BDC's ( home built )one length iron build questions

[RHenderson]

Congratulations to Bryson DeChambeau on winning the US Open. I'm guessing we will see a lot of mention about his equipment which is understandable. And given the fact I'm a home tinkerer, builder who enjoys golf equipment here are a couple of questions.

 

OK, I'll be a band wagon jumper LOL. Playing golf Sunday morning my son and I were talking about Bryson's one length irons and I was asked if I ever give it any thought? Which got me thinking why not so I have a few questions. If a tinkerer or home builder wanted to try to build a set of one lengths where would you start? buy a used set of irons and build them? and how would you set them up spec's wise. Some say they are all 5 iron length, would you choose an iron length, build from there setting your lie angles accordingly? I'm guessing Bryson's win could influence what we see in the coming months from Manufacturer's as well as other builders like myself so we might as well get started.

As always, I appreciate your help, input and look forward to seeing what everyone suggests.

 

Thanks     

[Nessism]

I would look for a used set of single length clubs, or maybe a set of heads.  Wishon made some very popular ones.  You can rebuild as desired to get a shaft you like.  As for length, to get the swingweight right, I'd stay near design intent.  Cobra does 37.25", which is 7 iron length.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 17 by Nessism

[Milfordlefty]

If you run a search, you'll find a bunch of threads on diy SL irons. SL irons have heads that all weigh the same (within manufacturing tolerances) and same lie angle in the set. So with the same shaft & length and same grip, they all should swing weight the same. The only difference is loft. Basically, while it is possible, very hard to make a single length iron set out of a variable length set. As Nessism said, best to start with a set of single length clubs and rebuild if you want to tinker with shafts, length, lie angle and grip.

[rx1232]

I think Mobile Club Maker on YT made some before with variable length clubs, and it involved drilling a lot of weight and adding weight to the heads for the reasons already said here.  Likely easier to just buy the SL heads unless you've got the equipment and know how. 

[WristySwing]

2 hours ago, Nessism said:

I would look for a used set of single length clubs, or maybe a set of heads.  Wishon made some very popular ones.  You can rebuild as desired to get a shaft you like.  As for length, to get the swingweight right, I'd stay near design intent.  Cobra does 37.25", which is 7 iron length.

 

 

 

 

 

 

@Milfordlefty @rx1232 The only two companies I can think of that might (and this is a strong assumption) that you could do this with would be Ping and PXG, and of those, PXG would probably be easier with their 5 weight screws. Since both of these companies use near .400 bore hosels, you can use parallel tipped shafts to make every club the same, unlike someone like Mizuno or Titleist that have .355 bores (most of the time, that may have changed). I know Ping made a set for Bryson, but I imagine it was a lot of heavy manipulation with custom toe screws, CTP badges and such.

[Milfordlefty]

3 hours ago, WristySwing said:

 

@Milfordlefty @rx1232 The only two companies I can think of that might (and this is a strong assumption) that you could do this with would be Ping and PXG, and of those, PXG would probably be easier with their 5 weight screws. Since both of these companies use near .400 bore hosels, you can use parallel tipped shafts to make every club the same, unlike someone like Mizuno or Titleist that have .355 bores (most of the time, that may have changed). I know Ping made a set for Bryson, but I imagine it was a lot of heavy manipulation with custom toe screws, CTP badges and such.

You are probably right about PXG, but still a lot of club head modification. If a home tinkerer wants to try SL, look at ValueGolf, either their Pinhawk SLor Pinhawk Vertex lines (made to have two distinct club lengths). You can buy clubheads or assembled clubs at (relatively) inexpensive cost. The Pinhawk SL are the ones I tried for a year, good looks, specs were in mfg tolerences. They are .370 hosels, so you can try lots of different steel or graphite shafts. Not a lot of resale value, but if you butcher a VL set, no one i likely going to buy either. There is a dedicate thread on GolfWRX you can search and this article I found interesting https://www.tutelman.com/golf/clubs/singleLength3.php if you want to go further down the rabbit hole. All I can say is there are reasons why a lot more golfers don't play SL irons and it is about the ability of recreational golfers, not the clubs.

