Glue problem....

[Grum]

This is an odd one, and really not all that important, but im just curious.

 

Recently I built myself a 'training' driver. Basically, a 905T head shafted with a 560g solid alluminium bar(with a .335 insert in the tip to fit in the hosel). It cpm's in the high 400's and I'd hazard a guess that it torques...well, not very much.

 

I hit it at the range whenever I practice before I hit any shots with my other clubs, and before moving onto hitting driver. It seems to help my game to some extent.

 

Now the problem....the glue consistently fails. Hosel and tip are prepped properly. Glue is 24hr, mixed properly. I've even gone to the bother of running a tap into the hosel to give it some extra surface area to grip. Can I put these failures down to the fact that the bond is taking up all the stresses that a normal shaft would take? eg torque and flexing?

 

 

Any other ideas?

[mat562]

Interesting one. Is it failing between the clubhead and the insert, or at the junction of the aluminium rod and the tip insert?

 

I take it you're prepping the insert tip as best you can - both where it enters the head and the aluminium part?

 

I don't know how the weight and rigidity of the 'shaft' would affect things, but my rudimentary (A level) physics suggests that the weight of the head would have a lot more bearing on the failure rate than the weight or rigidity of the shaft ever would.

 

If all else fails, find a man who's handy with the burning tackle and MIG weld it somehow? The aluminium parts in the shaft and the hosel may be a pain though...

[Grum]

Its a graphite tip bonded into the 'shaft', its very sturdy. It fails between head and tip.

 

My school of thought is that during a swing with a normal shaft, the shaft can twist at impact. The alluminium bar cant, so the the graphite tip/bond will be taking the brunt of the twisting forces that are present at impact.

 

JAT.

[mat562]

Could be mate. I suppose even a couple or three degrees of torque (or not) may make a difference, thinking about it - with all the strain going into the epoxy bond instead of the shaft. Curse my lack of a university degree for my ignorance in these matters... ;)

 

Whatever; if it's consistently failing it may be time for some lateral thinking - and that MIG welding.

[Grum]

Loatched to weld a perfectly good 905T head to an alluminium bar :P

 

If that is the issue, and i went that route, the alluminium hosel is simply glued into the head....so that'd go next.

 

Hmmmmmmm. May try a deeper install, go fullbore with it perhaps.

[jaskanski]

The lack of any torque in the shaft is probably what is causing the failure. The head is effectively trying to twist around the shaft at impact and therefore something has to give - in this case the weakest point. You could try drilling right through the aluminium hosel and making up a pin for it - or even a 5mm or so nut and bolt. Even then, I think the amount of stress at impact would cause it to fail eventually too.

[Grum]

Not a bad line of attack at the problem though. Threaded bar through the hosel, epoxied in and held with a couple of lock nuts, and threaded and glued again into the shaft.

[thewitt]

Try changing epoxy.

 

Not all 24 hour epoxies are created equal.

 

It should dry hard but not crack when you bend a leftover sample.

 

Though we've not done this in a long time, it used to be a common practice to put a steel rod into an iron head as a training device - just like the Momentus today.

 

-t