Help, club heads flying off!

[Rlx7]

I recently rebuilt my first set of irons and have had two heads fly off while playing. Iron heads are Titliest 716 AP2s and new shafts are Oban CT-100. The iron shafts were sanded and cleaned. The hosel of the iron shafts were cleaned thoroughly with wire brush hosel cleaner on a drill and then with acetone. Visually they looked very clean and no dust was coming out when cleaning them with acetone. 

 

I used Brampton Pro-fix 5/15 epoxy mixed equal parts with a small amount of glass beads. I worked in batches and did 2-3 clubs per batch of epoxy give fast set up time. I left epoxy out and each set up appropriately. 

 

I used brand new brass tip weights and made sure the shafts set all the way down into the base of the hosel before glueing everything up. 

 

I did not use collared ferrules (OEM on titliest irons) but rather BBF Co ferrules. 

 

I played three rounds with them and had no issues then was hitting balls on the range and after 50 balls with my 7 iron and a little bit of a fat hit the head flew off! It looking like the export just let go.

 

I started over, cleaned everything up, new ferrule, new tip weight, etc and have not had an issue with the 7 an have hit many more balls

 

I’m playing this past weekend and my 9iron head flies off on the course. Same thing, looks like the glue let go! 

 

Is this an epoxy issue? I can’t image it’s a cleaning issue, they were pristine before I glued them. Could not using collared ferrules be the issue allowing more wiggle room and a hard hit cause the epoxy to give way and the head to fly off?

 

I bought new long cure epoxy and collared ferrules and plan to take them all apart and start over this weekend but I wanted to see what people thought.

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Rlx7]

While looking at the head and the shaft after they came apart there was more epoxy in the hosel than on the shaft. These were shaft pulls and very clean. I wonder if they were too smooth and I didn’t use enough grit to rough them up.

[Socrates]

When you have a situation where the epoxy has stuck to one surface and not the other, you usually have a contamination issue.   Sources of this can be improper prepping of the shaft or some sort of oil or similar getting on the shaft.  Where I have seen people go wrong is that they use acetone or similar but use a cloth that is either dirty or has a chemical in it (certain paper towels can have lotions or softeners in them).  I prefer to sand or scrape shafts and then only wipe off the residue with a clean, dry rag. 

 

Some epoxies do not handle contaminates well.  Some golf epoxies are better than others, but the Brampton's should be good.  Mix your epoxies well and if you use small quantities, you need to be extra careful with ratios and mixing.  Even a small mistake can lead to a failure.

[8602081]

You want the bore and shaft to be clean of contaminants, but I think you need to rough them up..

It gives epoxy something to grab onto.

 

Check out the head/shaft of the club that came apart.. Check to see, where it separated..  Is the epoxy on the shaft or the head?

 

If you have more than 1 irons from the same batch come apart.. most likely it could be bad epoxy mix..

 

Edited June 2, 2021 by 8602081

[mcounci2]

Not sure how small your epoxy batches are, or how you're dispensing it.  Larger amounts of epoxy are less prone to differences in mix ratio using the "eyeball it" method.  If using very small amounts of each part I'd weigh it.

[Rlx7]

I haven’t heard anyone mention the collared ferrules. Does anyone think these matter or not?

[jeggolfer68]

Sounds like a shaft prep issue. I used to use a grinding wheel, letting the shaft spin for a few seconds, not applying much pressure. On a new shaft, all the shine would be gone up to and including where the ferrule slipped on. Shaft was rough but that ensures a great bond. All my steel shafts were done this way, finished with Golfworks 2 part epoxy, 24 hour cure. Of course the hosels got a quick wire brush cleaning, nothing else, no cleaning solutions ever. 

[Stuart_G]

10 hours ago, Rlx7 said:

I haven’t heard anyone mention the collared ferrules. Does anyone think these matter or not?

 

They might in the context of graphite shafts breaking at the top of the hosel - but not in the context of the glue joint failing.

 

On 6/2/2021 at 7:21 AM, Rlx7 said:

While looking at the head and the shaft after they came apart there was more epoxy in the hosel than on the shaft. These were shaft pulls and very clean. I wonder if they were too smooth and I didn’t use enough grit to rough them up.

 

You need to make sure all the chrome is removed.  90 grit by hand is a good grit to use.  Might be able to get by with a little bit finer grit with a belt sander.  Contamination is always a possibility as well so cleaning with acetone or even alcohol (iso-propyl or denatured) is usually a good idea.

[Rlx7]

These were shaft pulls and chrome had already been removed I was using 120 grit to remove epoxy of me the shaft from previous heads. I bought some 80 grit for my reinstall this weekend. We’ll see what happens. Thanks for all the help and suggestions!