[ChaosTheory]

There are many SL brands these days.  
Cobra

Wishon

Pinhawk

GigaGolf

Orlimar Intercept

Integra iWin 

In1Zone (Diamond Tour Golf)

and probably more

 

Some of those are very affordable.

 

Heres a guy who sells several of those:

https://singlelength.com/

[Cwebb]

1 hour ago, ChaosTheory said:

There are many SL brands these days.  
Cobra

Wishon

Pinhawk

GigaGolf

Orlimar Intercept

Integra iWin 

In1Zone (Diamond Tour Golf)

and probably more

 

Some of those are very affordable.

 

Heres a guy who sells several of those:

https://singlelength.com/

 

He even offers "single length drivers"  😉

[Andygolderson]

1 hour ago, Cwebb said:

 

He even offers "single length drivers"  😉

i'm making my own 😄 

[Lach]

I am not a expert but here is my experience if anyone would weigh in on this that has more Id love to learn something new.

 

I built and have been playing the wishon OL for ~2.5 years its been interesting, I play 5 iron length because that's the iron I hit the best before I started OL. Typically you will see 7-8 iron. Chose the iron that you hit the best in your current bag. 2 ways to go about it Just make it that length or try to replicate the feel of that club.

 

Buy or modify:

 

I would say to buy a used OL a set IMO. Getting your head weights to match would be a nightmare because you need every head weight to match to get the same swing weight. At the edges of the set it means adding or removing ~30g from the head.

 

One Length is one length right?

 

Yes but actually no 2 camps in one length at this point.

Cobras "modern" one length, variable lie. (Post King F7 OL)

And everyone else where its one length, one lie, or if you will "One Swing".

 

Most people like the cobra if they played variable length before OL since its a bit more familiar in feel and look at address. Cobra also says its to compensate for peoples natural tendency to hit long irons harder even though its one length. Who knows if that's just marketing or not. 

 

Shafts: Two, probably, 3 options.

 

1) Cobra recommends: to just put the same shaft in the same head felt pretty whippy to me when I have tested them.

 

2) Compacted set: My first attempt when I built this was using a compacted version of the tipping chart. I used 7 iron head weight so I took the normal tipping chart and made 5iron = 8 iron and gw=9 progressing through the set. Worked pretty well you get a little help for the long irons getting them up without them feeling whippy and you still end up with a slightly stiffer feeling wedge shaft. 

 

3) One shaft for the whole thing probably not recommended: I am using all 9 iron shafts in my set currently. That being said, I swing like a menace with a harsh transition and enjoy rebar (Modus 130x) so results may vary. 

 

Testing OL stuff:

You really dont need a whole set to test if you like OL PW,8,5 is more than enough. When trying new shafts my go to was to make a PW or GW,8,5 irons. Gives you a good feel of what the whole set feels like without needing to build up all of them.

 

 

 

Edited June 18 by Lach

[ChaosTheory]

 I'm fairly sensitive to shaft flex, and the Cobra method was no good for me.  Sounds good on paper, though.

[FirePro]

as mentioned drilling out weight of the PW-8 iron to swing weight correctly and than adding an a lot of weight to the 6-4 iron mainly the 4 iron.  I found that the "long irons" 6-4 irons launched lower than when they were standard length.  I also tried purchasing standard length irons up to 7 iron and single length for the 6-4.  I could not get over the shorter long irons myself but thats not to say others can't.

[subrew]

I've built two single-length sets.  Both were built using heads that were in pretty bad shape, so I didn't mind stripping off the chrome, and doing a bid of finessing to get the shorter clubs lighter, and using lots of lead tape to get the longer clubs heavier.  I also used brass tip weights to help take up a few grams of slack here and there.

 

Now remember, these clubs were apparently sitting outside in a bucket for like 10 years before I got them, so chrome was peeling and they were already pitted like crazy.  I knew these weren't going to win any awards for looks.

 

They started as a set of McGregor Pro-C forged irons.  I thought they would make a great set because they had ample meat on the bottom for grinding and a nice cavity area to apply lead tape too.  Looking at my build sheet, I got all the heads to 264g, plus or minus 0.2g.  I also had a selection of shafts and grips to use at the time, so I swing weighted the 7i with a bunch of different combos until I found the right one.  Then tried to match everything as much as possible.  

