Bored-out Hosels

[painter33]

So, I bought a used set of Ping i500 irons and about the third time out the 5 iron head flew off as I hit the ball (not the ground). No problem, I thought, easy fix. Then I got home and was about to mix the epoxy when dry-fitting the ferrule, I was shocked to find that the inside diameter of the hosel was a whopping .400, obviously much larger than the .355 shaft tip. There was very little epoxy left in there so a whole chunk of it must have flown out as well. 
 

I contacted Ping to ask if they could repair (add) the hosel to properly fit the shaft but they said they can’t do that. I contacted the people from whom I bought the irons on eBay thinking they might be able to ask the previous owner if he also butchered the rest of the set. They were nice, but alas, unhelpful. 

I don’t really want to remove the heads to measure the rest of the set at this point but eventually probably will as now I have a useful set of shafts but untrustworthy 4-W heads. 
 

My question is what kind of idiot has hosels bored out to lower swingweight(?) because I can’t think of any good reason to do this. The shafts, or at least one of them, is a standard tapered .355, so it’s not as if someone wanted to put in their favorite .370 shaft. Why not trade in the clubs for those with a lower SW? As they are, because of the Recoil shafts (yuck), I’ve added lead tape to get some head feel. They left the Ping factory at D2, not *that* heavy. What was he thinking!? 
 

I’m likely going to eat the cost of the irons, salvage the shafts, and find another set to play. My other option is to replace the 5 iron head (no shaft) via Ping and wait for other heads to come loose to see if they too have been murdered...

[cnosil]

3 hours ago, painter33 said:

So, I bought a used set of Ping i500 irons and about the third time out the 5 iron head flew off as I hit the ball (not the ground). No problem, I thought, easy fix. Then I got home and was about to mix the epoxy when dry-fitting the ferrule, I was shocked to find that the inside diameter of the hosel was a whopping .400, obviously much larger than the .355 shaft tip. There was very little epoxy left in there so a whole chunk of it must have flown out as well. 
 

I contacted Ping to ask if they could repair (add) the hosel to properly fit the shaft but they said they can’t do that. I contacted the people from whom I bought the irons on eBay thinking they might be able to ask the previous owner if he also butchered the rest of the set. They were nice, but alas, unhelpful. 

I don’t really want to remove the heads to measure the rest of the set at this point but eventually probably will as now I have a useful set of shafts but untrustworthy 4-W heads. 
 

My question is what kind of idiot has hosels bored out to lower swingweight(?) because I can’t think of any good reason to do this. The shafts, or at least one of them, is a standard tapered .355, so it’s not as if someone wanted to put in their favorite .370 shaft. Why not trade in the clubs for those with a lower SW? As they are, because of the Recoil shafts (yuck), I’ve added lead tape to get some head feel. They left the Ping factory at D2, not *that* heavy. What was he thinking!? 
 

I’m likely going to eat the cost of the irons, salvage the shafts, and find another set to play. My other option is to replace the 5 iron head (no shaft) via Ping and wait for other heads to come loose to see if they too have been murdered...

That sucks.   My guess wouldn't be to lower swing weight but to put .370 shafts and they screwed up and just glued the shafts back into the clubs and dumped them.   The only option I can think of would be a shim,  but that may not hold up long term.  

[HDTVMAN]

eBay? These could be counterfeit. Sometimes only the manufacturer can tell the difference.

[SkinsNiblick]

Might want to visit a small machine shop and see if the they can turn sleeves that would work as shims. Not ideal, but if properly executed, the integrity of the club should be maintained. 
 

Just a thought. 

[IONEPUTT]

A friend of mine had me re-shaft a Ping hybrid of his and when I pulled the head it too had hosel diameter of around .400". I have NO idea why or how, but that was what I had to deal with. Lucky for me, there are brass shims made just for this kind of problem, used mostly to fit either .355" shafts into .370" heads or .335" wood shafts into .350" heads. In this case I used TWO of the brass shims to install a new shaft in the over size hosel and it worked out fine. Customer was happy and the club is still performing just fine. You might want to contact Golf Galaxy or a good club maker and have the brass shims installed. Should solve the problem just fine. Done correctly it works very well. 

[Blue Steel]

I've had good luck using glass beads in situations like this. You add them to the epoxy to make it thicker which will take up the extra space between the hosel and shaft.  Once the epoxy has dried the glass beads won't move because they form a matrix within the epoxy.  Without the glass beads the epoxy will crack and fail if it's too thick as you found out.  You can buy the glass beads at any shop that sells shafting supplies.  I think I got mine at GolfWorks.  Boat supply places that sell fiberglass supplies also sell glass beads.  They may be a different size bead so maybe look into that part.  When installing fasteners and such on a fiberglass boat those glass beads are a game changer.  It could possibly save you a lot of trouble with some of the other options mentioned.  I'd say it's worth a try.

[Dave Tutelman]

DIAGNOSIS: I don't think it was anything as sensible nor functional as a swingweight adjustment. Much more likely to be one of the other suggestions so far:

• Counterfeit.
• Botched repair or modification, so they just glued it back together quick and dirty.

