Experementing with ceramic tumbler, Iron Refinish

[yaquigrande]

Hi classic gamers, I don't have a sand blaster but love the way new stainless clubs look when they are new and have that tumbled finish. I know you can send your Ping heads off to ping to be bead blasted I believe, but I saw on You tube a guy using a Harbor freight Tumbler so I went and got one. I am beyond happy with the results. My clubs from high school were in pretty bad shape. Callaway S2h2 irons blade style, the cavity back doesn't go all the way around. I filed all the dings off the soles of these with a file, then used fine sandpaper to get all the file marks out. The problem was the soles were almost chrome looking almost polished. Put these heads into the ceramic tumbler for about 2 hours and check out the result!!! I did a quick paint fill touch up, but man these heads look brand new! What do you guys think? I wonder if this would work on my becu Isi's a little scared to put those in there. I will post a before and after of the next head I tumble. Similar to the old pings, the stainless steel in these old Callaways seems to last forever, minus the rock impacts! Darn desert course. Glad to get them back to original.

 

Jesse

[yaquigrande]

Hi classic gamers, I don't have a sand blaster but love the way new stainless clubs look when they are new and have that tumbled finish. I know you can send your Ping heads off to ping to be bead blasted I believe, but I saw on You tube a guy using a Harbor freight Tumbler so I went and got one. I am beyond happy with the results. My clubs from high school were in pretty bad shape. Callaway S2h2 irons blade style, the cavity back doesn't go all the way around. I filed all the dings off the soles of these with a file, then used fine sandpaper to get all the file marks out. The problem was the soles were almost chrome looking almost polished. Put these heads into the ceramic tumbler for about 2 hours and check out the result!!! I did a quick paint fill touch up, but man these heads look brand new! What do you guys think? I wonder if this would work on my becu Isi's a little scared to put those in there. I will post a before and after of the next head I tumble. Similar to the old pings, the stainless steel in these old Callaways seems to last forever, minus the rock impacts! Darn desert course. Glad to get them back to original.

 

Jesse

Dang guys, now that I think about it I hope it was ok to post this in this forum. There is probably a repair section or something. I am new here, let me know if its ok.

[Cwebb]

Nice work, those came out great. I'd be interested to see your tumbler

[scomac2002]

Good job! :good:

[BIG STU]

Good Job great idea--- You did good posting in here especially with the older stuff-- We appreciate the older iron as we say and appreciate your efforts in preserving it. Over in the mainstream of things it would be underappreciated I feel because it involves older to their eyes obselete clubs. Over here we know the older stuff plays as good if not better than the newer stuff

[oldschoolrocker]

Great job and thanks for passing on the tip. Like the gentleman from "The Golfing Capital of the World" said, we appreciate...

 

[yaquigrande]

I will take a picture today of the tumbler and large ceramic media that goes in it. I think it was 50 bucks at harbor freight. It was super loud until I put a litter water into the rubber bowl. The it wasn't too bad.

[yaquigrande]

Hey guys here is the tumbler I bought. I probably should have bought the bigger size. I can put about 4 heads in this one at a time. I am going to do my ping cat eyes next. Not sure what it will do to a brass putter. Will probably buy a junk one and test it out. Maybe one day I can afford a blasting cabinet with glass media, boy does that look nice!

[BIG STU]

Great job and thanks for passing on the tip. Like the gentleman from "The Golfing Capital of the World" said, we appreciate...

LOL thanks Randy but I was an E-5 in the Navy not an O-2. Just had to throw that in there sailor! :taunt:

[oldschoolrocker]

Lol, as we used to say there Stu, some of us worked for a living. Hope your having a Blessed Easter.

[Scully13]

Do you know if its possible to produce a mirror finish on stainless steel heads with this tumbler?

[Shallowface]

Hi classic gamers, I don't have a sand blaster but love the way new stainless clubs look when they are new and have that tumbled finish. I know you can send your Ping heads off to ping to be bead blasted I believe, but I saw on You tube a guy using a Harbor freight Tumbler so I went and got one. I am beyond happy with the results. My clubs from high school were in pretty bad shape. Callaway S2h2 irons blade style, the cavity back doesn't go all the way around. I filed all the dings off the soles of these with a file, then used fine sandpaper to get all the file marks out. The problem was the soles were almost chrome looking almost polished. Put these heads into the ceramic tumbler for about 2 hours and check out the result!!! I did a quick paint fill touch up, but man these heads look brand new! What do you guys think? I wonder if this would work on my becu Isi's a little scared to put those in there. I will post a before and after of the next head I tumble. Similar to the old pings, the stainless steel in these old Callaways seems to last forever, minus the rock impacts! Darn desert course. Glad to get them back to original.

