Installing New Shafts

[brockcdavison]

Hey Guys,

Bout ready to swap in a new set of shafts on my TM M4's and was going to install them myself however had a couple of questions hopefully some of you can help answer before I get to work.. Shafts I'd be installing are the Nippon N.S. Prod Modus 3 Tour 120 .370 Tip Iron Shafts.

1. Want to shorten the length of both my 4 and 5 iron's to what currently is the stand length on my 8 however is it better to buy the longer 4&5 iron shaft and trim it or can I simply put an 8 iron shaft on my 4 and 5?

2. When installing the new shafts, is there anything I need to make sure of when installing them in terms of the spine and alignment of the shaft?  PUREing each individual iron gets quite pricey but I may bite the bullet unless I can avoid it.. 

Any suggestions and/or tips would be appreciated.

Thanks

[jaskanski]

First off - check your tip size on your iron heads - if they're already fitted with anything other than KBS Max or graphite then they may not be .370" parallel....

Cutting down a shaft from 4-iron to 8-iron length (2" shorter?) is asking for trouble. Better to stick with the correct length shaft - the Nippon parallel tips are not standard length "blanks" which can be cut to length as you would with something like a Rifle shaft - instead they are all discrete to each club head as if they were taper tips, even though they are parallel - hence only the 8-iron shaft is designed for the 8-iron (or hard or soft-stepped either way) and the 4/5-iron shaft would also be specific to each head. Most of the mojo in the Modus 3 is the tip section which means tip trimming is out of the question. Cutting a chunk off the butt and you have big problems with swing weight - adding weight to the head to offset the reduction in swing weight will affect the flex...

You could use the 8-iron shaft in the 4-iron but how will that fit in with the rest of the set? Like the 6/7-irons?? 

So if you're intending to get your long iron lengths down then you really need to work out in advance the overall build in terms of swing weight, flex and lie. It's not completely unachievable, but it's not really a task for the novice. I would recommend against it unless you're pretty competent. Radial quality of Nippon shafts is normally 99.5% plus - making spining a waste of time and money.

Basically you would need a bit more of an explanation of exactly what you are trying to achieve? 

[brockcdavison]

Appreciate the detail and thought put into your response.. Bottom line is that I just need to educate myself more on shafts.. 

Right now I choke down on my 4 and 5 pretty much every single shot.  A buddy of mine just got fitted for his irons, which I would normally just do but given the current climate we are in, its just not possible.  Any who, I loved the short length he had on his longer clubs.  Felt I had way more control of my shot like I do on my 7-9.  I wouldn't make my 4 & 5 any shorter than my 6 as I would keep them at length or longer than any other iron in my bag.  Really just want 1/2-1 inch knocked off. 

I also have read a lot on these particular Nippon shafts and the feedback appears to be tremendous in turns of feel, control, and accuracy.  Right now it's just the stock KBS max 85 R which just like anything stock, don't really offer that much up.  

Could also just say screw and buy a new set of irons but I love my M4's and have kept them in great condition so don't feel the need to part ways yet.

Brock

[bens197]

Your questions are leading me to believe that you’re in over your head.

I’m all for people learning to craft and tinker with their own gear but you’re tossing in a lot of variables for your first build.

[dlow206]

If you really want to do this experiment, buy one shaft, cut it to whatever length you want to get to, and try it in one of the clubs. Keep the old shaft. If the experiment works, then buy the other shafts. If the experiment fails, put the old shaft back in and your dollars lost is the one shaft plus some clubmaking equipment which should be minimal.