Help, I cut down my wedge and now anything beyond 60yds is a disaster

[Hacker James]

7 minutes ago, Bomber09 said:

Im not too sure about the head or shaft weight. Mainly because i have a club mizuno doesnt carry any more (mp-t4) and the shaft because i cut it...

postal scale?

[Bomber09]

Im using a small scale, not postal, but it reads grams and oz. Wouldnt i have to take the club apart. If so i dont have anything that can do that.

[Hacker James]

1 minute ago, Bomber09 said:

Im using a small scale, not postal, but it reads grams and oz. Wouldnt i have to take the club apart. If so i dont have anything that can do that.

torch, but not sure if its worth all the effort. Surely you can get specs from Mizuno Techs. Just fool around with the lead tape, a little at a time, You should be able to get close enough. Also you can buy an inexpensive Swing Weight Scale at Golf Smith I believe, or even a used one on ebay.

[Bomber09]

Yeah hopefully everything works out. If not I will gladly get new shafts, thats what i really wanted anyway.

[Hacker James]

Just now, Bomber09 said:

Yeah hopefully everything works out. If not I will gladly get new shafts, thats what i really wanted anyway.

ha ha....or in the link I provided....they do sell components and you can build your own custom clubs. Swing weight scale, loft and lie vice, tape, epoxy, cut-off wheel, propane torch, grip tape, tip weights.  Good little cottage industry.

[Bomber09]

Lol i noticed that. I thought you were trying to politely hint that i needed to start over. Which i probably do.

[chilepepper]

Well.....on the flip side you didn't make a huge mistake. 2" off a wedge or even a driver is kind of radical. 

[WUTiger]

4 hours ago, Bomber09 said:

Anyone ever tried pour sand in the shaft to achieve the weight and then shoving an earplug in the shaft to pack it in.

Sand doesn't weigh as much as Powdered Lead; you pour the lead down the shaft; then you take a Shaft Cork and shove the cork it into place with a RamRod. GolfWorks will sell you all this stuff.

You might also consider tip-weighting; probably more exacting for weight, and you don't have to inhale powdered lead.

[1badbadger]

12 hours ago, WUTiger said:

Sand doesn't weigh as much as Powdered Lead; you pour the lead down the shaft; then you take a Shaft Cork and shove the cork it into place with a RamRod. GolfWorks will sell you all this stuff.

You might also consider tip-weighting; probably more exacting for weight, and you don't have to inhale powdered lead.

I agree with Tiger...don't use sand.  If you decide to try increasing the swingweight inside the shaft, powdered lead or powdered tungsten works best.  Tungsten is heavier so you won't have to use as much, but it's also quite a bit more expensive.  Tiger outlined the correct process to use it, but IMO this isn't the best way to increase swingweight.  Will the swingweight scale show it's heavier?  Yes.  But if you used enough lead powder to increase the weight by 15 points, it would be concentrated in the hosel:

I am a huge fan of lead tape, and think it's an awesome way to tweak the feel of your clubs, but again, to get 15 points will require a lot of lead tape.  You might have to do part of it with lead tape and some of it with lead powder.  Tip weights will require pulling the shaft.  If you're going to go to the trouble of removing the shaft, then I would suggest just re-shafting rather than installing tip weights with the original shaft.

One thing that I have learned over the years that I cannot explain is that choking down on a club 2" for example and cutting a club down 2" will not produce the same results. In theory it seems pretty straight forward, but it's not the same.  If the overhang was getting in the way or catching on your clothing or whatever, I would suggest gripping down a little less in those instances.  

Another issue to be aware of is when you alter the length of a club, it affects the lie angle too.  For every inch the club is shortened it will make the club play about 1* flatter.  The club will still measure the same, but it will play flatter.  Taking off 2.25" off the butt will make your wedge play 2.25* flatter, so keep that in mind.