 

Jesse

Dang guys, now that I think about it I hope it was ok to post this in this forum. There is probably a repair section or something. I am new here, let me know if its ok.

 

It's just fine to post this here, and those heads look great!

 

As many of us have no doubt already found, the thrifts are a great source of harmless fun when it comes to older game improvement clubs. Old Pings, the original tiny metal woods, even graphite headed woods.

 

Was it difficult at all pulling those S2H2 heads from their shafts, and how did you come out saving the hosel O-rings and bore thru plugs?

[Nessism]

Your project turned out nicely. I did similar to some Eye2 heads and posted about it here...

 

I've since purchased some more course grade media to see if I could achieve a more factory look but haven't tried them yet.

 

Agree that the tumbler is noisey. I put an empty garbage can over the top and that helped bunches.

[yaquigrande]

Hi classic gamers, I don't have a sand blaster but love the way new stainless clubs look when they are new and have that tumbled finish. I know you can send your Ping heads off to ping to be bead blasted I believe, but I saw on You tube a guy using a Harbor freight Tumbler so I went and got one. I am beyond happy with the results. My clubs from high school were in pretty bad shape. Callaway S2h2 irons blade style, the cavity back doesn't go all the way around. I filed all the dings off the soles of these with a file, then used fine sandpaper to get all the file marks out. The problem was the soles were almost chrome looking almost polished. Put these heads into the ceramic tumbler for about 2 hours and check out the result!!! I did a quick paint fill touch up, but man these heads look brand new! What do you guys think? I wonder if this would work on my becu Isi's a little scared to put those in there. I will post a before and after of the next head I tumble. Similar to the old pings, the stainless steel in these old Callaways seems to last forever, minus the rock impacts! Darn desert course. Glad to get them back to original.

 

Jesse

Dang guys, now that I think about it I hope it was ok to post this in this forum. There is probably a repair section or something. I am new here, let me know if its ok.

 

It's just fine to post this here, and those heads look great!

 

As many of us have no doubt already found, the thrifts are a great source of harmless fun when it comes to older game improvement clubs. Old Pings, the original tiny metal woods, even graphite headed woods.

 

Was it difficult at all pulling those S2H2 heads from their shafts, and how did you come out saving the hosel O-rings and bore thru plugs?

Do you know if its possible to produce a mirror finish on stainless steel heads with this tumbler?

for the mirror look on stainless I pretty much have to use a file get all the dings out then get progressively smaller sand paper as you get down to the smallest grit use water on the sand paper really cleans them up nice. Then I use a buffing wheel. They come out nice. I did a set of taylormade tour preferred vintage heads they came out sweet. Almost look like chrome. Only downside to polished stainless will scratch easy. Use headcovers for sure. Chrome is much harder than people realizes and protects the heads. I prefer a more brushed look as the polished stainless shows scratches fast.

[yaquigrande]

Hi classic gamers, I don't have a sand blaster but love the way new stainless clubs look when they are new and have that tumbled finish. I know you can send your Ping heads off to ping to be bead blasted I believe, but I saw on You tube a guy using a Harbor freight Tumbler so I went and got one. I am beyond happy with the results. My clubs from high school were in pretty bad shape. Callaway S2h2 irons blade style, the cavity back doesn't go all the way around. I filed all the dings off the soles of these with a file, then used fine sandpaper to get all the file marks out. The problem was the soles were almost chrome looking almost polished. Put these heads into the ceramic tumbler for about 2 hours and check out the result!!! I did a quick paint fill touch up, but man these heads look brand new! What do you guys think? I wonder if this would work on my becu Isi's a little scared to put those in there. I will post a before and after of the next head I tumble. Similar to the old pings, the stainless steel in these old Callaways seems to last forever, minus the rock impacts! Darn desert course. Glad to get them back to original.

 

Jesse

Dang guys, now that I think about it I hope it was ok to post this in this forum. There is probably a repair section or something. I am new here, let me know if its ok.

 

It's just fine to post this here, and those heads look great!

