Greetings,

When it comes to pulling shafts we are the experts.

 

In our California Custom Fitting Studio, we spec your gear, then fit you, and compare that fit to what’s in your bag.

About ½ the time this results in new shaft recommendation.

 

So what do we do with the shafts we’ve pulled?

Some customers want them back, so we always pull them properly with care, and others couldn’t care less.

When we moved last year, we dumped a 20’ trailer of them.

Since then we have build up near 5,000, so rather than dumping these we are going to make them available on our secondary ebay store.

 

We are fortunate to have a Python shaft puller (the ultimate) and believe me I know as I have been doing this for near 20 years and bought them all.

 

Pulling the shaft properly is key if you wish to have the shaft maintain its original integrity.

 

The way you pull a shaft is to break down the epoxy bond between the shaft and the head which occurs at about 140 degrees under pulling pressure.

 

An interesting thing is that graphite shafts are constructed with about 50% graphite and about 50% epoxy resin holding and bonding all the graphite layers of the shaft together.

The epoxy used in the construction of the actual shaft itself is designed to break down at about 165 degrees.

 

So that difference in temperature between 140 and 165 degrees or so is the window of opportunity where you can safely pull a shaft without risking damage to it.

 

 We can do this no problem, as our “pulls” are under load as the heat is applied, so the instant the epoxy that holds the head to the shaft  is broken down the head releases.

 

Other methods are less reliable and may result in scorching the epoxy involved in maintaining the shaft construction itself.

 

Once the shaft is pulled from the head it is not ready to install in another head, it must be prepped.

 

The proper prepping of a pulled shaft is also a process that we attend to.

 

You must drill out the old epoxy residing in the inner wall of the shaft, creating a clean inner wall for the new install.

 

There has to be a clear airway through the shaft because on the new install when the new epoxy is curing it expands and creates gases which need to vent.

 

We use a drill chuck with a 1/16 hole as a guide for our bit to insure this is properly done.

 

All the excess debris needs to be blown out of the shaft so you won’t develop a rattle.

Rarely can this be done from the butt thru the tip due to the diameter of the opening, so in most cases we pull the grip if it’s worth saving and blow the debris out from the tip thru the butt.

 

Then we scrape off all the old tape and clean it with solvent so it is ready to accept new tape after installation.

 

We also carefully sand any excess debris from the tip without over sanding it on a Burr King.

 

With the shaft this clean it is now ready to install. And it is also clean and smooth enough to have us Spine and Flo it if you like which is probably the single best thing you could do for your club. For more info please see our listing for Spine and Flo, considering what you’re saving on the shaft its well worth the extra $10.00.

 

A note on length.

The club length is the length between the top of the grip and the base of the sole where the shaft would extend through the sole such as in the case of a thru bore.

 

So lets say you have a Callaway® or Titleist® thru bore then the length of the shaft will be your finished club length plus the width of the grip cap , but in almost every other case your finished club length will be longer than the shaft length.

Its usually about 1 ½“ from where the shaft seats in the head to the ground so in most heads a 43 ½” shaft will get you a 45” driver, this will vary some from model to model.

 

If you want to know just what yours will come to then simply measure the overall length of your club and then measure the length of your shaft after it’s removed.