My first insert trasplant

[Stephen8802]

This custom Macgregor driver was a bit of an adventure. It came to me as an extra club in a small lot I bought for another club. I immediately discounted it because I didn’t like the insert and the color made it hard for me to imagine playing it. But, as I looked at it a second and third time, I realized that the head shape was rather nice and the block was solid. I still couldn’t get past the insert, then my friend John Hayes recommended I replace the insert with something more my style. He sent me a few he had, I picked the red one, and set off to see if I could do a complete insert transplant for the first time. 

 

Below are pictures along the way. First, I pulled out the old insert, then test fit three alternatives, and decided to go with the solid red. I carefully cut and filed the sides to fit and glued it in. I trimmed what excess I could with a coping saw and then did a rough fit with a sanding drum mounted to my hand drill, which I put in my vice and clamped to the on position. What was left was then brought into shape with hand files and repeated checks with the bulge and roll gauge. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it did take some time. 

 

Once the insert was properly shaped, I cut in the scoring lines and drilled the screw holes. I glued in the screws, let it dry, and then did the final filing to get the screws flush and make sure the bulge and roll was as perfect as I could get it. After that, it was just a normal head that I remounted to the shaft, sanded smooth, stained and dipped. 

 

The Black Cherry stain came out more brown and less red than I expected, but every piece of wood takes stain in its own way and I liked the final color. The black shadow around the insert comes from the epoxy, which was clear, but still reacted with the insert to form the shadow. I’ve seen other inserts from this batch do the same thing, so I had a pretty good idea it would happen here and I was pleased with the effect. Normally I like white scoring lines, but I went with black to match the shadow. 

 

This was a test club for me to see if I could do it. It took more work than a typical refinish, and there are some things I would do differently now that I know, but I would do it again on a good club. 

 

Thanks to John Hayes, for the inspiration, for the insert, and for the support. Its good to have friends who are good people and push you to expand your skills.

 

[scomac2002]

Excellent work! 😎

[No_Catchy_Nickname]

It's now a TaylorMade Stealth driver!🤣

 

Kidding aside, that's some excellent work, and a beauty of a driver (no back weight!). By the way, it looks to be quite deep-faced; have you measured the face height?

 

I quite like the keyhole inserts, but that red insert gives it a cool "dangerous" look.

[Steele47]

Impressive!

[Jiggered]

Nice job!

[raggal62]

Nice work!

Is that phenolic material?

[Maxwell]

Nice work Stephen. It is time consuming work. I have only done 4-5 insert replacements myself. You wrote," The black shadow around the insert comes from the epoxy, which was clear, but still reacted with the insert to form the shadow." Stephen....what was the clear epoxy you used ? 

Blair Phillips 

Canada

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Maxwell

[BIG STU]

10 hours ago, Stephen8802 said:

This custom Macgregor driver was a bit of an adventure. It came to me as an extra club in a small lot I bought for another club. I immediately discounted it because I didn’t like the insert and the color made it hard for me to imagine playing it. But, as I looked at it a second and third time, I realized that the head shape was rather nice and the block was solid. I still couldn’t get past the insert, then my friend John Hayes recommended I replace the insert with something more my style. He sent me a few he had, I picked the red one, and set off to see if I could do a complete insert transplant for the first time. 

 

 

Below are pictures along the way. First, I pulled out the old insert, then test fit three alternatives, and decided to go with the solid red. I carefully cut and filed the sides to fit and glued it in. I trimmed what excess I could with a coping saw and then did a rough fit with a sanding drum mounted to my hand drill, which I put in my vice and clamped to the on position. What was left was then brought into shape with hand files and repeated checks with the bulge and roll gauge. It wasn’t as hard as I thought, but it did take some time. 

 

 

Once the insert was properly shaped, I cut in the scoring lines and drilled the screw holes. I glued in the screws, let it dry, and then did the final filing to get the screws flush and make sure the bulge and roll was as perfect as I could get it. After that, it was just a normal head that I remounted to the shaft, sanded smooth, stained and dipped. 

 

 

The Black Cherry stain came out more brown and less red than I expected, but every piece of wood takes stain in its own way and I liked the final color. The black shadow around the insert comes from the epoxy, which was clear, but still reacted with the insert to form the shadow. I’ve seen other inserts from this batch do the same thing, so I had a pretty good idea it would happen here and I was pleased with the effect. Normally I like white scoring lines, but I went with black to match the shadow. 

 

 

This was a test club for me to see if I could do it. It took more work than a typical refinish, and there are some things I would do differently now that I know, but I would do it again on a good club. 

 

 

Thanks to John Hayes, for the inspiration, for the insert, and for the support. Its good to have friends who are good people and push you to expand your skills.

 

 

 

Absolutely love it all the way around. I would game it in the drop of a hat. Back in the day I had any driver I played fitted with those inserts. 

[Stephen8802]

"Is that phenolic material?" Yes, and that's part of the reason I chose this insert of the plastic ones I had. I love the grain effect that phenolic gives when you sand it down.

 

"what was the clear epoxy you used?" That is JB Weld ClearWeld. I use Golfworks epoxy on my shafts and ClearWeld on my sole plates and inserts. If I use one of these inserts again, I'm going to try coating the sides with poly to see if that keeps the shadow off. I wanted it on this club, but I'll also want to see if I can keep it clean on another.