PRESCRIPTION:

• The best I've seen among the suggestions so far is a properly fit shim.
• If you can't find one, let me critique the glass shafting beads. They might be part of a solution -- or not. They were intended to fit much smaller gaps than the .022" that you have near the tip of the shaft. (Probably more like .002"-.005".) They are not intended to be a thickener for the epoxy, but rather to fill the space between shaft and hosel when there is a loose fit. NOT a total misfit, which is what we have here. They may work as a thickener, and that may be adequate for this job, but I'd try a real thickener first. Which brings me to...
• Thickeners for resin glues like epoxy exist. They tend to be chopped (very short) fibers of something like fiberglass. I have used this for thickening the epoxy for clubs and tools. It is not at all expensive.
• Probably even better mechanically -- but considerably harder to execute -- is a fiberglass fabric shim. I can't give you a detailed step-by-step for this; I've never done it as a shaft shim. But I've used the principle for things that do get stress and vibration. If you can assemble it, I'm sure it will work well. It requires cutting a filler that fits the gap between hosel and shaft. Then you impregnate the woven glass fabric with epoxy and assemble the whole thing so that the glass fills most of the space and the whole thing is held together by the epoxy.

Hope this helps you.

[cycleguy55]

On 4/24/2021 at 1:21 PM, Dave Tutelman said:

DIAGNOSIS: I don't think it was anything as sensible nor functional as a swingweight adjustment. Much more likely to be one of the other suggestions so far:

• Counterfeit.
• Botched repair or modification, so they just glued it back together quick and dirty.

PRESCRIPTION:

• The best I've seen among the suggestions so far is a properly fit shim.
• If you can't find one, let me critique the glass shafting beads. They might be part of a solution -- or not. They were intended to fit much smaller gaps than the .022" that you have near the tip of the shaft. (Probably more like .002"-.005".) They are not intended to be a thickener for the epoxy, but rather to fill the space between shaft and hosel when there is a loose fit. NOT a total misfit, which is what we have here. They may work as a thickener, and that may be adequate for this job, but I'd try a real thickener first. Which brings me to...
• Thickeners for resin glues like epoxy exist. They tend to be chopped (very short) fibers of something like fiberglass. I have used this for thickening the epoxy for clubs and tools. It is not at all expensive.
• Probably even better mechanically -- but considerably harder to execute -- is a fiberglass fabric shim. I can't give you a detailed step-by-step for this; I've never done it as a shaft shim. But I've used the principle for things that do get stress and vibration. If you can assemble it, I'm sure it will work well. It requires cutting a filler that fits the gap between hosel and shaft. Then you impregnate the woven glass fabric with epoxy and assemble the whole thing so that the glass fills most of the space and the whole thing is held together by the epoxy.

Hope this helps you.

When you wrote "fiberglass fabric shim" were you thinking of something like fiberglass fabric for repairing things like boats, something like fiberglass window screen (lots of room for epoxy), or something completely different? I can certainly see how a small piece of fiberglass window screen might do the trick. I haven't pulled out my digital calipers to measure the thickness of such screen, but it needs to fill 0.045"  (0.400" - 0.355"). Given the shaft is a 0.355", therefore a tapered tip, perhaps a couple of wraps would be necessary at the tip and a single wrap halfway up the hosel.

Might be easier to switch to a 0.370" shaft if the 0.400" is a straight bore and use a full depth single wrap.

Doesn't sound like fun to fix properly.

Edit: Based upon what I can see online, it appears fiberglass screen is about 0.25mm thick, or about 0.01" - so two full wraps would provide 0.04", while a single wrap would be 0.02".

Edited April 25, 2021 by cycleguy55
Added info about thickness of fiberglass screen.

[bens197]

Check the serial number on the hosel. ALL PING clubs have a unique serial number that will tell the story of their life. Date of mfg, original build and date and specs among other things. 
 

Be sure that they all match, this is the easiest way to see if they’re authentic. 
 

Sorry for your luck. 

[Dave Tutelman]

On 4/25/2021 at 4:57 PM, cycleguy55 said:

When you wrote "fiberglass fabric shim" were you thinking of something like fiberglass fabric for repairing things like boats, something like fiberglass window screen (lots of room for epoxy), or something completely different? I can certainly see how a small piece of fiberglass window screen might do the trick. I haven't pulled out my digital calipers to measure the thickness...

Doesn't sound like fun to fix properly.

Either one might be helpful, depending on the gap you need to fill. If you find a window screen of the proper thickness, it might make a good shim and, at the same time, serve as a coarse "trap" for the epoxy resin. But you may have to look hard to find the right thickness. Most will probably be too thick for this. The fabric that makes FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastic) will give a better, stronger adhesive layer because it will trap the epoxy resin in more intimate contact. But it deforms easily; you will need patience and skill to get it wrapped so it will work. Also, because it deforms so easily, it does not make a good shim; you will need some other way to keep the axes aligned while it sets up.

No, not fun to fix properly. A proper-size shim is the best way, if you can find one.

[Lane Holt]

It has absolutely nothing to do with any of the above. Ping and PXG hosels are sloppily bored . Some are .380 . My fitter has dry inserted a .380 tip in them many times to illustrate this. 
    My fitter refuses to work on PXG irons.