Cutting a driver shaft to put in a 24* fairway wood

[Staxxx]

Hi

I wondered if someone can help me please. I have a Ryoma F9 24* fairway wood. It has a Diamana Thump shaft in regular and plays even softer than that.

I currently use a BB Alpha with a Fubuki ZT60 stiff shaft in my driver. I am planning to replace that shaft with an Aldila Rogue Silver 60S. I would like to put the Fubuki into the F9 and come up with an SR flex on the fairway wood.

Can someone please advise me on what to do in terms of tip and butt trimming. Will the shaft fit the F9 hosel? I have no idea what length the finished club should be.

Thank you very much and appreciate a detailed answer to help this build.

[nobmontana]

Modern driver shafts typically have a 3" parallel section at the tip. 　i.e. driver shaft untipped will have .335" diameter for the first 3 inches at the tip and starts to flare out towards the butt end. Each shaft manufacturer have tipping guidelines for different clubs.

Here is the one for your ZT shaft:

Click on the installation tab of this page: http://www.mitsubishirayongolf.com/product.php?cmd=fubuki_zt〈=en

If you follow the instructions here you will end up with an S flex with your 9 wood.

So you should go with less tipping at maybe 0.75" to achieve SR flex....

Hope this helps.

[chiromikey]

Great post nob! ;)

[Staxxx]

Wonderful! Thank you :)

[mpbachman]

+1, great post. Cutting it down though will obviously reduce the weight and if he did tip a stiff driver shaft, should that make it actually play stiffer? So, what you are looking at is more of a lighter/stiffer shaft in the end though?

[nobmontana]

+1, great post. Cutting it down though will obviously reduce the weight and if he did tip a stiff driver shaft, should that make it actually play stiffer? So, what you are looking at is more of a lighter/stiffer shaft in the end though?

> So, what you are looking at is more of a lighter/stiffer shaft in the end though? :

If you look at just the shaft it self, correct.

Cutting the tip will make the shaft stiffer, yes but this is only meant to compensate for the added weight of the head on shorter woods.

I honestly don't know what a typical CPM is for an SR flex 9 wood .. but based on Mitsubishi's tipping guideline, a 9 wood needs 1" tipping which means that whatever stiffness ( R, S, X ) the shaft starts off for a driver, tipping 1" will provide approximately a "Stiff" range CPM for a 9 wood. If you want SR range stiffness or CPM, you can reduce the amount of tipping to lessen the stiffening effect of tipping.

One other thing to remember is that tipping also impacts the kick point of the shaft relative to the overall length. So what might have been a tip active mid to higher launch driver shaft may exhibit more of a mid to low launch characteristic after tipping and put into a fairway wood.

I have tipped my driver shafts 1/4" to 1" for the purpose of getting the launch slightly lower and has worked very well.

it seems to provide added stability as well. Recently did this with my Regio Formula MB and I ended up tipping in 1" after try and error to get the trajectory I wanted.

If you are experimenting, make sure you leave some extra length on the butt end so that once you decide on the final tipping amount, you can still maintain overall club length.

[Staxxx]

Thank you for the advice. This is perfect.

Interestingly I was deciding between trying the NSPro Reggio Formula MB shaft or the Aldila Rogue Silver 60 in the driver that I am pulling the shaft from.

[nobmontana]

The Regio Formula MB is best bang for the buck shaft at the moment.

80T and 90T combined with Toray 1100G at a price less than half of its competitors.

Nippon has a real winner here!