 

Next up on my list is to shape a head from a roughed blank. I have a box of roughed out heads on the way that need a a final shaping and I get to try my hand at sanding them into a finished head. I'll post them when they show up.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by Stephen8802

[cold_war_era_golfer]

Great work!  I also love the clubs on the wall and ceiling of your garage!

[jomatty]

Really cool…

 

[Brewski_golfs]

Fantastic work - the finished product looks great!  Curious about you experience with the phenolic. Having tried to work with it a little in the past I found it to be very hard material, much harder then ABS for example.  I would imagine even cutting the scoring lines may take more than the typical hacksaw blade.  Did you have any issues with the scoring lines?  Did you use any hand files for shaping or just the drum sander?

[Stephen8802]

35 minutes ago, Brewski_golfs said:

...Curious about you experience with the phenolic. Having tried to work with it a little in the past I found it to be very hard material, much harder then ABS for example. 

...I would imagine even cutting the scoring lines may take more than the typical hacksaw blade.  Did you have any issues with the scoring lines? 

...Did you use any hand files for shaping or just the drum sander?

Phenolic is hard. At first, I was just filing and thought it would take me forever. Then I cut it down to the rough shape with the sanding drum and the finish filing was much easier. In the end, it took some time, but nothing crazy.

 

The scoring lines were hard, especially because I screwed up. If you look at the close up picture, you can see the second line from the bottom isn't right. What happened was I got the lines to proper depth without the screws, which wasn't hard, then I did final shaping with the screws in. That made the lines to shallow and I had to re-cut with screws in. The combination of the hardness of the material and the limited access from the screws led to the slip. Next time, I'll cut the scoring lines extra deep in the insert before the screws go in and then when I do the final shaping, it will be easier. They still weren't perfect before the screws, but it was much easier.

 

I used both my medium and fine files for the final shaping and it was manageable to take that much off. Two or three strokes, measure bulge and roll, two or three more strokes. That part was really satisfying, almost therapeutic.

 

 

[Stephen8802]

2 hours ago, cold_war_era_golfer said:

Great work!  I also love the clubs on the wall and ceiling of your garage!

You mean these? It has spiraled out of control a bit. I was so proud that I sold a few sets and had an empty bay, but I stumbled across some '88 Goosenecks last week and now that's full again. I'm not proud of my weakness.

 

[freddiec]

It came out very nice. Must be the same red insert John used in a M43, it also had that same dark look around the edges. Nice work and good looking driver.  

[raggal62]

The first phenolic inserts I recall seeing were in Louisville Golf's "Classic '50s Series" from the late 1970's. Does anyone remember it being used prior?

The resemblance to vulcanized fiber was pretty similar, albeit they were two totally different materials.

[LeftyMac]

Stephen,

 

How hard was it to get the keyhole insert out?  I have a couple of drivers in need of new inserts and a little stash of new inserts from John Hayes.  I'm probably less concerned about fitting the new one than I am about getting the old one out without making a mess.

[Stephen8802]

John is great, isn't he? He is so generous with his time and stash.

 

It came out without issue. I pulled the head off the shaft and put it in the oven at 250* for 30 minutes. When it came out, I used my frearson bits, also heated, to gently loosen then remove the screws. I taped up the wood on the face, blue tape first then duct tape over that, to keep the wood from splintering. I popped the sole plate off with a utility knife blade. For the insert, I started by using a utility knife between the insert and the persimmon and then used a tool I made to pop off the insert completely. The heat soak from the oven loosened up the epoxy and the insert came off without much of a fight.

 

The tool I made looks more like a prison shiv than anything else, but it works well. I started with a cheap, and thin, tool that I had laying around that was some sort of a lightweight putty knife/frosting spreader type thing. I'm not really sure what it was originally, it just ended up in the garage and I found something to do with it. I cut it down with an angle grinder to make it short (so it wouldn't bend too much) and sharpened in on my bench grinder. I originally made it to cut through dowels on Velecitized woods, but it is a good overall tool for separating inserts after you have used a utility knife for the first pass.

 

Go slow and easy and don't force anything. If you had it in the oven long enough, the epoxy should be willing to work with you.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2022 by Stephen8802

[Swingingk]

You did a beautiful job.  Very nice.  A very informative writeup too - thanks.  The pre-heat in the oven idea is genius!

 

Loved the shop views too.  I really enjoy seeing peoples workspaces and the tools they use.  Also, your club storage has inspired me.  Nice rack!  Haha

[jaworski]

Very nicely done.

 

I had a short stint working part-time in a club repair shop in 1982 and remember fitting these kind of inserts in woods form the club repair guy.

 

Funny thing is I have three sheets of this phenolic material at work. we picked it up in the trash some years back. They are just over 3/8 thick and 3 foot square. my boss could not let them get tossed so he grabbed them. Funny what gets tossed at universities.

 

NOTE:  If anyone wants some let me know and I will ship  as long as you cover shipping costs. I know it will get thrown out after I retire in October. I have means to cut it on a bandsaw to ship in flat rate boxes to get the best bang for your shipping dollar.

 

Jim

[Stephen8802]

What color?

[jaworski]

Red/maroon.

 

Similar as what was used in this restored club .

 

Edited May 17, 2022 by jaworski

[JimmyC59]

I've been building modern clubs for years and just started to get into Hickory golf. I need to replace/add inserts to some woods. Does anyone have any inserts they would like to sell or know where I can purchase the correct material.

Thanks.

[PlsBrk80]

Great post I wish I was a little more adept at refurbishing clubs.