 

Little things you learn:  Shafts and grips can be as different as 3-4 grams in exact sizes/models.  I had about 20 grips of the same brand/style, and they would range from 46g to 50g.  So I marked them, and would use them to adjust SW as I built.  t was sorta like blueprinting a race engine, where took 20 connecting rods and found the lightest 4, then balanced them to each other.  I did the same process.  I don't really think I needed to be that anal about it, but I was.

 

I was also trying to be good about where I added weight and where I took off weight.  I screwed around a little finding the CoG of the heads, so I added weight in the cavity to long irons and actually took weight off the bottom of the short irons because I wanted to move the CoG of those up a tad.  

 

That lead me to the "Miura notches" I did on the short irons.  I needed to remove a fair chunk of weight off the shorter irons.  I liked the look of Miura wedges with their notches, so that's the method I chose.  

 

Long story short, everything came out to with a gram on overall build from 5i to 9i, playing at 37.5" club length (I'm 6'-1" tall.)  

 

After playing them, I decided 4* loft between clubs wasn't enough.  The reality was I was only seeing 8-10yds difference between clubs.  Without the extra 1/2" of length difference, a 7i just wasn't hitting it much longer than a 8i.  Likewise, the PW was just flying too long.  So I used the 7i as a base at 34*, then proceeding to adjust to 5* loft differences between clubs.  Much better gapping.  I think I could actually go with a 6* difference and it would still work great, but in my case the de-lofted 9i at 44* gapped perfectly to the 49* wedge I was using at the time.  

 

Photos of the irons after stripping.  And just  a single shot of a 9i showing the notches.  The note page was before I started adjusting any weights at all.  

 

[subrew]

I realized I didn't have a good photo of the above, so I just snapped one of the 6 and 8 irons

 

Edited June 18 by subrew

[BREWMASTER95060]

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335342109434?itmmeta=01J0PTQ5BCEMQ211YBHHN5TG8T&hash=item4e13f282fa:g:j7EAAOSwvMBmaliC&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA8CCtO2i9t8l7J4ELghXZJdRBO8NRZ0DmoWWL8v22AFIgTvR8UOLezeEEjijuZlxSaIzjblk1YcSHf6XRdsieGi96RuOnGf0bEO1dps0SFaw5MY6mWJZdqYwOk6sR9Bfu4hItcwvOgPRIuA2F%2BbCuCPzQNqrzXVy7vNrALJfFCVezDVhHGmziCtK0C7BpOCVBgvYoQnKurLtCqyx%2BlHoIuYD69XMoC7azP5M7Obi4GuPVOk%2BCLtLj4GyhltswQ7CfNs76WXAneWsNaUlTZmKqqBvuaig%2F5FeiiSm3%2FkfIXt%2BYTYcuku7y2Kl7%2BCz7L%2BnSMg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABFBM7tXc2oVk

[Lach]

4 hours ago, subrew said:

I've built two single-length sets.  Both were built using heads that were in pretty bad shape, so I didn't mind stripping off the chrome, and doing a bid of finessing to get the shorter clubs lighter, and using lots of lead tape to get the longer clubs heavier.  I also used brass tip weights to help take up a few grams of slack here and there.

 

Now remember, these clubs were apparently sitting outside in a bucket for like 10 years before I got them, so chrome was peeling and they were already pitted like crazy.  I knew these weren't going to win any awards for looks.

 

They started as a set of McGregor Pro-C forged irons.  I thought they would make a great set because they had ample meat on the bottom for grinding and a nice cavity area to apply lead tape too.  Looking at my build sheet, I got all the heads to 264g, plus or minus 0.2g.  I also had a selection of shafts and grips to use at the time, so I swing weighted the 7i with a bunch of different combos until I found the right one.  Then tried to match everything as much as possible.  

 

Little things you learn:  Shafts and grips can be as different as 3-4 grams in exact sizes/models.  I had about 20 grips of the same brand/style, and they would range from 46g to 50g.  So I marked them, and would use them to adjust SW as I built.  t was sorta like blueprinting a race engine, where took 20 connecting rods and found the lightest 4, then balanced them to each other.  I did the same process.  I don't really think I needed to be that anal about it, but I was.

