How do you remove a graphite shaft from a Driver?

Question

How do you remove and replace a graphite shaft on a Driver?

Answer 1

VERY CARFULLY........seriously though you heat up the hosel with a heat gun, to melt the epoxy and then pull it out.  You need to have the right tools to do a good job so unless you have some experience (in which case you wouldn't be asking this question) I recomend you take it to a golf shop and let a proper repairperson handle it for you.

Answer 2

The epoxy at the end of the shart in the head would need to be disolved or made to come loose.

Answer 3

I would leave it to the professionals.  They know how to do it.

Answer 4

All modern club heads are epoxied onto the their respective shaft.  If the shaft is broken off close to the club head it could be drilled out with a slightly under-sized drill an then go back with a reamer to get the hole to the right size, remove all the epoxy, and not drill through the hosel

If the shaft is relatively intact then the professionals remove the shaft by heating the hosel area of the club until the epoxy weakens and then applying force to pull the shaft out of the hosel.  With graphite shafts, if you want to salvage the shaft, it gets a little trickier.  Too much heat will destroy the graphite shaft.

There are two points to remember.  First the epoxy provides a layer of material between the hosel and the shaft.  The metal hosel will conduct heat very quickly.  The epoxy does not transmit the heat nearly as fast.  So, if you use a torch and apply the heat to the proper place as fast as possible the very outer layer of the epoxy will heat up to the point it begins to weaken before the inner portion of the epoxy layer gets too hot and puts too much heat into the shaft.  The epoxy will fail between 250 and 300 degrees F.

Now the second point.  You've got the epoxy to the point of failing and now you have to get the shaft out.  I have a device I built years ago that uses a heavy coil spring to put a couple of hundred pounds of tension on the shaft, trying to pull it out of the club head.  The shaft is captured by bungee cords when it releases so it does not damage itself or me.  With this spring load in place, I heat the club head until the epoxy fails and the spring yanks the shaft out of the club head.  Golfsmith and others sell similar devices that apply similar spring loads to the shaft.  Some tooling allows you to use a forked pry bar to apply the pressure to the club head to pull it off.

If you have a club head that has the shaft pass all they way through it or deeply within it you will have to heat the club along that length.  This gets a little harder but if it is metal then you can do it.  If the head is all graphite then you will not be able to use a torch or a heat gun.  These will have to be drilled out and you will not be able to save the shaft.

Unless you do this often and especially if you want to preserve the shaft I would take it to a local pro shop to perform this task  It really is not hard if you understand the principles involved and have the tools.

To install a shaft you will have to make sure the hosel is cleaned up of all old epoxy, dirt, and dust.  You want the new epoxy to stick well.  The shaft tip diameter needs to match the hole in the hosel.  You need to remove the paint on the tip of the shaft that will extend into the hosel / club head.  

You apply epoxy to the tip of the shaft and onto the inner surface of the hosel.  Insert the shaft and clean up any excess that comes out in th process.  This does not address making any swing weight adjustments by adding weight before epoxying the two together.  When the epoxy has set up (24 hours at about 75 degrees) you can trim the shaft to length and put on the grip.  

Golfsmith, Golfworks, and others sell the components and tools needed to do these jobs as well as providing detailed, in depth instructions to do it properly.  they also teach lessons in club building if you are interested.  I would visit their website and maybe order their catalogs.  They can teach you a lot.

Answer 5

"Toughtobe" is correct. To remove a graphite shaft, you heat the hosel with a heat gun -- never a propane torch. If you are unfamiliar with how to remove the shaft, I would strongly suggest you have a professional replace the shaft. You need to get the right type of shaft (there are many). Attaching it to the clubhead and trimming it properly are not difficult if you have been trained (I have), but if you do not do it properly, you have wasted your time and money.

Answer 6

It's done using a heat gun, focusing the heat on the hosel and applying constant pressure to extracting the shaft from the hosel.