXTRACTOR, Golf Heads, Golf Reheading, Head Extractor, Golf Epoxy, Heading Epoxy, Golf Head Epoxy, Maltby Heads, Maltbie Heads, Ralph...

Also if you need a quick video on how to do it, here you go. The shaft puller is different but the technique will be the same.

 

 

[Darkfrog]

29 minutes ago, Adam C said:

This would do the job.

Neat - just added it to my Golfworks list. Thanks again for the tips!

[boogielicious]

15 hours ago, Adam C said:

This would do the job. Like I said, get a machine screw and couple washers and you can do hosel adapters also.

Value Shaft Extractor

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THE GOLFWORKS - VALUE SHAFT EXTRACTOR, VALUE SHAFT EXTRACTOR, Golf Heads, Golf Reheading, Head Extractor, Golf Epoxy, Heading Epoxy, Golf Head Epoxy, Maltby Heads, Maltbie Heads, Ralph...

Also if you need a quick video on how to do it, here you go. The shaft puller is different but the technique will be the same.

 

 

That is the one I have. Pretty easy to work with. I use a heat gun for all my extractions.