Help needed on Shaft removal

[moree golfer]

I want to change shafts in my 3 wood as I cannot swing an X flex (tried but it doesn't work). The club is a TM 200 Tour head with a GD YS-10 X flex. I tried but to no avail heating the hosel with a mini butane torch in conjunction with an XT Extractor (see pics). I must have had three go at heating until the torch ran out of butane and I had to refill (10min between refills). Has anyone had trouble removing shafts and found any tricks that helped?

PS. I don't want to cut the tip off at the hosel and drill out as I want to swap it with a Stiff flex pull.

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/6515/05062008001fm6.jpg

http://img112.imageshack.us/img112/6668/05062008zl1.jpg

[goonie]

If it's glued in that tight you may have to cut and drill it. If you heat it too much the shaft tip will be stuffed anyway.
Only other thing I could suggest is a heat gun, but I don't know if thats any better then a torch.

[singleoneday]

I have that same extractor and works a treat. You need more heat then that pocket torch you have. Go to bunnings and buy a decent one, can be had for $30. Its a blue butane bottle and includes the torch head. Heat it till you can see/smell the glue burning (30-40 sec), make sure though that the shaft is clamped extra tight. If not, the shaft will just slide. Hope she works out!

PS the extractor has to be fully screwed in at first(extractor as short as possible), so the maximum amount of pulling lenth can be attained. Your pics indicate that its half screwed.

[pt73]

The blue bottles mentioned above contain propane which is way too hot for a graphite shaft and should only be used for steel shafts.

Is the shaft slipping in the vise, if so try cleaning the inside of the shaft clamp with windex to give you more grip, you can also wrap the shaft in some photocopy paper to give you some grip on the shaft.

Make sure you have the tension on full with your extractor before you heat the hosel.


PT

[moree golfer]

I had some tension on before heating and the screw is wound out a bit as I had tension on while taking the pics. I think my issue is the shaft slipping as I turn the screw. I'll try windex and photocopy paper tonight and see how I go. I haven't really smelt the epoxy burning yet but I keen to make it a low heat pull and save the shaft.

[virge666]

Piss the torch off and go and buy a heat gun . . . Bunnings have them for $20 and they absolutley crap all over silly little torches.

Also way better for the paint.

[goonie]

Thats what I said in post 2 virge :-)

[virge666]

Thats what I said in post 2 virge :-)


It needed re-saying.. have you seen the size of the torch . . . if it cannot boil a billy it ain't a torch.

:)

[moree golfer]

Ok ok I'll go get a heat gun. Remember it's not the size of the torch...

[singleoneday]

torch $28 30 seconds
heat gun $20 3 minutes

get a torch

[virge666]

Remember it's not the size of the torch...

Only said by people with small torches... :D

[moree golfer]

Well I finally got the head removed without resorting to cutting the shaft. This was my third attempt at heating the hosel under some pressure from the shaft remover. I heated the hosel for probably 10 minutes all up and then went in the house. When I got back to the workshop the shaft had visibly moved a little out of the hosel. All I needed was to screw the extractor till the head fell off the end of the shaft. The interesting thing was the expoxy wasn't sticky at all as I expected, it was still dried in a sleeve around the tip of the shaft. There was a tip weight as well which may have added to the difficulty in removing the shaft due to it's good contact with the hosel plug. I still think I will buy a heat gun for further removals though.