Beginner DIY vs Paying Club Builder For High End Iron Set...?

[PepsiDuck]

I’ll trying to build a high end JDM iron set, and I’m debating whether to try doing it myself or pay a local club builder to have it done. Here are some relevant details:

 

- I have never done any club work and don’t own any clubmaking equipment. I have a slight interest in putting together a small workshop and being able to do my own work in the future. To be honest though, this likely won’t go beyond regripping, so I’m not sure I’d want all that gear just for a single set of irons.

 

- This will *probably* be my last set of irons...I have a very good idea of exactly what I want in terms of specs, appearance, etc. The idea of putting them together myself is appealing. And I’d say I’m fairly meticulous when it comes to assembling things. There’s always the saying that no one will care as much as you do.

 

- I definitely don’t have the expertise or equipment to build them to the exact specs I’m looking for (swingweight, shaft spining, frequency matching, lie/loft, etc). But I feel like with that level of detail, I could easily get nickel and dimed by the club builder.

 

Thoughts...?

 

[raynorfan1]

I get a lot of enjoyment out of building my own irons and tinkering based on my experience.

 

But if you truly think this is your last iron set, this is not the endeavor for you. Put together a simple gripping station and leave it at that. The equipment necessary to do the whole job correctly is just not worth buying if you’re really only going to use it once.

 

I’m pretty good at putting a club together...but if I were buying a “last” set of irons, I’d pay out the nose to have a real expert do the work.

[Socrates]

That’s sort of like saying I park my car in a garage but I think I could build a race car.

 

Hire someone who knows what they are doing for this set of clubs. Buy some bargain components and build a few sets before you tackle building a set of real expensive clubs. Guarantee you that mistakes will be made and you could end up with a bag of boat ballast. 30 yrs ago, I know I did.

[sdandrea]

"My last set of clubs".......what does that even mean? ?

 

Seriously, I would not make my first ever club build with a high end set of components. If you plan to set up shop and get into it, I'd say start small. My first build was a sand wedge.

[5hort5tuff]

If you build your own clubs or learn to, these will not be your last set. I can guarantee that.

 

Pay someone to builf this expensive set. When you get the itch, start to learn how to build and re grip slowly.

 

I love building own stuff, but it took many years of trial and error to get right.

[PepsiDuck]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I share a lot of the same concerns... I think I was enthusiastic at first, thinking that club making was as straightforward as putting together Ikea furniture...but the more I research I do, the worse the idea gets. There seems to be a lot of equipment involved, especially for measurement of all the specs. I'm not in a hurry to get these clubs built, but I also don't really have a need for a bunch of random one-off clubs that I experimented with over the next few months/years.

[Socrates]

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I share a lot of the same concerns... I think I was enthusiastic at first, thinking that club making was as straightforward as putting together Ikea furniture...but the more I research I do, the worse the idea gets. There seems to be a lot of equipment involved, especially for measurement of all the specs. I'm not in a hurry to get these clubs built, but I also don't really have a need for a bunch of random one-off clubs that I experimented with over the next few months/years.

If you want to dip your toe in, that’s the only way to start.

[Lefty1283]

Don’t test out your club making skills on a set of high end irons. That just doesn’t sound like it’ll end well.

 

If you have an interest, buy a second hand club for a few bucks and see if you can do it successfully. If you’re in no rush to buy the high end clubs, you may be able to hone your building skills.

[sui generis]

Lay out a couple of thousand on tools, set up your shop. Spend half an hour in the shop once a week and in ten years you still won't have the skills to do any kind of good work.

 

Attend someone's clubmaking school, like Maltby's. Lay out a couple of thousand on tools, set up your shop. Spend ten hours in the shop every week and in ten years you will have the skills to do fairly good work.

[DivinDave]

I agree with everything everyone else said.

 

Many years ago, I had the same thought as you and I can tell you from experience, it ain't as easy as it seems, and the equipment you'll need to build those clubs can end up in a large investment.

Knowing what I learned in my experience, I just stick with regripping my own clubs.

 

If you just want a set of high end clubs, then get a pro fitting and let them build your clubs. You'll come out way ahead.

[asw7576]

If I were you , I will write everything I want , and pay experienced golf builder to build the iron set according to my specs.

[Tzoid]

My local club builder charges me about 15 buck a club for assembly. I provide the Heads, Shafts , Ferrules and Grips and he builds to my Length and Swing weight.

I re-grip my own clubs as well as replace shafts when needed( Butt trimming and epoxying adapters and heads ) . I purchased a fully restored Kenneth Smith swing weight scale

so I'm pretty analytical when it comes to my equipment and it can drive one crazy if things are off.

 

I also believe in supporting my local small business and my club builder is a great guy.

[raynorfan1]

FWIW I don’t think the delta between a “master” club builder and my work is that large. I assume that ‘back in the day’ there was more art to it, but at this point, on high quality gear, tolerances are so tight that it’s just not that hard to do a really adequate job.

 

BUT you do need to make the investment in tools (probably $1,000 - $2,000) to do it well. From my POV, it’s totally not worth it for the OP who is looking at his “last” set.

 

I also don’t really agree with the “practice on some cheap stuff” mentality. I’ve only ever worked on high end gear from day 1 - it’s hard to screw things up on an irrevocable way.

[Socrates]

FWIW I don’t think the delta between a “master” club builder and my work is that large. I assume that ‘back in the day’ there was more art to it, but at this point, on high quality gear, tolerances are so tight that it’s just not that hard to do a really adequate job.

 

BUT you do need to make the investment in tools (probably $1,000 - $2,000) to do it well. From my POV, it’s totally not worth it for the OP who is looking at his “last” set.

 

I also don’t really agree with the “practice on some cheap stuff” mentality. I’ve only ever worked on high end gear from day 1 - it’s hard to screw things up on an irrevocable way.

When you’re starting from scratch, especially with graphite shafts or bending irons, it’s nice to know that it’s not life or death if you screw up. Once people have a few simple repairs under their belt, then go at it. Lots of people figure it out right off the bat, but lots are unable to grasp it. Even something as simple as regripping a club - lots of ways to screw it up. Nothing worse than someone regripping their driver with their new $300 ADI shaft and they don’t know you can’t use infinite pressure to hold it in the vise.

[Buddha]

"My last set of clubs".......what does that even mean?

 

That he doesn't plan on golfing much after getting these clubs, because obviously this is WRX, and there is no such thing as a last set unless you are no longer playing!

[EddieEdwards]

I think it would be hard to irrevocably ruin a set of irons. It's easy to miss little things though. You probably need $100-200 in tools if you leave out loft and lie adjustment. Put together a cheap wedge or reshaft one first if your worried.

[nochct1]

Lay out a couple of thousand on tools, set up your shop. Spend half an hour in the shop once a week and in ten years you still won't have the skills to do any kind of good work.

 

Attend someone's clubmaking school, like Maltby's. Lay out a couple of thousand on tools, set up your shop. Spend ten hours in the shop every week and in ten years you will have the skills to do fairly good work.

 

It's not THAT complicated. He's not refinishing persimmon woods. With the stuff thats available now, putting together irons is easy. The hardest part for him would be turning down ferrules

[sui generis]

Lay out a couple of thousand on tools, set up your shop. Spend half an hour in the shop once a week and in ten years you still won't have the skills to do any kind of good work.

 

Attend someone's clubmaking school, like Maltby's. Lay out a couple of thousand on tools, set up your shop. Spend ten hours in the shop every week and in ten years you will have the skills to do fairly good work.

 

It's not THAT complicated. He's not refinishing persimmon woods. With the stuff thats available now, putting together irons is easy. The hardest part for him would be turning down ferrules

 

There's a big, big difference between "cut and glue" and doing "good work."

[PepsiDuck]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided that I'm just going to pay a local builder (who seems to be quite reputable) to put the irons together. The cost of the assembly equipment alone would be more than the cost of labor from the looks of it. It's not necessarily that I fear screwing up and having to do it over, but I want the clubs to be built to exacting specs, and the cost of that equipment alone would probably increase the cost by an order of magnitude.

[raynorfan1]

It's not necessarily that I fear screwing up and having to do it over, but I want the clubs to be built to exacting specs, and the cost of that equipment alone would probably increase the cost by an order of magnitude.

 

This is something that everybody has to decide for themselves. The pursuit of "perfection" in club building can be a near-infinite sink of time and money. You have to know what level of "perfection" you're comfortable with, and that's a different answer for everybody.

[PepsiDuck]

This is something that everybody has to decide for themselves. The pursuit of "perfection" in club building can be a near-infinite sink of time and money. You have to know what level of "perfection" you're comfortable with, and that's a different answer for everybody.

 

Agreed. My current set was built by a very reputable fitter, and though they're not perfect, they come pretty close. I consider this next set to be an upgrade, so I want them to be near perfect just out of principle...hahah. Though I'm by no means a good enough player for it to truly matter...

[nochct1]

This is something that everybody has to decide for themselves. The pursuit of "perfection" in club building can be a near-infinite sink of time and money. You have to know what level of "perfection" you're comfortable with, and that's a different answer for everybody.

 

Agreed. My current set was built by a very reputable fitter, and though they're not perfect, they come pretty close. I consider this next set to be an upgrade, so I want them to be near perfect just out of principle...hahah. Though I'm by no means a good enough player for it to truly matter...

 

What's "perfect" when putting together the clubs. Do you have the Shafts and heads picked out? And the grips?

[PepsiDuck]

What's "perfect" when putting together the clubs. Do you have the Shafts and heads picked out? And the grips?

 

Yes, I have the heads in hand. Shafts and grips are also picked out. "Perfect" in my mind is a result from a visit and fitting at KZG headquarters. I learned about a host of different club parameters and was told that though my current clubs were built very well, they were still slightly off on a few of those parameters. The most striking for me was the frequency matching...the fitter explained how frequency measurements should progress through the set, and then asked if there were any clubs I loved hitting versus hated hitting. Unsurprisingly, the irons that always felt strange to me were the ones that were way off on the frequency plot.

[T-Gates]

If this is a one-time project, pay a professional.

 

If you're looking to start a new (and addictive) hobby, buy some tools and have at it.

[bulls9999]

Glad I found this thread, but I've been thinking the same thing. I'm wanting to convert my garage bench into a 'golf club workshop' where I can tool around and pull/replace/make clubs to my liking, as a hobby. Just wondering what kind of minimum cost requirement to get started: some kind of vise (combination shaft puller vise?), something to heat shafts to pull them (torch?), bending to get lofts/lies is probably the hardest part of this as well as proper swing weighting? Would $600-1,000 get me a decent set of equipment to get into this?

[5hort5tuff]

If you are including a loft/lie machine I think $600 is a little low. If you manage to find a lot of the more expensive tool used then that's pretty realistic.

 

I've built my collection of golf specific tools ocer the last 5 or so years.

 

Even small things such as hosel cleaning, reaming, measuring, etcetc add up, but can be purchased on a more as needed basis.

[extrastiff]

Glad I found this thread, but I've been thinking the same thing. I'm wanting to convert my garage bench into a 'golf club workshop' where I can tool around and pull/replace/make clubs to my liking, as a hobby. Just wondering what kind of minimum cost requirement to get started: some kind of vise (combination shaft puller vise?), something to heat shafts to pull them (torch?), bending to get lofts/lies is probably the hardest part of this as well as proper swing weighting? Would $600-1,000 get me a decent set of equipment to get into this?

I just put together my clubs and have the shop weigh/bend them for $25 a set, or even less if the manager is off duty and I can just pay the club builders directly

[Matt J]

Last set of irons, LOL.

 

It's a big distinction if you want to work on graphite or not, as the shaft puller is expensive and swingweighting is a lot tougher without simply slugging the hosels with tip weights.

 

Every time I read these types of thread I think that most of the guys who are inquiring are not very handy. If you don't have a vise or torch laying around you're afraid of spending the 50 or 60 bucks to acquire those two things, then you're probably better just having a shop do your work.

 

I don't know that it makes sense financially to have the stuff need for clubmaking / repair around your house, but I will say, it is worth it to me for a multitude of reasons, in order of priority:

 

1) I know it's done right. HUGE. Golf is a game of confidence. If you keep hitting your seven and it comes up short, you go check the loft. Looks okay? Bend it a degree or two strong anyways and see what happens. Thinking you have something fixed is as powerful as fixing it often enough.

 

2) Don't have to wait on a shop. Grips, loft and lie, perhaps an experimental 6 iron 1/2" long - just go down stairs and do it, don't have to think if I could sneak 9 holes in while the clubs are at the shop.

 

3) Do what works for me. A friend took his 3 wood into the shop a couple of weeks ago to have an inch cut off the shaft. He's a new player, but comes over from baseball and has a lot of talent. Owner of the LGS insists that he's an idiot and shouldn't give up that kind of distance, that he will regret it. He almost didn't do it. He pulls my 3 wood out of the bag and holds it up to his, yup - same length. Gapped off the 2H or 5W not the driver. Duh.

 

4) LEARN. More about my clubs, the technology, what works for me. This should probably be number 1, but it is less instantly gratifying.

[sandtrap]

You can buy most of what you need used on eBay from the guys who bought to do one set and truly only ended up using once. If I knew then what I know now, I’d skip the loft lie machine and pay to get that done after you build them. I use it occasionally when someone wants to know the loft of something but it mostly collects dust. Does look impressive in my man cave though:)

[KMo23]

Any person can can glue clubs, but if you want them built to certain specifications you have to go to someone who does it for a living.