Correct way to tip graphite iron shafts for tip weights

[sm_watts]

I did two irons before I really considered this question. I’m retro-installing tip weights into parallel Xcaliber Rapid Taper shafts in some Maltby TS3 heads. The 4 gram brass tip weights I have will take up .25” in the hosel, which has a listed depth of 1.355”, so plenty of room. I would prefer not to extend the overall length of the irons, so after pulling the shafts should I:

A) take 1/4” off the tip of the shaft, assuming that little amount won’t change the flex a noticeable amount, with the tip weight replacing the amount I trim off;

B) take 1/4” off the butt and leave the it tipped as-is;

C) just put the weight in, not trim the shaft anywhere, and live with it 1/4” longer than it is. 
 

What is considered the right way to do this?

Edited June 4 by sm_watts

[taki27]

Since you are retrofitting, do you have specs that you feel worked with that shaft?  If so, then I would go with those specs.  If not, I would not tip trim or butt trim the shaft and install as is.  You can always butt cut it late if you don’t like it.  I’m firmly of the camp that you wouldn’t notice a 1/4 inch tip trim in either direction.

[golfschnell]

Agreed, don’t trim anything additionally till you have opportunity to check swing weights, length and feel first, you might actually like the shaft/head combo as it is. You can always trim as needed after. I for one and am very sensitive to length and lie and do each club independently in my builds, and they are not always linear progressions. But I don’t find the perfect fit until Ive hit each club and made minor tweaks.

 

 

You will love the TS3s, I have built 2 sets for friends so far and they are extraordinary at their price point, I’ve never hit a super forgiving iron with this compact of shape, outstanding performance and dense forged feel. If my Ts-1Ms weren’t checking all my boxes, I’d be playing them myself.

 

 

[Stuart_G]

13 hours ago, sm_watts said:

I did two irons before I really considered this question. I’m retro-installing tip weights into parallel Xcaliber Rapid Taper shafts in some Maltby TS3 heads. The 4 gram brass tip weights I have will take up .25” in the hosel, which has a listed depth of 1.355”, so plenty of room. I would prefer not to extend the overall length of the irons, so after pulling the shafts should I:

A) take 1/4” off the tip of the shaft, assuming that little amount won’t change the flex a noticeable amount, with the tip weight replacing the amount I trim off;

 

For taper tip shafts and hosels - this is really the best option otherwise you no longer will get a good fit between the taper in the hosel and the taper on the shaft.   And a poor fit can mean a poor glue joint.   And no, shafting beads would NOT help with that kind of problem.

 

And it wont change the flex ANY amount.  Tipping only changes flex if you keep the same insertion depth.   Your tipping but reducing the insertion depth of the shaft to allow room for the tip weight - so zero change and exact same performance.   It's the part of the shaft that's not in the hosel that dictates performance - not what's inside (assuming a minimal acceptable glue joint surface area).

 

 

For taper tip shafts in a parallel hosel - it's a bit more complicated.   It could effect the best way to shim the two together.   Tipping allows the easy use of standard taper to parallel shims.   Not tipping might require a bit more creativity when coming up with a shim to keep a good fit.  Or the need to use some of the scalloped "self-adjusting" shims instead of the shims designed specifically for taper to parallel iron installations.

 

 

In short, the "best" choice is ALL about getting a good fit between the shaft and hosel - not performance of the shaft.

 

 

13 hours ago, sm_watts said:

B) take 1/4” off the butt and leave the it tipped as-is;

 

FYI - while not ideal with taper tip shafts,  that would be perfectly fine for parallel tip shafts going into parallel hosels.   Some purists might prefer tipping to keep the shaft performance the same - but IMO the 1/4" difference would not result in a noticeable change to the performance of the shaft.

 

 

Edited June 5 by Stuart_G

[third-times-a-charm]

Buy graphite shaft tip weights that dont have that huge piece at the tip. They make flat ones as well.

[denkea]

39 minutes ago, third-times-a-charm said:

Buy graphite shaft tip weights that dont have that huge piece at the tip. They make flat ones as well.

Those won't work in a parallel tip steel shaft.  

[Doaner84]

graphite tip weights are the best way to go.

[Stuart_G]

26 minutes ago, denkea said:

Those won't work in a parallel tip steel shaft.  

 

There are no tip weights that will work decently in both graphite and steel shafts.

 

And for just 4 gm - lead graphite tip weights (from golfworks) is better than brass IMO.