 

I was also trying to be good about where I added weight and where I took off weight.  I screwed around a little finding the CoG of the heads, so I added weight in the cavity to long irons and actually took weight off the bottom of the short irons because I wanted to move the CoG of those up a tad.  

 

That lead me to the "Miura notches" I did on the short irons.  I needed to remove a fair chunk of weight off the shorter irons.  I liked the look of Miura wedges with their notches, so that's the method I chose.  

 

Long story short, everything came out to with a gram on overall build from 5i to 9i, playing at 37.5" club length (I'm 6'-1" tall.)  

 

After playing them, I decided 4* loft between clubs wasn't enough.  The reality was I was only seeing 8-10yds difference between clubs.  Without the extra 1/2" of length difference, a 7i just wasn't hitting it much longer than a 8i.  Likewise, the PW was just flying too long.  So I used the 7i as a base at 34*, then proceeding to adjust to 5* loft differences between clubs.  Much better gapping.  I think I could actually go with a 6* difference and it would still work great, but in my case the de-lofted 9i at 44* gapped perfectly to the 49* wedge I was using at the time.  

 

Photos of the irons after stripping.  And just  a single shot of a 9i showing the notches.  The note page was before I started adjusting any weights at all.  

 

 

Wow, thats awesome! Kudos to you! I have been thinking about trying it but I havent gotten mad enough with my current irons yet lol.

[WristySwing]

13 hours ago, subrew said:

I've built two single-length sets.  Both were built using heads that were in pretty bad shape, so I didn't mind stripping off the chrome, and doing a bid of finessing to get the shorter clubs lighter, and using lots of lead tape to get the longer clubs heavier.  I also used brass tip weights to help take up a few grams of slack here and there.

 

Now remember, these clubs were apparently sitting outside in a bucket for like 10 years before I got them, so chrome was peeling and they were already pitted like crazy.  I knew these weren't going to win any awards for looks.

 

They started as a set of McGregor Pro-C forged irons.  I thought they would make a great set because they had ample meat on the bottom for grinding and a nice cavity area to apply lead tape too.  Looking at my build sheet, I got all the heads to 264g, plus or minus 0.2g.  I also had a selection of shafts and grips to use at the time, so I swing weighted the 7i with a bunch of different combos until I found the right one.  Then tried to match everything as much as possible.  

 

Little things you learn:  Shafts and grips can be as different as 3-4 grams in exact sizes/models.  I had about 20 grips of the same brand/style, and they would range from 46g to 50g.  So I marked them, and would use them to adjust SW as I built.  t was sorta like blueprinting a race engine, where took 20 connecting rods and found the lightest 4, then balanced them to each other.  I did the same process.  I don't really think I needed to be that anal about it, but I was.

 

I was also trying to be good about where I added weight and where I took off weight.  I screwed around a little finding the CoG of the heads, so I added weight in the cavity to long irons and actually took weight off the bottom of the short irons because I wanted to move the CoG of those up a tad.  

 

That lead me to the "Miura notches" I did on the short irons.  I needed to remove a fair chunk of weight off the shorter irons.  I liked the look of Miura wedges with their notches, so that's the method I chose.  

 

Long story short, everything came out to with a gram on overall build from 5i to 9i, playing at 37.5" club length (I'm 6'-1" tall.)  

 

After playing them, I decided 4* loft between clubs wasn't enough.  The reality was I was only seeing 8-10yds difference between clubs.  Without the extra 1/2" of length difference, a 7i just wasn't hitting it much longer than a 8i.  Likewise, the PW was just flying too long.  So I used the 7i as a base at 34*, then proceeding to adjust to 5* loft differences between clubs.  Much better gapping.  I think I could actually go with a 6* difference and it would still work great, but in my case the de-lofted 9i at 44* gapped perfectly to the 49* wedge I was using at the time.  

 

Photos of the irons after stripping.  And just  a single shot of a 9i showing the notches.  The note page was before I started adjusting any weights at all.  

 

 

The amount of nerd in this brings me a lot of joy. I would love to have a box of like 50 shafts and 100 grips that I could subsequently weigh to get perfect matches so have everything be uniform throughout.