[Bomber09]

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Great insight on hosel vs head weighting. I fully intend on reshafting it now along with my other wedges so they all match. I weighed my sand wedge and it came out to c5/6 and im thinkin about making that c8 while also matchin the 58 which is currently b7/8. For some reason these shorter shafts feel easily heavier with lighter sw. I might not be that far off after all.

[Bomber09]

I guess the thing i noticed with regripping all my irons, wedges and driver, moving from standard to midsize dropped the swing weight by at least 1-1.5 points. Some say only a few pros would notice that drop but that is not true. The fact is if you've gotten accustomed to swinging at a certain weight (ie: D2 "most common") and you put a different grip or change irons or anything for that matter, then your results are going to change. With that being said i did think my jpx 850 forged were a little cumbersome but not anymore. I believe what ive learned from this is that once you get use to something and you learn how to use it then you must stick with it if it starts to work. Change is not always good. When my tape gets here I'll let everyone know the results on whether C8 with a shortened shaft and bigger grip is equivalent in a stock, full length, standard grip D3 in feel. 

If i could do it all over again i would shaft balance what ever i was working on and measure the distance from the balance point to both ends for a "scale" basis, then cut the shaft and regrip/finish the club then use the original "scale" balance & measurements, to quickly bring the finished product to scale. That would only work with a shaft where you cutt to size from both ends (I believe its called a parallel shaft (kbs)).

[Gator Hazard]

Well that'll learn ya. What do you do? Buy a new wedge and keep the saw away from it. 

[Hacker James]

32 minutes ago, Gator Hazard said:

Well that'll learn ya. What do you do? Buy a new wedge and keep the saw away from it. 

Pink Floyd....."Teacha....leave those clubs alone".

[Hatchman]

That's why I have so many shafts in my garage...I've got shaftitis!

[David in FL]

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this."

"Don't do that..."

[WUTiger]

10 hours ago, 1badbadger said:

One thing that I have learned over the years that I cannot explain is that choking down on a club 2" for example and cutting a club down 2" will not produce the same results

I would suggest that choking down 2" would provide a slight bit of counterbalancing, maintaining overall club balance better than supercuts.

Also, extreme tip-weighing will change the dynamics of the club from what the designers intended. A veteran clubsmith can give you details why.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 1/27/2017 at 2:21 PM, RandallT said:

I'm not a tinkerer, so I get a kick out of that line.

I've read that changing the length of a shaft will impact the flex of the shaft:

So what you are experiencing makes sense to me. But you also gripped down on the club, so that would kind effectively change the length of the lever arm-- it wasn't obvious to me that would totally change the characteristics of the club, but it seems to have.

Good luck! Calling @Hacker James who seems to love to tinker with his clubs.

 

I read this far in the thread and decided to respond, so I don't know what's in the other replies.

Cutting off a shaft might result in the shaft feeling a little stiffer, but in a short iron I don't think all that much. What it will change is the swingweight.

I've shortened a couple of "cantelope on a broomstick" Drivers over the years, and I always follow this procedure. I take my Driver to the golf store and ask if they have a swingweight scale."Yes."

"May I use it?" "Yes." "Where is it?" "Right over there." "Thank you."

So, I got the swingweight of the Driver before I cut it, and then I measured it again after I cut the shaft and regripped it to know how much weight to add to the head. Works the same with all clubs depending on how much shaft you are cutting off.

[Bomber09]

What ive learned about swing weights is that they arent as true as posted. Putting  14" pivot point for weight reference has no real clout in an actual golfers hands. The pivot point should be somewhere closer to the grip. Explain this. How does a d2 sand wedge cut down 1" feel the same when regripped with a heavier grip, and shorter shaft and only weigh C2.5? I'm starting to believe that there are without a doubt differences in what clubs weight vs how they actually feel. I have a 6i thats D1/2 and it feels great but the 7i weighs the same and it feels lighter and is mildly harder to control. Same with the 5i. It weighs D1/2 and feels light.