 

Edited June 5 by Stuart_G

[sm_watts]

13 hours ago, golfschnell said:

You will love the TS3s, I have built 2 sets for friends so far and they are extraordinary at their price point, I’ve never hit a super forgiving iron with this compact of shape, outstanding performance and dense forged feel. If my Ts-1Ms weren’t checking all my boxes, I’d be playing them myself.

 

 

Oh, I do love them!  I've played 5-6 rounds with them already, I'm just going back and adding a little weight to the 8-9-PW to get them up to the same swing weight as the 6-7.

[Howard_Jones]

6 hours ago, Stuart_G said:

 

For taper tip shafts and hosels - this is really the best option otherwise you no longer will get a good fit between the taper in the hosel and the taper on the shaft.   And a poor fit can mean a poor glue joint.   And no, shafting beads would NOT help with that kind of problem.

 

And it wont change the flex ANY amount.  Tipping only changes flex if you keep the same insertion depth.   Your tipping but reducing the insertion depth of the shaft to allow room for the tip weight - so zero change and exact same performance.   It's the part of the shaft that's not in the hosel that dictates performance - not what's inside (assuming a minimal acceptable glue joint surface area).

 

 

For taper tip shafts in a parallel hosel - it's a bit more complicated.   It could effect the best way to shim the two together.   Tipping allows the easy use of standard taper to parallel shims.   Not tipping might require a bit more creativity when coming up with a shim to keep a good fit.  Or the need to use some of the scalloped "self-adjusting" shims instead of the shims designed specifically for taper to parallel iron installations.

 

 

In short, the "best" choice is ALL about getting a good fit between the shaft and hosel - not performance of the shaft.

 

 

 

FYI - while not ideal with taper tip shafts,  that would be perfectly fine for parallel tip shafts going into parallel hosels.   Some purists might prefer tipping to keep the shaft performance the same - but IMO the 1/4" difference would not result in a noticeable change to the performance of the shaft.

 

 

What Stuart Say.

For Graphite, we CAN accept at tip wgt that shim the tip up with 2/8" since we still have 1.0" of the tip inserted, but that 0.25 SHOULD be taken from the tip, and ALWAYS if its taper tip shaft, due to hosel fit.

So, simply tip trim the same as the tip wgt shim up, and you are back to "the same hosel fit AND the same shaft ABOVE the hosel" as it should have been.


 

Edited June 5 by Howard_Jones

[PNW]

@Stuart_G I'm curious why you prefer lead over brass for graphite tip weights. thanks

[taki27]

7 minutes ago, PNW said:

@Stuart_G I'm curious why you prefer lead over brass for graphite tip weights. thanks

I can’t speak for Stuart, but for me, the lead weights are MUCH easier to remove since they can be drilled.

[PNW]

@taki27 that makes sense. thanks!

[Stuart_G]

4 minutes ago, taki27 said:

I can’t speak for Stuart, but for me, the lead weights are MUCH easier to remove since they can be drilled.

 

Bingo!   If (really when) the brass end up epoxied to the inside of the shaft, they are a PITA to remove without damaging the shaft IF you ever want to reuse the shafts in another set.   Lead tip weights can be easily drilled out if that happens.

 

If there are no expectations to reuse the shafts then it's not a major issue.

 

But the problem is that they are only available in 2 and 4 gm weights with  minimimal (1/8") hosel space.   There is a 6 gm version but it takes up 1/4" of the hosel.   So anything more and I'll switch to brass.

 

Edited June 5 by Stuart_G

[ShortGolfer]

Another option is tungsten tip weights, in which the tungsten is embedded in a material that can be cut with a knife.  
I just got two 10g for my 7W.  I weighed them and will be using the slightly heavier one.

[sm_watts]

Thanks for the help everyone!  The shafts are actually parallel tip, but the Maltby heads have the universal design that accepts both.  The brass tips are just what I have at home.  I've played the last two rounds with 4 grams of lead tape on the back of each head and that seems to be my sweet spot, so I'm going to go back and re-shaft them with tip weights and take the tape off for a cleaner look.

[sm_watts]

2 hours ago, Howard_Jones said:

 

I've never seen this before - I'm screen-shotting this for future reference... thank you!

[sm_watts]

And, by the way, I already went with option A (tip-trimming 1/4") with the 6 and 7 irons before I stopped to consider if I was really doing it right 🙂

 

It seemed the most logical way to go, but there's plenty of discussion over in the Maltby TS2 thread about how fickle the rapid taper shafts can be with tip trimming.

