To Bore or Not To Bore? .355 Taper to .370 Parallel

[oceansunfish]

Advantageous to have parallel to be able to 'tip' trim?

I understand that 'tip trimming' is how clubmakers arrive at a desired frequency or CPMs for shaft flex, i.e.; stiff, xtra stiff, etc.

Is it commom procedure these days to bore out taper fit club heads so that they can be fit with parallel shafts, thus allowing for 'tip trim' adjustments, not just a butt trim to arrive at finished club length?

Is it worth the effort?

Finally, shafts like the Nippon NS Pro 950 are sold in pre set lengths where there is no tip trim per the factory. Regardless if the set is parallel or tapered, there is no tip trim suggested by Nippon.

I know some club makers have experimented with tip trimming the .370 NS Pro by as much as 1", but does it matter?

For example, if I take a 37.5 " raw length NS Pro 950 shaft and remove 1" from the tip and insert into a 5 iron club head, I get a finished length without trimming the butt. I've effectively move the first step closer to the clubhead by 5/8" vs if I didn't tip trim but rather butt trimmed to finished length using the same shaft.

I am assuming the result is higher cycle or stiffness. Higher kick point thus lower ball flight?

Why not just start with a 37" shaft and trim nothing. The first step is in the same position.

Just curious what is accomplished.

Furthermore, if I were to resort to tip trimming, I would have to bore out the taper fit clubhead to accomodate the parallel tip shafts.

Is it worth it?

[gkyle]

I've asked the same question and the purists recommended never boring it out. They say you should hard or soft step the tapered shafts instead. So, going one step stiffer (which is 1/3 flex point I believe), you would install the 5i taper into the 4i head, etc.). Personally, I've bored mine to .370 (Mizuno MP32, TM R7 TP, and now Cobra s9) and haven't had any problems. I don't like buying a taper set only to discard one or two shafts to get the tweener flex I need, so I buy the parralel shafts and just tip them 1/2" softer than recommended. Also, going with the parralel shafts makes everything easier in my opinion, as replacement is easy. What happens in a taper set when you break the shaft in your 5 iron? In the ones I've used, the only extra shafts available (outside the set) were the 2,3 and wedge length, so I'd have to buy a whole set to get the 5. Makes no sense to me at all, and I don't think anyone can argue that .370 isn't more stable than .355 - just as the .350 driver shafts are now taking over from the .335 shafts. If you do bore them, forged irons are real easy and fast, but the stainless heads (my R7 and s9) are tedious and require a cobalt bit and a lot of caution to make sure the bit doesn't jam under load and snap the hosel. I simply blocked the hosel itself in my vice to keep it supported and worked slow - probably took an hour overall.

[oceansunfish]

Thanks for your input which supports my thoughts on the subject as well.

 

I understand that taper fit/tip club heads are "old school" and the pros like 'em and like the constant weight philosophy behind the design. However, like you say, parallel fit clubheads makes more sense altogether. (TM wouldn't be backordered on clubs needing DG SL or PX, etc.)

 

If I had Miz or any other forged head, I would probably bore it out. But since I have the SS R7 TP and I am fitting Nippon NS Pro, (tapered and tip trimmed already) I don't think I'm going to gain anything by boring the heads out. I'll just soft or hard step and spine align to achieve what I need and call it good.

 

I understand that some fitters have been sucessful with tip trimming the Nippons to tweak a person's trajectory, but I think that kind of "tweaking" is lost on someone like me who's trajectory varies from week to week. :bigwhack:

 

Thanks again. And, thanks for all other replies as well.

[joey3108]

I 'm not gonna write much here to confuse you guys. :bigwhack:

 

I'll give you just a few reasons.

 

1. Paralel tip come from a 41"shaft and you'll do tip and butt trim accordingly, that means the shorter iron will be lighter than the long iron. Longer iron are harder to hit, why would you want to have a heavier static set up. Taper tip shaft comes in mostly w/ a constant weight, and most of them if you install it properly are freq match already. Plus not even the #1 rank feel players could feel the different of 3cpm or less.

 

2. Paralel tip is push by lots of clubmakers because it's easier to stock (only 41" shafts ), instead of braking a set to reshaft just an eight iron ie.

 

3. I and lots of my customers found paralel tip has a higher trajectory, thus it's higher spin rate.

 

4. Boring the head to 370 properly, you'll need a carbide reamer, drill press and boring jig to make sure it's straight. Installing soft step will not requires you all those tools.

 

5. Most customers would be piss if they bought a club that has been bore out to 370 and no body told him/her. Basically the club value will be less in most cases.

 

Joe

[thewitt]

If you keep in mind that taper tipped shafts are used by assembly line OEM shops so they can "jam" the shaft into the hosel and keep working on the club while the epoxy sets, AND so there is no "tip trim" step in the manufacturing process - then you know the real reason why your irons were built with taper tipped shafts in the first place.

 

The last mini-Tour player I worked with had custom TM irons where TM had bored them to parallel before installing his custom fitted shafts. I was as surprised as anyone to find this when I replaced his broken shaft - but these were right from the TM custom fitting van.

 

You be the judge of the value.

 

-t

[oceansunfish]

Joe,

 

Thanks for the thorough reply. I appreciate your insight immensely.

 

After extensive testing, the best fit steel shaft for my game was the Nippon NS Pro 950. So, 3 years ago I got them installed in my irons. The clubmaker told me that they are great to work with since they are tip trimmed already, constant weighted, and their CPMs are consistant to one another without much tweaking.

 

All that was left was to find the the best step pattern for my swing and butt trim to finished length. To this day, I am very happy with the results.

 

I am not going to bore out my new club heads. In fact, the idea never won me over, thus the reason for my post. I was hoping to get the kind of insight I received from your reply. It's also moot since I like the NS Pro shafts (no tip trim needed).

 

I am a "keep it simple stupid" kind of person. So boring out the club heads in order to allow for more 'tweaking' in the trimming isn't my 'cup of tea'.

 

Very relieved.

 

Thanks.