I am flattening a persimmon PowerBilt Citation driver, shooting for 46 degrees.
Does anyone know if the Citations were manufactured with a closed face? I don’t have a machine to tell me, but my eyes tell me it was manufactured closed. (No, I don’t trust my eyes any more, and yes my putting needs work.) I am looking for advice how to jury rig a mechanical way, with common cheap stuff, to best get the face and shaft axis parallel, as well as possible, before epoxy. (If I had a table saw, I believe it would be a lot easier to use it to set up parallel alignment of face and shaft center.) I think maybe a wall and a ruler might be made to work, but something else might be more effective. I wish I had thought about the wall and ruler BEFORE I disassembled the club! I could have learned a lot from that.
Something else. The cross point screw type pin would not come out with a cross point screwdriver. It did come out with a 5/64" Screw Extractor (corkscrew type, not the four sided) after I drilled a 3/16" deep starter hole 1/16" wide and then widened the starter hole diameter with a 5/64" bit. (The Screw Extractor avoided hacking away any hosel wood to access the pin with pliers.) The shaft came out easy (no heating needed) because the old epoxy or glue was decayed. Maybe I can reuse the pin for reassembly, but I will have to drill a new hole in the shaft tip because I intend to seat the shaft about 1/2 inch deeper into the head. The shaft seemed a little soft swinging before dis-assembly so maybe seating it deeper into the head will effectively “stiffen” the taper tip shaft some. Not sure about that though. I suppose I can add tape or pour lead to bring up swing weight if needed.
I wonder if the head was manufactured closed and I manage to set up the face/shaft alignment parallel, will the changed position of the brass weight on the back of the head, relative to the shaft axis, screw up the impact dynamics? Any thoughts?
Also, if the head was manufactured closed and I manage to set up the face/shaft alignment parallel, won’t that increase the effective loft? I guess the result may be more of a 2 or 3-wood than a 1-wood, but if the ball flies well, why care, especially if it flies straighter than my current upright and unaltered 2 and 3 wood persimmons? (Still, I hope it will play longer than current 2 and 3 wood persimmons.)
Just from a visual perspective…the old standard used to be
Open looks square
Square looks closed
Closed looks hooked
I do have the 4th edition of GOLF CLUB DESIGN, FITTING, ALTERATION AND REPAIR…By Ralph Maltby, if anyone is interested in tapping into that written resource. Lot of good stuff in it. RR
I once had that book and gave it to a young guy who was getting into club fitting when it seemed my golfing days were likely over forever. I never dreamed one day I would be dissecting a persimmon driver. Such is life.
a slew of these books are available on Amazon at very reasonable prices…
well worth the cost as Maltby seems to enjoy explaining the step by step process—good stuff
When you drop in the shaft and set it… just remember… that if you set it up with a bit of hook face, you are adding loft, and and if you set it up open you are taking loft off…
Well, I like a little bit of wiggle when I am setting the shaft in for epoxy, because there is no way I will ever be able to drill the hole that exact just my eye… I do get it close, and I get better at the entire process with every one I do…
I have yet to break one… and I hit it pretty hard, and the modern balls I’m sure are a bit of a shock to it as well…
All of my projects have finished up light, C7 seems to be about the average.
As per Lags instructions on another thread, I drilled holes in the backs of my 3 and 5 woods and poured in some molten lead. But its tricky to do, lead runs really fast and spills everywhere, even if you are careful, it sets quickly, then sinks as it cools, so you have to pour in some more after the first pour. So it’s almost impossible to neatly fill a hole drilled in the back of a golf club.
With one on club i ended up burning the finish with some of the overspill and had to sand it down and refinish it all over again. (i would recommend that you fit the grip and then bring the clubs upto D4 before finishing them, i reckon 1 SW will be added by finishing and whipping)
Also it’s tough to know exactly how much lead to try to pour in, 3 wood ended up E and 5 wood D7. The balance of the 3 wood seems to have been badly affected by adding so much weight, it seems to flip over too easily, to the point where i have stopped using it. I drilled some of the lead back out of the 5 wood to get it back down to D5.
I am probably going to start using shaft tip weights from now on to hopefully alleviate the need to add lead and see how those play, fortunately i have a few clubs that were already D5 to start with, so hopefully it won’t be so much of an issue with those.
Am also going to start to keep a record of the exact weight of the clubhead once sanded and redrilled, might be a good idea for others to do this too, so we can learn what the probable finished SW will be.
Also, it is going to be difficult to add lead to the back of a club that already has a brass weight on the back, so a tip weight might be a good idea for you 1teebox.
Don’t get me wrong, i haven’t got a problem with lead per se, its just tricky to use.
I was just pointing out that you are probably going to have to add some weight and its worth bearing that in mind before you go through the whole flattening process and get to the end with a light club.
I like the idea of adding weight under the sole plate, seems like the best place for it in terms of the club being balanced. But those old screws are tough to get out in my experience, all i have managed to do is mash up the screw head. Any tips?
Tough to remove soleplate screws usually have an epoxy bond as well…you may have to heat the screw tip with a directed flow of heat.
Also, most wood head screws are Reed and Prince (Frearson) and not Phillips type. You can heat the screwdriver tip until red…insert it into the screw and hold for a minute…repeat as necessary. Also, with the screwdriver hot, you can give the screwdriver a firm hit with a hammer to seat the screwdriver.
Also, used dental picks from a dentist office makes a good tool to clean out the screw slots before using the screwdriver.
Ideally, if you want to apply propane to the screw tip…you can make up a jig. Take a 3" piece of copper tube the size of the screw top and hold the copper tube with pliers or something, while you direct the propane down the tube to heat the top of the screw head- keeping the propane a good distance away.
A small wood chisel, bevel up, should remove the plate along with a little heat if necessary.
In the past, if I was worried about heat/finish interchange damage…I would use a damp, not wet, washcloth wrapped around the area of concern for brief periods of time.
RR,
One of your many valuable tips that could save my bacon is your emphasis on the type of screws being Reed and Prince and NOT Phillips.
Thank you.
1teebox
I like to drill a hole with a 3/8th inch bit into the rear or back of the club…
I drill just slightly to the heel side maybe a 1/4 inch bias. Then I drill in deep till I hit
the lead in the center under the plate…
Then I put lead fishing weights into a spoon designated for such activities! Next, melt it easily with
a blow torch, then pour the melted lead lava into the hole. Whatever is left over, hole wise, I fill with
epoxy.
This is the easiest way to do it, and you put the weight right where it needs to be… behind the sweetspot.
I am searching for a Frearson screwdriver or Frearson driver bit to remove soleplate screws of a H&B PowerBilt driver. I am concerned about fouling up the original screws and not finding correct replacements. I need to ask what size screwdriver tip is needed for these. Google sources say Frearson screws accept any Frearson screwdriver but I am hung up about validity of that without firsthand experience or input from afficionados about this. I am thinking about ordering either or both the #1 and #2 driver bit sizes from (http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=447).
RR