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Done with club builders (nothing against them) - need your help though


Mjr. D

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In my experience there are some excellent club builders out there and some not so good (like most things in life). I can live with that but I am getting tired of having to ship my clubs cross country, pay $70 for shipping and another $50 or so for insurance, then wait 2-3 weeks to get them back. Therefore I decided it makes sense to learn how to build clubs myself. My question to you is, what does someone who wants to start building clubs need?

I already have a vice, and all the grip removal stuff, I have a shaft cutter machine and a good heat blower thingy but I don't have a proper club measurer tool, a swing weight tool, lie angle machine and what I'm most concerned about is spining or "puring" the shaft. I know a lot of people don't believe in it but I don't like leaving things up to chance so other than buying a $15,000 "pure" machine how does one test which way to install a shaft? And anything else I need please let me know!

Very much appreciated!

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Do you have a 3rd car garage or somewhere to put your stuff?

BUT in the end you gotta like to do this sort of thing, Even though I'm very capable of doing the work myself I find Irons are such a pain in the ass I rather pay someone to do it for me.

I've got a mitchell lie/loft bender, putter lie/loft bender for cheap if you wanna swing by vegas and pick it up.

There are a lot of other little parts you need as well.

Don't buy all the stuff then find out you don't want to spend the time to build clubs. Figure that out first and best way is to build 14 clubs in 1-2 days to full specs loft/lie/length/swing weight/grip size/... The appeal may wear off after that when you imagine how often you change clubs and you will have to do this.

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No I really enjoy it! I'm a tinkerer at heart so it's right up my alley. I also like knowing exactly what I'm getting rather than relying on someone else (perfectionist) so this is right up my alley.

What I don't like is buying $1200 clubs, paying another $400 to have them built and then waiting a month to use them.

Send me a PM on a price if you don't mind!

Anyone else care to chime in... my main concern is shaft "tuning" "pureing", spining".

Thanks!

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You'll enjo having loft/lie machines. I'm always checking and adjusting and it's helped me find what works best for me. I can't answer much on aligning shafts as I've given up worrying about it since most high end graphite companies already do that with their shafts.

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I'm slowly accumulating enough to do my own. I still need the loft/lie machine and swing weight scale (biggest investments). My builder is so good, though, and reasonably priced. .

Spine aligning shafts (not pureing) is pretty easy. You're sure to find a YouTube video on it.

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Nice! Ya for a sicko like myself this could end up being a nice hobby!

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Craigs Affordable Tools sells a very nice red Spine Finder tool on ebay for $44.99.

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And you will need a graphite shaft puller from like Golf Works if you are going to work on drivers and irons with graphite shafts.

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Yes, you'll need a good shaft puller for the graphite, but iron shafts are easy. All you need is a torch, some rags to protect the head, and maybe some gloves as you heat up the neck for about 15-20 sec, then anchor the head in the rags on the floor as you step on it firmly, grab the grip firmly and start turning/twisting the shaft -- it should come off fairly easily.

I'm in limbo with this building prospect, where sometimes I want to build some things myself so I can control the timeframe, but for the complicated stuff, I'd rather just let an expert do it.

That being said, I bought a cheap swing weight scale (Golfsmith one), which gives me a good idea, but if you want it totally dialed in, get the one professional builders use that has multiple weight sliders and good leveling features to really get precise. The one thing I absolutely love and glad I bought was the GolfWerks club ruler, as it gives you measurements w/ an adjustable foot that compensates for the clubs lie angle as it would be on the floor, and there is no guessing on length. Some people measure to different places on the hosel when using a straight ruler, but this one has a nice channel for the shaft to sit in, can accommodate large putter grips w/ part of that channel dropping down, and does a great job giving accurate measurements for length.

Good luck!

Edited by needmoregolf
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I am a perfectionist as well, and thought similarly to you. The only reason I don't go down this road is lack of time, and an excellent builder who is reasonably priced and has a store that is a 15 minute drive from my house. He has joked about getting me a key to his store and teaching me how to do it myself.

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My little workshop.

learnt from a good friend & still learning more stuff. How I got started.

Bench vice

Air compressor

Shaft rubber vice

Syringe

Grip solvent (removal) or cut

Painters maskin tape 50mm wide

Hairspray

Your now good for regripping. As long as your grip is dry, hairspray is all you need. Grip comes off easy too with just air :)

Reshafting.. more shopping

Epoxy

Heat gun/ torch

Graphite shaft puller

Ferrules

Acetone to turn ferrules

tip weights

Shaft cutter

Loft & lie is great to have. Must be bolted to ground.

Swingweight scale

quick release shaft vice

Basic spine finder

Drill1 - with honing bits attached cleaning hosel

Drill2 - with drill bit to clear epoxy on shaft tip

Gloves-heat resistant

Sandpaper

Fine steel wool great for clean up even glue stuff on shaft removal.

Babywipes - removing excess glue when gluing head.

Its fun if you're a tinkerer. Also you cant blame anyone else for your equipment :)

post-13849-0-40420100-1428562862_thumb.p

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Thanks Ash :)

Milo cans, handy as holsters for heatgun & drill lol..

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  • 1 month later...

Instead of spine aligning, you want FLO - flat line oscillation. Look it up on YouTube. You basically need a stable vice and drill chuck (weight). Pretty simple. Unfortunately for me I don't have a stable work bench with a stable vice yet that doesn't wobble. Hopefully I get this fixed soon.

I get all my stuff from golfworks. Epoxy and other golf specific parts - weights, ferrules, swing weight balance, club ruler. They have like a club builder starter package. Get a bunch of different size ferrules. I bought only 355 size but now getting into woods and need 335 and 350.

Heat gun and air compressor from harbor freight or HD. Look out for coupons. Heat gun for graphite and steel shaft removal. You can also get a propane torch for steel shaft removal (much faster). A good pipe cutter to cut steel shafts. Simple saw and mitre box for cutting graphite or you could get a chop saw. You need a hook blade for grip removal. Sand paper for tip prepping. You can get fancy and get the fancy belt sander.

I just use a dremel with the sander attachment. Blue painter tape and black marker.

Have a power drill and get the wire brush hosel cleaner (from gold works or eBay). Get a few of them. You should clean out the hosels right after u pull the heads while the epoxy is hot and soft.

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