Edited June 5 by sm_watts

[Howard_Jones]

21 minutes ago, sm_watts said:

And, by the way, I already went with option A (tip-trimming 1/4") with the 6 and 7 irons before I stopped to consider if I was really doing it right 🙂

 

It seemed the most logical way to go, but there's plenty of discussion over in the Maltby TS2 thread about how fickle the rapid taper shafts can be with tip trimming.

My all time favorite set (when the body was still working as it should), was my Callaway X-Tour 2005, with DG R300 Sensicore shafts. They have a very strange tip size thats 0.363 tapers....

Look at that small chart again.....RIGHT, X-Tour 2005 was tip trimmed 3/8" from the factory, (Hard stepped 0.75 as standard) and still fit a standard taper tip hosel, and thats why we say we can tip trim a taper 3/8" on most hosels without insert issues (to tight), but if we shim the tip up, it becomes too loose, so when using tip weights on tapers, ALWAYS tip trim the difference, but MAX 2/8", since the shaft itself needs 1.0" as insert, so never use tip weights that builds more than 2/8"

Edited June 5 by Howard_Jones

[Ger21]

On 6/4/2023 at 4:17 PM, sm_watts said:

A) take 1/4” off the tip of the shaft, assuming that little amount won’t change the flex a noticeable amount, with the tip weight replacing the amount I trim off;

This is what I did when adding 10g tip weights after getting my heads refinished. The shaft ends up in the exact same position, so flex does not change at all.

[Even Further]

On 6/5/2023 at 11:44 AM, ShortGolfer said:

Another option is tungsten tip weights, in which the tungsten is embedded in a material that can be cut with a knife.  
I just got two 10g for my 7W.  I weighed them and will be using the slightly heavier one.

 

This type of tip weight is awesome, very user friendly if it fits the shafts bore.

Edited June 7 by Even Further

[ARL67]

I'm not a fan of the those rubber tungsten ones as the diameter is a bit larger and it has a 1/4" long butt at the end.

 

I much prefer the Wishon 9g tungsten weights as they are short, are the typical 4mm diameter, and the butt is only 1/8".   They are easy to pull out as well to re-use.   If I need more than 4g tip weight, I use the Wishons and grind down to the desired weight.  If 4g or less, I use the lead tips weights and grind them accordingly.

 

I also sometimes use weighted ( and coloured ) ferrules from Big Foot Golf, sold on his eBay store.  The aluminum are 4g, stainless is 13g, brass 14g, copper 15g.

[sm_watts]

4 hours ago, ARL67 said:

 

I also sometimes use weighted ( and coloured ) ferrules from Big Foot Golf, sold on his eBay store.  The aluminum are 4g, stainless is 13g, brass 14g, copper 15g.

These are cool looking, but a little spendy... and how do you turn them down if they don't match the OD of the hosel?

[ARL67]

The 4g might be pricey as you can buy coloured metal ferrules for cheap on eBay.  However the very heavy stainless, brass, and copper are very unique and worth the $5 they charge.   In the same $$$ range as BBandFCo.

 

I’ve built several Mizuno, Srixon, Titleist sets and fit is excellent.  I think those that need to turn ferrules don’t buy the right size.  I think most hosels OD are .540 these days.

Edited June 8 by ARL67

[NRJyzr]

I'm late to the party but my take is lead tape. 

 

Lead tape > tip weights.

 

[sm_watts]

1 hour ago, NRJyzr said:

I'm late to the party but my take is lead tape. 

 

Lead tape > tip weights.

 

I've been using lead tape on them the last few rounds to settle on exactly how much extra weight I want down there.  Now, that I've settled on an amount, I'm using tip weights just to give them a cleaner appearance.

[Even Further]

I used 10 gage copper romex wire for tip weights in my wedges. All the graphite tip weights I tried were too big for the bore in the Recoil tips. It worked really good.

[Stuart_G]

3 hours ago, Even Further said:

I used 10 gage copper romex wire for tip weights in my wedges. All the graphite tip weights I tried were too big for the bore in the Recoil tips. It worked really good.

 

It's actually pretty easy to open up the ID to get them to fit.   I typically go to 5/32" or even 11/64."   It's just extra epoxy your removing - no graphite or anything that effects the structural strength of the tip.