Wooden woods and drivers - Shaft removal

[JPW062]

HOw do I do this?  I can't heat the hozzle without burning it.  I tried heating the steel shafts direct;y, but I haven't been able to get the epoxy hot enough without making the shaft melt.  The first club I tried this with was a ping Eye II wood and it came off super easy.  Have tried about 5 others now and all but a wood putter failed spectacularly. Fire, bending metal, then shafts breaking. I tried a spring loaded club puller and it was useless.  I have a rubber thing to put in my vise and hold the club firmly by the shaft.  What am i missing here?

[jaskanski]

Pins?

Not all woods are the same. Some have the shaft pinned near the heel (Macgregors for example) so these have to be located and either drilled out or punched through if they can't be unscrewed. They're usually concealed with wood filler so if you don't know where to look you could be in for a long search. If you have epoxy remove the whipping if fitted and heat the steel of the shaft until enough heat transfer can break the bond - never heat the head! Older woods probably won't have epoxy anyway, so once the whipping and pins/screws are removed the head should be able to be twisted off to remove it with the shaft clamped in a vice.

If all else fails then you can either cut the shaft flush with the hosel and drill it out or if you have a bore through it could be drilled both directions right out from the sole and hosel. Sometimes, some components need to be sacrificed in favour of others - with woods, the shafts loses every time.

[JPW062]

I am using these for woodworking projects.  Definitely not worth it to be drilling things out.  I have a EVS drill press that can easily hadle it, but drilling out steel shafts is going to take some time clamping the irregularly shaped heads and then wear and tear on tools.  I guess this project is going to be abandoned and the clubs are headed to the trash.

THe first driver I tried was a Ping and it came off easy heating the shaft.  Several other Pings were trouble.  The only other one to come off easily was a solid wood putter.

[JPW062]

I could grind down the bottle opener to fit in the shaft more easily than drilling out the shaft.

[McGolf]

for removing a steel shaft a rod the length of the shaft was used. The tip of the rod was heated to a nice cherry red and laid inside the inside the hosel.

About three trips down the shaft and viola it comes out. That is as Jaskanski described, a pin in the back of the head

[RI_Redneck]

Golfworks has a 48" drill bit for drilling out pins on blind bore wooden woods if you're worried about saving the shaft. It's important to drill out the pin and epoxy prior to heating with the long rod. It allows the rod to get all the way to the bottom of the bore. However, if just replacing an old shaft, you can just cut it off a few inches above the hosel and use standard length bits. Also, if the head is a bore thru, then one can drill from the sole opening with normal length bits.

BT

[Big Baffy]

 

On 9/27/2020 at 8:51 PM, JPW062 said:

HOw do I do this?  I can't heat the hozzle without burning it.  I tried heating the steel shafts direct;y, but I haven't been able to get the epoxy hot enough without making the shaft melt.  The first club I tried this with was a ping Eye II wood and it came off super easy.  Have tried about 5 others now and all but a wood putter failed spectacularly. Fire, bending metal, then shafts breaking. I tried a spring loaded club puller and it was useless.  I have a rubber thing to put in my vise and hold the club firmly by the shaft.  What am i missing here?

JPW062, I have an old copy of the Maltby guide. I remember it saying to heat up a long drill bit (or any iron rod that'll fit inside the shaft) with a propane torch and place it inside the shaft as far as it will go. This, of course, requires you to chop the old shaft down close to the head, so if you're looking to keep the old shaft you'll have to try something else. It also allows you to work the head off the old shaft without burning anything.
Hope this helps.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Big Baffy