FW Shaft Tipping Rationale

[Bobalu]

The witt or dyno, or anyone caring to comment...could you explain to me the rationale behind the need to increase the amount of shaft tipping when shafting woods as one moves from driver to #3, #5, #7, #9?

 

I'm presuming that fairway wood heads are usually made of steel and are heavier than driver heads, and if you didn't tip the FW shaft more to make it stiffer, the heavier head would make the club feel too 'whippy' with less control- despite the extra stiffness and control that one would expect from the decreased shaft length of fairway woods as compared to drivers? Is this correct?

 

What is the best way to tweak a build when shafting a fairway wood? How about clamping a FW wood to a chosen finished length in a digiflex clamp and then taking a little off the tip at a time, dry-fitting the head and measuring the resulting frequency on a digiflex machine until a desired frequency, but not varying too far from manufacturer recommendations? Or do most club builders just use whatever the manufacturer recommends for a particular shaft when building their fairway woods? Thanks for your comments! :bigwhack:

[Dyno]

This a tough one because different shafts react differently to tipping. You can get some clues from the shaft profile and torque rating but some shafts can be pretty touchy.

 

It's the same rationale as with irons.....heavier heads through the shorter irons need tipping to maintain flex. Steel iron shafts typically slope at around 8cpm/inch....tried and true approach that works for most players. Many freq charts extrapolate this to woods and alot of clubmakers stick with that approach despite the fact wood and iron shafts are completely different.

 

If you haven't worked with and hit the shaft before, it's usually sensible to adhere to mfr tipping instructions though I will admit it's not something I often do. You can't really define it's playing characteristics strictly by butt freq so hitting a freq target will be a shot in the dark.

[joey3108]

Basically what Dyno said is that :

 

Not knowing what the shaft character is, CPM numbers means nothing!

 

:bigwhack:

[Bobalu]

I would like to install a Graphite Design Tour AD PT-7 (S) shaft in a G-Field GFT #7 wood head, and I'm trying to decide how much to tip it. Probably should tip 3/4 to 1", but not sure. I have an untipped Tour AD PT-6 (S) in my Driver that feels and performs great with perfect trajectory. I also have an untipped Diamana Redboard M73 (S) in my #4 wood head, and this also feels and performs great with perfect trajectory. The PT-7 has 2.5" parallel tip section and the G-Field heads have a standard 1.25" bore. Any suggestions knowing the specific shafts and heads? :bigwhack:

[thewitt]

Shaft tipping started with steel shafts, which by the nature of their tapered tube design are weaker in the tip than they are in the middle or the butt - and in a very predictable manner.

 

You tip trimmed heavier heads to maintain the same flex of the shaft, as well as to keep control over the shot with the heavier head/whippier shaft.

 

The problem with tipping modern graphite shafts, is most of them are much more tip stable than their steel counterparts, and you don't need to tip them at all for stability.

 

What you end up with after tipping most graphite shafts is a lower ball flight than you really want with your FW woods.

 

Why do manufacturers keep publishing tipping instructions? It's because clubmakers expect to see them, and they cannot afford to answer the phone day and night explaining why the instructions say to butt trim only...

 

Seriously...

 

Most modern graphite shafts do not need to be tipped for stability - you are simply controlling trajectory.

 

-t

[Bobalu]

"Most modern graphite shafts do not need to be tipped for stability - you are simply controlling trajectory."

 

Tim, excellent comments! This makes perfect sense to me.

 

I will proceed by tipping the PT-7 conservatively, leaving enough extra length to work with in the butt end, in case I need to tip a little more to fine tune the trajectory and feel that suits me.

 

Thanks!! :bigwhack: