Golf Club Building
Chris
part time business. Can you recommend a list of the basic tools that
would be required as well as any reference materials?
Thank You!
DJD
A good quality 4" bench vise is an absolute must, as is a 48" rule,
aluminum is my preference. A tubing cutter with a hardened steel wheel
for cutting steel shafts, a hacksaw with a grit rod for cutting graphite
shafts (or a Dremel tool), You will also need some vise pads to hold the
shafts without crushing them and a utility knife. Some of the supplies
you will need are sand paper for roughing the tips of steel shafts, 24
hour 2 part epoxy for attaching the clubheads, 2 sided grip tape,
mineral spirits, acetone and denatured alcohol.
There are a number of other tools that come in handy or that are
necessary for repairing or reshafting clubs. But this should be enough
to get you started building new clubs.
BTW, welcome to the Dark Side!
<BWHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!!>
--
Dan Driscoll
Charter Member
Super Secret Sinister Golf Society
(SSSGS)
Kenny Stultz
ch...@coldtech.com says...
Look like another one getting sucked in.
There are some downloadable how to clips at www.dynacraftgolf.com. Golfsmith
has a beginner video you can buy. Golfworks is another place to look for
reference materials.
I bought my first couple of club building books from Dynacraft when they had a
sale for about $5 each.
Kiss your nights and weekends goodbye. :-)
Kenny
--
Kenny Stultz - Troll and SPAM intolerant
RSG Rollcall: http://rec-sport-golf.com/members/?rollcall=stultzk
"Golf is the only sport where a precise knowledge of the Rules can
earn one a reputation for poor sportsmanship"
DJD
BTW, here are a few sites that sell the items you will need. Also, you
can get a book or a video on clubmaking for any of these vendors.
http://www.golfsmith.com/cm/index.php
http://www.dynacraftgolf.com./
http://www.golfworks.com/
Colin Wilson
> www.webmd.com
> look under psychological disorders
Looked it up and found a long description of Dalecki's Disease, which it
described as irretrievable, characterised by extreme fastidiousness,
excessive attention to detail and invention of Heath Robinson-type
gadgets.
There was also a passing reference to Stultz's Syndrome for those who
hadn't quite progressed to a terminal state. A common symptom was
indecisiveness, mainly brought about by being unable to determine which
of the 6878 clubs in his garage he was going to play with on any
particular day.
--
Cheers
Colin Wilson
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Trentham Golf Club: http://www.trenthamgolf.com
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Mike Dalecki
In this one, strong is the dark side! :)
Golfworks has a starter set that I think is a terrific deal. You can
see it here:
http://golfworks.com/item_disp.asp?pn=BAKIT
It's only $99, and includes their good swingweight scale, which normally
costs $75 (it's the one I have). Golfsmith has a similar set but I
don't like it as well as the golfworks one.
You get the necessary stuff to cut shafts (both steel and graphite), to
grip them (grip tape), to weight them (tip weights), and to check
swingweight.
It's a great deal as the separate prices are $150, and virtually all the
material is something you'll wish you had anyway. What I especially
like about it is the included tip weights, which are often necessary to
match clubs on Swingweight.
What this set doesn't have that I would also recommend is a gram scale
of some sort. Golfworks has a nice digital gram scale for about $39;
However, you may have one around, or have access to one (some post
offices have them). You'll want to weigh your components to see how
they match, and the ability of balance scales like the swingweight scale
to accurately measure the weight of parts is limited.
I'd also suggest you get some shafting beads. If the shaft is too loose
in the hosel, you need some way of filling the gap and centering it.
It also doesn't have anything for prepping the tips of graphite shafts,
so you might want to pick up a strip of prep material. Alternatively,
you can use a utility knife to carefully scrape the paint off the tip of
a graphite shaft after trimming, but you still want some sort of prep
tape for it, IMO.
There's no end to the number of tools you'll end up wishing you had, but
these will get you started, and started well. If you have any questions
on other tools, ask away; I've just about got them all, and some aren't
worth the money.
Good luck, Chris, and don't be afraid to ask a question or two.
Mike
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Dalecki I do not patronize spammers. Help keep RSG clean!
GCA Accredited Clubmaker. Web Site: http://www.dalecki.net/clubdoctor/
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GaryC
I am interested myself. I'd like some feedback on courses available.
I see Golfsmith has a few 3 day and one week courses. I'm wondering
if there are any other companies giving courses, if it's worth the
money, etc., etc.
thanks, Gary
JeffC
"Chris" <ch...@coldtech.com> wrote in message
news:50f43416.03010...@posting.google.com...
> I am interested in getting started at building Golf clubs as a hobby /
> part time business. Can you recommend a list of the basic tools that
> would be required as well as any reference materials?
I think for sure you'd need a hammer and a saw, and some wood and nails. If
you have any questions just email me. It's my hobby too. I built Oak Hill
and Sawgrass when I was home from school one summer.
Bob
Suckerrrrrrrrr. ;-)
Run while you can. If you're celestially inclined, think of
clubmaking as the black hole....right now you can escape the well, but
if you get much closer....
