Cutting down irons

thisisrybo · June 11, 2006

Need a little help!!

Hi everyone.... I've put a topic on here a little earlier in the week about the lie angles on my irons. We pretty much decided since I'm a shorter guy, my clubs needed cut down and fix the lie angles from there if there's still a problem. I plan on getting them cut down about .5" to .75". I can do all this myself as far as cutting down and regripping go. However, I know once I cut my irons down there will be ballflight changes as well as swingweight changes. This is where I need the expert advice that only GolfWRX can provide!!! I'm dealing with Titleist 690.mb 5-pw and 690.cb 3 & 4 iron all of them are shafted with Rifle Flighted 5.5 shafts and I'm very happy with them so far. What I need to know is how to go about this process without messing up the swingweight so much and most of all have all clubs be as close to the same specs as possible. Where do I add the extra weight once they're cut down and what is the best thing to use for the weight?

If anyone can help me in any way I would really appreciate it!!!

Thanks,
Ryan

taylormadefan · June 11, 2006

Welcome to the club of shorter than standard irons. I think you'll enjoy the better consistency, distance, and accuracy that comes with being a member! :yahoo:

I'd cut them down .5" at first (try a six iron) take them out to the range with some impact tape, see if it's enough and then cut off the extra 1/4" if needed.

As far as swing weight, losing .5" will lose 3 swing weight points. To get those back you'll need six grams of weight back (if you want to put it back to standard). Lead tape's an old standard, although you're going to need a TON of it to make up the 3 SW points. Tip weights are another option, but will require complete reshafting. I don't like using lead / tungsten powder down the shaft.

If you do add six grams of weight, you may notice the shafts are slightly weaker flex wise than before due to all the added weight, so a hardstep may be required to get things completely back to normal.

I decided to add 2g of head weight with lead tape to mine and play them at D0 (minimizes flex issues). I've been VERY happy with them; however, I'm not as sensitive to swing weight as some nor do I have a very tempo / timing oriented swing, when it's on (which isn't often) :crazy:

Good luck, hope this helps.

KingOAces · June 11, 2006

I've cut down my 690MB's by 1" and have a BUNCH of lead tape to counterweight it.

Go to a club fitter to gte the correct weight additions.

KinG

thisisrybo · June 11, 2006

So the weight will be added to the head and not the shaft? I thought there would be weight added to the butt of the shaft or something like that to counter the weight loss from trimming the shaft.... Maybe I just dont fully understand the physics of this....

Thanks for all the great tips!!!

Ryan

taylormadefan · June 11, 2006

So the weight will be added to the head and not the shaft? I thought there would be weight added to the butt of the shaft or something like that to counter the weight loss from trimming the shaft.... Maybe I just dont fully understand the physics of this....

Thanks for all the great tips!!!

Ryan

Yeah, by adding weight to the butt end, you're going to reduce the swing weight even more.

If you have a rod sitting evenly on a balance point (b) like this:

___________________

|...............|...............|

10g...........B..............10g

and then you make it shorter at one end:

________________

|...............|..........|

10g...........B.........10g

The left hand side will be "heavier" since it's further away from the balance point.

That's essentially what's happeneing here. You need to add some weight to the shorter end to bring things back into "balance"

Hope that helps and wasn't too confusing.

thisisrybo · June 12, 2006

Can anyone go into detail about a alternative to lead tape... I hate to put a bunch of lead tape of my clubheads if I can avoid it.... Is there any alternative?? Powders or weights or something? If so... How exactly is it done? Also tell me the difficulty of the process because I dont want to get in too far over my head you know!!! If I have to, I will use lead tape. But I hope I can do it right!!! :crazy:

Dyno · June 12, 2006

Can anyone go into detail about a alternative to lead tape... I hate to put a bunch of lead tape of my clubheads if I can avoid it.... Is there any alternative?? Powders or weights or something? If so... How exactly is it done? Also tell me the difficulty of the process because I dont want to get in too far over my head you know!!! If I have to, I will use lead tape. But I hope I can do it right!!! :crazy:

A well accepted method that's been successfully done millions of times is simple lead powder with cork.

Easy to do but handle it with caution. Tungsten is safer but much more expensive. If you have a grip spreader, you can install into gripped clubs. It's nothing more than swingweighting first, figure out amount to hit SW target, add powder, recheck SW, seat cork with 48" ramrod.

You'll need a swingweight scale. I don't particularly like hard/soft stepping TFR's as it'll change the kickpoints ....I like to keep the short irons with the stiffer tips. Every swingweight will drop the shaft frequency 1cpm. 10-15 is considered a full flex.