Blow torch not softening epoxy

[Laz1881]

Hi! I have an old set (c. 1978) of Wilson Staff Tour blades with the original shafts in them. I brought them to a clubmaker to reshaft and regrip the clubs. He said that he was unable to remove the shafts. He said he used a blow torch like normal with steel reshafting but the epoxy didnt melt.

 

has anyone run into this problem with old golf clubs? Are there alternative methods to remove these shafts? Thank you!

[Phabs]

They’re probably pinned or force fit 

Edited April 23 by Phabs

[Nessism]

In that era, Wilson drove the shafts into the head with a fair bit of force, thus creating an interference fit between the shaft and head.  A ramrod down the shaft may be able to drive the head off after you heat it up.  Golfsmith/GolfWorks used to sell a 2x4 board thing, that allowed high torque to be applied when pulling heads also.  Hopefully some of the pro builders from those days can chime in with more suggestions.  

 

Edit: used the search function and found this on the same topic...

 

 

Edited April 23 by Nessism

[st1800e]

Most likely dimpled shafts that were force fit.  Epoxy not holding any more. A ramrod down the shaft and pounded on is likely required.   

[RPMzz]

I took on this challenge a few months ago with a set of older Wilson DynaWeight irons - even after reading multiple warnings on WRX along the lines of... "thou shalt not reshaft a Wilson Staff"...

 

I was only successful by using HUGE AMOUNTS OF HEAT (propane/MAPP torch the hosel to glowing orange) + TWISTING ACTION (I used vice grips on the butt of the shaft while clamping the iron face in a bench vice). 

 

This was of course after punching then drilling out the pins. My set is LEFT-HANDED, I believe a CLOCKWISE twist was applied (whereas I read a tip to twist COUNTERCLOCKWISE for RIGHT-HANDED).

 

Good luck & Godspeed. 

[FirstFlight]

Really good recommendations already above...just want to add that Wilson was known to swage the tip of the shaft(dimple) before pressing it into the hosel with epoxy. The bottom of the hosel shape, along with the swaged shaft, allows for more epoxy to pool around the bottom 5/16 or so. Ok, only a little more epoxy...but, more heat is needed to break that bond down there versus the rest of the hosel. Brute force works, just use smart brute force. Cheers

Edited April 23 by FirstFlight
Add pics

[taki27]

One thing I am extremely pleased about is that “dimpling” is a thing of the past.  As you can see from these posts, dimpled shafts are a HUGE pain to remove.

[AdamMH]

Agreed with everybody else's assessment - absolutely a force fit. The way I broke mine out was to heat for 2 minutes and then quite literally put my entire bodyweight on the club face w/ club on the ground and twist the grip as hard as I could. I bruised a lot of skin on my hands doing it but I got them all out!

[Ri_Redneck]

Get one of these and one of these if you plan to reshaft any older irons. The drill will cut through the pins and the rod can be used to hammer off the heads.

 

BT