Anyway, I started with one of the Golfsmith classes and it worked well
for me. It's a good introduction, though you can go well beyond the
simple "slap it together" style that they do.
Now I'm working on building a complete set of irons and it's a long
process because I'm building the advanced spine finder (Mike Dalecki
has an image at his site and Damn...errr..Dan ;-) Neubecker will sell
you the plans) and I may conscript my dad into helping me with a DIY
frequency meter. I'm just a humble finance geek--he's the computer
geek.
The good news is that when I'm done I won't have to build the
jigs/tools again. But in the meantime, it's a process.
But it's great fun and you'll end up building more clubs than you know
what to do with. And you'll be regripping friends' clubs and building
them clubs and in the end you'll be a hollowed shell of a man,
mumbling about frequency and spines and lie angles and lofts and....
That's right; I need to build or buy a loft/lie tool too.
Good luck!
Bob
Ontario, California
david s-a
"DJD" <NoSpa...@BiteMe.com> wrote in message
news:3E19F012...@BiteMe.com...
>
> A good quality 4" bench vise is an absolute must, as is a 48" rule,
> aluminum is my preference.
Go into any hardware store and try and purchase a 48" rule!! ( especially one
with the numbering going from right to left).
:-)
cheers
david
Eliyahu
"david s-a" <dsan...@bigBADpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:NJtS9.9950$oS1....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
it in place if it won't get in the way...) It's 48 inches and available at
just about any building supply store.
Eliyahu
warren montgomery
one
> with the numbering going from right to left).
>
myself a club measuring rig. It's a 4 foot by 6 inch piece of ply wood
hinged to another section about 6 by 6, and marked at quarter inch intervals
between 35 and 48 inches (marked from my tape measure). To measure a club,
rest the clubhead on the small section and the shaft against the long one
and bend the hinge so the head sits flat on the floor, then read the length.
I usually assemble a club by trimming the tip only before epoxying the head
on, then use the measuring jig to mark the butt end at the right length.
Alternatively you can measure before gluing if the club has a weight port in
the hosel and you want to get the shaft cut to length to do swingweighting
before gluing up.
The main point is that measuring clubs doesn't require high precision.
Also, I haven't found I really need a special cutting bar for graphite.
Just wrap the shaft in masking tape, use a fine bladed hacksaw and take your
time. Probably not fast enough for a pro shop but just fine for the
hobbiest.
Another thing I've found useful is a wooden block with a hole just slightly
bigger than a shaft drilled in it the long way (2-3 inches deep), and a hole
the size of my nail set drilled in the side to meet it. I use it to help
push ferules onto a shaft and for metal shafts to dimple the tip a bit
(don't hit too hard!) to improve the grip.
A round file is also useful for enlarging and smoothing stubborn ferrules
and roughing up the inside of a hosel before gluing.
Also, if you are buying grip tape go ahead and buy grip tape solvent if you
are using solvent activated tape, and make sure you have a pan (metal or
non-reactive plastic) to collect it in. I use an old teflon tray retired
from a chem lab, but I think an aluminum foil roasting pan would probably
work. By collecting and recycling the solvent one can will last forever.
Sure you can use lots of things for solvent, but mostly they are more
hazardous to work with.
Also, clear a large space on your bookshelf for clubmaking catalogs and a
large space in your garage to hold you "experiment clubs" :-)
Since it's winter here at least I'll offer another piece of advise. Don't
try putting on grips in a cold unheated grarage without precautions! The
tape tends to catch and stick if it's cold and I've had grips stick before
getting fully on and had to cut them off and start over. Once I figured out
that the problem was cold, I solved it by keeping the supplies inside,
warming the shaft and grip a bit (just stick them in front of a hot air vent
or radiator for a bit), taping up inside, and going out only to splash on
the solvent and slip on the grip. That way everything stays warm enough to
work. Don't skimp on the solvent, I fill the whole grip, then empty it over
the taped shaft over my solvent pan and recycle it back into the can
afterwards.
--
Warren Montgomery wamont...@att.net (
http://home.att.net/~wamontgomery )
DJD
I purchased mine from my local Orchard Supply Hardware store. It wasn't
hard to find at all. It has numbering on both sides and edges, inches on
one side, metric on the other.
Ron Blanchard
A good place to start, as others have suggested, is one of
the bigger component companies like golfsmith or
golfworks. You can get some good basic instructional
books, and even order a kit to assemble a single club like
a driver, wedge or putter. That's a great way to start.
Also take a look at clubmaker-online.com.
I started the way many do, several years ago, just
changing grips, reglueing a ferrule or two. Now I have
just about everything I need except for a really nice
loft/lie machine and an equally nice shaft puller
(although I'm still working on making a shaft puller made
from two machine vises).
No sense in resisting the pull to the Dark Side, you won't
be able to.
--
Ron Blanchard
http://rec-sport-golf.com/members/?rollcall=blanchardr
*** Troll and SPAM intolerant ***
"Golfers are meant to suffer." - Ian MacCallister