Setting the record straight on tipping

[jaskanski]

There always seems to be some confusion on how tipping a shaft affects the overall playing characteristics and indeed some popular misconceptions, so in an effort to explain the practice of tipping, I shall attempt to enlighten some of our readers....

In order to understand how tipping works, you must first understand how a shaft works as a whole. To explain in simple terms, it would be easier to use the example of a single club...

 

Most standard shaft lengths for woods for example (untrimmed or raw length) is 46". When inserted into a clubhead, the total length (playing length) increases because of the dimensions of the actual clubhead itself. 

 

Now if we look at a shaft , it is thin at the tip and tapers to the thicker butt section . The butt section, being the thickest part for installing the grip is the stiffest section of the shaft. Sometimes a shaft is mistakenly referred to as "butt flexible" or "high bend point" (commonly for low launch shafts) making people think this portion of the shaft has some latent flexibility - but I can assure you this is the strongest and stiffest part of any shaft.

Lets assume for the sake of argument that you want a club to play at 45". Lets also assume for the sake of argument that the clubhead accounts for 3" of the total length because of it's physical dimensions. If we insert the shaft untipped into the clubhead, the total length will be 46"+3"=49". To cut it down to the required 45" playing length, 4" is cut from the butt end. 
The trouble is, since the butt is the stiffest part, you have taken away a large portion of the overall stiffness of the shaft (remember - the butt is the stiffest section of the overall shaft)
Now lets say we tip the shaft first before inserting into the clubhead and trimming the butt to the desired length. 
We trim the tip 1.5" - now the shaft is 46" -1.5" = 44.5". Insert it into the head, it becomes 44.5" + 3" of clubhead = 47.5". In order get the desired playing length, we must trim the butt 2.5". 
The overall shaft playing length is now stiffer - not because of what happened to the tip, but because more of the butt (remember the stiffest part) remains in the total playing length.

 

There are no standards as such when it comes to length - people play with what feels comfortable and what finds the centre of the bat.
However, by modern designs , something between 44-46" seems to be the norm these days for a driver. Each driver head from each manufacturer may be somewhat different in terms of size and weight an the way the shaft attaches to the club - the bore can be shallow, or deep or indeed completely through the head. How much shaft needs to be inserted into the head will be variable and this needs to be taken into account when building a club. 

 

For any club build, in order to get some sort of reference point to start from, the bore depth is often used in relation to the BBGM - or "bottom of bore to ground measurement".  This is the distance from the end of the tip of the shaft, extended through and imaginary line until it meets the ground when the club is soled at address. Obviously a shallow bore head (or adapter) will have a greater BBGM than a deeper bore head, simply because it is further away from the ground. This will have an effect on how the overall shaft and club build plays based on that previously explained on building a club to a particular length.

For shafts, it's important to remember that you can't "add" stiffness to a shaft by taking elements of it away. You can make the overall shaft profile stiffer by tipping it, but it won't make the actual tip section any stronger or more stable. The overall relative stiffness of the shaft is already dictated by it's construction. The only way to make a shaft theoretically stiffer in any section is to add more plys of material to it - impossible.

 

Other misnomers for tipping shafts:

Firstly, pick a shaft in the right weight and flex category to start with - you can't tip a regular and turn it into a stiff for example. You can only make the shaft you have relatively stiffer or weaker. Some shafts are not designed to be tipped at all, because they don't possess enough PTS (parallel tip section) to use in the head and still be capable of tipping. Usually, a shaft must have at least 3" of parallel tip section to be capable of being tipped.

Secondly, tipping won't alter the shaft bend profile - it won't make a mid launch shaft into a low launch shaft for example. 

 

The shaft is basically a "dumb" component in that it only relates to flex when you manipulate it. You, by carefully trimming each section of the shaft, dictates what portion of the overall shaft you want to retain given your desired playing length combined with the head weight. If you want it as stiff as possible, keep as much butt length as possible. To keep it as flexible as possible, trim only the butt end. Ultimately, each club will have it's own unique qualities that go together to make the club the flex the way it does, but it is usually up to the experience of the club builder to make this meet the players specification. 

That's about it for now I guess.

Once you get the hang of it, it becomes simpler to understand. 

 

[PlaidJacket]

As far as I'm concerned that's the best explanation of shaft tipping - trimming, etc. I've ever read. I'm not a shaft guy but today I learned something.

Nice job jaskanski

[BIG STU]

Great Post--- I will add a couple of things if you do not mind and most of them are old school redneck engineering ways

 

A lot of times the tip stiffness is determined by the actual shaft wall thickness. Think the old purple UST 65 gold shafts. Those things were advertised as "Tip Stiff" to begin with because the walls were thicker. Also any shaft will be stiffer in the tip on a bore through club IE Callaway or early Titleist drivers. the latter also brings into play some certain weight things too which I know you are familuar with.

 

An old school trick is also to run more epoxy up the shaft than usual and it will make it a little stiffer. For some the weight difference will be noticeable. I for one can notice this because I can not stand a club that is "slugged in the hosel" (tip weighted) as us old timers put it. But like you stated nothing can make an adjustment in the overall bend profile as in mid bend or butt bend.

 

Yep like I said you nailed it and great post just wanted to add my .02 FWIW

[chershey]

Thanks for clarifying that. It makes the most sense of any explanation I've ever heard on shaft tipping. I think this topic has a lot of confusion in most forums.

[RookieBlue7]

Great Post--- I will add a couple of things if you do not mind and most of them are old school redneck engineering ways

 

A lot of times the tip stiffness is determined by the actual shaft wall thickness. Think the old purple UST 65 gold shafts. Those things were advertised as "Tip Stiff" to begin with because the walls were thicker. Also any shaft will be stiffer in the tip on a bore through club IE Callaway or early Titleist drivers. the latter also brings into play some certain weight things too which I know you are familuar with.

 

An old school trick is also to run more epoxy up the shaft than usual and it will make it a little stiffer. For some the weight difference will be noticeable. I for one can notice this because I can not stand a club that is "slugged in the hosel" (tip weighted) as us old timers put it. But like you stated nothing can make an adjustment in the overall bend profile as in mid bend or butt bend.

 

Yep like I said you nailed it and great post just wanted to add my .02 FWIW

Adding epoxy inside the tip of a graphite shaft is poor practice and is a good way to have a warranty voided. The epoxy creates an addition shear point. Thats why they have shaft plugs designed to prevent epoxy from creeping up the shaft tip. Dont do that, please. Its creating a timembomb and the question is when it will break, not if.