Loft And Lie Adjustements? Who does them in the San Diego area. Most shops I have gone to like Golfsmith or Golfmart just to name a few have said they wont bend more than just a few degrees. This is weak, I was wondering if anyone knew of a shop or someone who could bend my old forged beauties flat-about 6 degrees. I can take the heads off or put shafts in them, whatever works best. Thanks yall
DJ,
I don’t understand what it is with these big-box stores and their reluctance to adjust lie angles more than a few degrees? I have a great club guy with his own shop. Whenever I walk in with a set of old irons he usually asks “the usual?” and will proceed to bend them 5 flat like it was nothing (he can do an iron with “one pull” now)! He’s bent 8 sets for me now without a single “incident”.
Maybe these places have a corporate rule regarding large lie adjustments for fear of breaking a head. Seems like you could tell them you won’t hold them liable if it should happen. Have you checked under “golf equipment repair” in the yellow pages for a smaller shop?
robbo
Yeah every one just seemed real scared to do it and pushed there new component blade iron on me and said all the new style blades have better weight balance and the cg is closer to the center of the head. Pulled out the Hogan Redline 1-iron and asked him if hes ever felt a better balanced club, the look on his face as he stared down that butter knife was classic. I even told them I wouldnt care if they snapped any, which they wouldnt since there quiality forgings.
Also kinda off topic but is Lag or anyone going to do a pdf or something about changing loft-bulge and roll on our old persimmon woods. That would be pretty sweet huh.
I do like to shape my persimmon heads when I re do them… that is the beauty of wood, you can work with it…
I bent a set of Slazenger irons 12 degrees flat for fun… just to see if I could even hit them… what a great thing for your golf swing… even if you go back to something more reasonable… playing a round with those was very enlightening.
I wouldn’t fear bending your sets down at all… I have never broken a head yet…
Sometimes I think you just have to try some different options re: getting your clubs bent and accept that you might experience some pain in doing so before you find someone you trust. I approached a local clubfitter that a lot of people mentioned to start with and was very disappointed. He was pretty dismissive of what I wanted to do but not so dismissive that he wouldn’t take my money 
and then grumbled his way through doing what seemed to me to be a fairly half hearted job (i.e) he said he could tell as soon as he put any pressure on the 1 iron that it would snap if we tried to bend it at all! Until I asked him to he didn’t even make an effort to measure the existing lie angle before starting to bend them 4 degrees flatter! How can you know what you are doing unless you know what the existing angles are 
Then I called another guy who seemed willing, able and very precise but seemed to me to be very pricey charging $50 a set. Then closer to home I called a local club who advertised the service on their web site but it turned out they were just going to hit it with a rubber hammer and didn’t have a bending machine 
Finally I did the obvious thing the other day and approached the pro at my home club. The only reason I hadn’t done this before was that I had a couple of lessons from him in the distant past and I didn’t really want to have to get into a what am I doing and why conversation that might of followed. Not that he is anything else but a lovely guy but anyway he was great - he is a Aussie who it turns out originally trained as a clubmaker (before turning pro hmself) under Wayne Smith (do you guys know him at all?) back home. He has a great old “Masters” machine and was quite happy to bend them however I wanted them done at a reasonable price. We had a great time talking about old clubs, blade sets and his collection of Spalding Cash in putters! Obviously its great to have your own machine (I have been searching 2nd hand for a while with no luck) but otherwise I guess shop around is the best answer.
Cheers, Arnie
I’ve found somebody here in Rome who can do it for me although I haven’t engaged in any meaningful conversation yet about the why and how.
Just out of interest, if one has a machine for bending irons, are they easy to use?
Also, dare I ask, are there ways of bending irons without the special equipment?
Easy as pie. I have a golfsmith job and while not as precise as the super expensive Mitchells, etc., it gets the job done for me.
I’ve tried a few things as I hate buying dedicated gadgets but it becomes too painful compared to a dedicated machine. Like you could just buy a bending bar ($100 still), but securing the club firmly and kindly in the vice is a nightmare.
Loft and lie measurement - I’ve done it two ways in the past. I have a little thing called a bevel box, about $40 from memory which you put on the shaft and zero, then on the club face to see the loft digitally displayed. Similar sort of thing for lie. Also I’ve taken a photo of the clubhead (at maximum zoom to eliminate distortion) and simply measured the angle in Photoshop.
Teddy,
I’ve got one…It’s now about 8 years old from Scotland Golf. Not sure if they are even in business anymore. But it’s easy to use and well worth it over time especially with the modifications we are doing…For the record I have broken a cast club before trying to alter it about 6 degrees but never with a forged head…Plus I like Lag’s tip about heating up the head first before you bend by a large amount.
If you had to, you could put the club in a vice and bend a club with a pipe wrench or even bang it with a hammer if cosmetics is a zero factor.
A simple protractor from the stationary store or hardware store will work too.
If you are just bending one set… get it done by a pro… if you have multiple sets that you want to be able to play, and might be changing them even more over time… it might make sense to invest in a machine. I think you can pick up a decent one for $300 online, less than you pay for a frying pan driver.
Swingweight measuring devices are a must too if you like to tinker. You can measure the swingweights and deadweights on them which is critical stuff.
Swingweight I’ve done in the past balancing the club on the edge of a exacto blade, weighing the club with kitchen scales etc. Comparing to a machine it’s never been more than 1 point out. Again not as convenient as a dedicated machine but cheap.
Being resourceful is a good sign of having the right kind of instinct on the golf course…
I bent a club between the cracks in cart path curbing once before I teed off in a pro am once.
Sometimes you just have to go with what’s available at the time…
Lag,
Just when I thought Steb had achieved the pinnacle in “club adjustments/measurements from scratch” you post this! The Tour Vans have NOTHING on you!
robbo
I do not have experience with adjusting the lie/loft, but now have some sets that I will either send off, or learn to adjust myself with a friend who has a machine.
Question…does anyone heat or warm the irons prior to adjusting to facilitate the process? Does it matter what the temperature is at adjustment time?
Eagle
My pro heats them a little bit with a heat fan because it is usually -20 outside in the car. But room temperature should be fine. You dont want to heat them too much or will have to re-epoxy them.
Macs,
Thanks. I would not have thought about the epoxy… 