 

As many of us have no doubt already found, the thrifts are a great source of harmless fun when it comes to older game improvement clubs. Old Pings, the original tiny metal woods, even graphite headed woods.

 

Was it difficult at all pulling those S2H2 heads from their shafts, and how did you come out saving the hosel O-rings and bore thru plugs?

when I heated the heads slightly I was able to separate the o ring ferrules quickly. The plugs in the shaft will be ruined when you heat the heads they melt. Have to drill out the old plug after you pull. They are just plastic. I got some dirt cheap shaft plugs on ebay. Pretty easy to install.

Your project turned out nicely. I did similar to some Eye2 heads and posted about it here...

 

I've since purchased some more course grade media to see if I could achieve a more factory look but haven't tried them yet.

 

Agree that the tumbler is noisey. I put an empty garbage can over the top and that helped bunches.

wow your ping s look great!!! The media you have in the picture is the same one I use. Where did you get more abrasive media? I want to try that too. Thanks for the tip with covering the machine with a can, genius! Do you add water to your media?

[Shallowface]

After I posted I remembered I had a brochure that shows that the very first of these irons actually came with short ferrules instead of O-Rings.

 

 

 

I wonder if it would be possible to use a hardwood dowel in place of the plastic plug, and considering wooden inserts were used in the tips of shafts of some irons in the past I wonder if it would have a positive impact on the feel of a Callaway iron.

[Nessism]

Where did you get more abrasive media? I want to try that too. Thanks for the tip with covering the machine with a can, genius! Do you add water to your media?

 

Bought the media from Caswell's Plating, and yes, I added water.

 

My first few batches were left to tumble for a couple hours like you did, but as time went on I realized that the head is fully textured in about 45 mins to 1 hour. Leaving the head in longer than that polished the head, but didn't add anything further in terms of the tumbled look. Mind you I was doing only 2 heads at a time though so maybe that had something to do with it. I also flipped over the head after about 30 mins.

[Nard_S]

I wonder if this would work on my becu Isi's a little scared to put those in there.-OP

 

Be careful about using media on BeCu. If it is not the right type it will impregnate a white resin on the metal. I tumble screw machine parts all the time and my general rule is to tumble BeCu by themselves. I add a bit of Dawn liquid in with the water.

 

Edit; Another thing that is safe to try is using ground up coconut shells. Do it dry.

[yaquigrande]

After I posted I remembered I had a brochure that shows that the very first of these irons actually came with short ferrules instead of O-Rings.

 

 

 

I wonder if it would be possible to use a hardwood dowel in place of the plastic plug, and considering wooden inserts were used in the tips of shafts of some irons in the past I wonder if it would have a positive impact on the feel of a Callaway iron.

omg Thanks for the cool pic! I have never seen the pic of my clubs. I love these clubs played them in high school. I have only seen pics of the full cavity back ones, not these ones. I really appreciate that. In the past on some other callaway bore throughts I used some jb weld epoxy putty stuff and filled the shafts, it worked pretty well. Now I just use the plastic shaft plugs, cut them off close to the end of the shaft then just sand smooth, pretty good. look. Man after seeing this I am going to put some short ferrules that look just like that. pretty sharp!

[yaquigrande]

Shallowface, I also noticed in your Callaway ad you posted of the S2h2 irons I have, they not only have the different ferrules, they also appear to be polished? maybe its just the add, but all the s2h2's I have seen have that original tumbled or blasted look. I wonder if the add just makes them look polished like that.

[Shallowface]

Shallowface, I also noticed in your Callaway ad you posted of the S2h2 irons I have, they not only have the different ferrules, they also appear to be polished? maybe its just the add, but all the s2h2's I have seen have that original tumbled or blasted look. I wonder if the add just makes them look polished like that.

 

 

The Golfworks Price Guide lists these as first appearing in 1988, and describes them as "high polish finish except cavity which is sandblast gray." It also says the ferrule was replaced by the o-ring starting with the 1990 model. It also says the 1990 model has v-grooves, which I take to mean the 88-89 model had square grooves.

 

Yours look great tumbled with the white paint fill. I've tumbled a few sets of the original Titleist DCI Blacks, which were satin finished, and played them that way.

 

If you haven't already, you might want to have a look on Ebay and see what the ones there look like. There are a number of examples.

[mizunozinger4]

cant see the photos you posted

[dcopp7]

5 minutes ago, mizunozinger4 said:

cant see the photos you posted

It was 7 years ago...