Pulling Graphite Shafts (Or, did I ruin this shaft?)

[edingc 8,335]

I recently purchased a set of Maltby PTMs on eBay that came with Recoil 660 graphite shafts. I am planning to put C-Taper Lites in these instead, so I need to remove the shafts.

I brought the clubs to my local shop to have the lies adjusted, and was going to have them pull the shafts also, but for the price ($12/shaft), I figured I'd buy a puller and give it a go myself. (Any excuse to buy more tools! ). I know I can just pull the shafts without a puller if I trash them, but these are nice shafts.

Tested myself with the 7 iron tonight. Removed the ferrule, mounted the puller in my vise and applied heat to the hosel for about 20 seconds with a butane pencil torch. 

Everything worked great with the puller and the 20 seconds of heat was enough to break the epoxy loose. But after I pulled and cleaned the head, I noticed that a small part of the shaft tip appears to be "smushed."

For those more experienced clubmakers out there, I assume this shaft is ruined?

If so, is this the result of too much heat?

I removed the old epoxy from the tip and it still fits to the bottom of the hosel bore just fine.

I still got a good deal on the whole set, so if I trashed one shaft, oh well. Learning experience, I suppose.

[FiveGs 75]

20 seconds is not too much heat. I have a feeling that these were pulled incorrectly from another set of irons before being installed in the ones you purchased.


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[edingc 8,335]

10 hours ago, FiveGs said:

20 seconds is not too much heat. I have a feeling that these were pulled incorrectly from another set of irons before being installed in the ones you purchased.


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The build quality on the set was not great, ferrules not installed properly, tool marks on ferrules, etc., so that may be the case. Thanks. We'll see how the other six look when they come out.

[10shot 107]

No issue,  glue in a lead stem from a swing weight, rock on (just for support)

. Graphite, heat gun works best IMO

[edingc 8,335]

56 minutes ago, 10shot said:

No issue,  glue in a lead stem from a swing weight, rock on (just for support)

. Graphite, heat gun works best IMO

Thanks! The graphite didn't de-laminate so I thought it might be OK.

I've been reading a bunch of torch vs. heat gun debates around different forums and understand there are people on both sides of that argument. I have both at my disposal, I just preferred the precision of the micro torch. I'll have to try both ways.

[McGolf 289]

20 seconds may have not been enough. It appears there might be some of the shaft still in the hosel.

I would recommend 15- 20 sec on three different sides. then pull it. and I'm on team butane and micro torch.

[FiveGs 75]

20 seconds may have not been enough. It appears there might be some of the shaft still in the hosel.
I would recommend 15- 20 sec on three different sides. then pull it. and I'm on team butane and micro torch.

I totally agree. You want to apply a good amount of heat in a small amount of time to avoid transferring heat to the components around the hosel, like the shaft etc..


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[edingc 8,335]

Thanks, everyone. I pulled the rest of the shafts this weekend and about half of them had the same result. I do think these may have been pulled improperly at one point in their lifetime.

@McGolf On the rest of them, a few 15-20 second bursts spread around the hosel worked like a charm. Thanks!

[edteergolf 312]

They weren't pulled improperly.  They were either over-prepped at installation or have been installed into multiple sets with too much prep after each pull.