Build Your own Golf Equipment – The Easiest Set of Golf Clubs to Build with Steel Shafts

Depending on what kind of golfer you are and how well you want your clubs to match will depend on what kind of assembling equipment you need. Components are manufactured well enough so that even with very basic knowledge and skills, you can build a very nice looking and great performing set of golf clubs that you will be proud to use and show your friends for many years to come.

If you would like to build a set of clubs as inexpensively as possible and as easily as possible, you’ll use steel shafts and clubheads that don’t require a ferrule. The ferrule is that fancy piece of decorative plastic at the top of the hosel that blends the shape of the hosel into the shaft. Many clubheads have rounded hosels that don’t require a ferrule. If the clubhead you desire uses a ferrule, then it’s not too much additional work to add it. These instructions will familiarize you with the process so that you can decide whether this is an endeavor worth pursuing or not. If you decide it is for you and you’d like to move forward, get additional instruction from the golf club component company that you use to ensure that you are aware of anything else that they would suggest in addition to these instructions.

Basic Assembly Equipment

1. 2-part 5 minute Epoxy – Mixing surface and mixing stick.

2. Double sided grip tape.

3. Grip solvent – paint thinner works great.

4. Metal tubing cutter (found in hardware stores and used for cutting copper plumbing pipe) It squeezes down on the pipe and has a metal cutting wheel and as you turn it around and around as you tighten it down on the pipe, it eventually cuts the pipe.

5. Measuring tape.

6. Permanent Ink Marker.

7. Acetone (Used to remove any excess epoxy/adhesive – found in a paint store or hardware store)

Optional Equipment

1. Ferrules (pretty plastic finish pieces required for some clubheads)

2. Swing Weight Scale. Opinions about swingweight differ. Some say swingweighting is important while others are unconcerned. The most important part about swingweighting is that your golf clubs match as closely as possible so that they feel the same when you swing them. See notes toward the bottom regarding swingweighting.

3. Loft Lie guage and bender (For very specific golfers who want an exact loft lie angle for each club. Requires a great degree of knowledge to achieve the desired result correctly so that the heads aren’t damaged and the loft/lie desired is maintained long term)

Golf Club Equipment.

This is the fun part where you get to select the clubheads, shafts and grips that you want for your very own personalized look.
Sellers of component golf equipment can help you select the right components to match your abilities and desired results. Considerations like:
grip -type (round,ribbed) -material (soft, cord, tour wrap) – core size (56,58,60)
shaft length-flex stiffness-torque-kickpoint etc.

Golf Club Assembly

Most of your time will be and should be spent in “accurately” cutting your shafts to length. Your shafts will have instructions on how to cut them to achieve the correct stiffness which typically means cutting some of the length off of the tip. The tip is the narrow end that fits into the clubhead hosel and the butt end is the wide end where you place the grip. Once the shafts have been cut for stiffness, then you cut length off from the butt end for each individual shafts length.

Cutting the shaft for stiffness

Example (Assuming shaft instructions require you to cut 1 inch off the tip for correct stiffness)

Measure 1 inch from the tip end and make a mark with permanent marker which is easily removed with Acetone. Measure Twice – Cut Once!! Place the tubing cutter over the shaft and tighten the cutter down onto the shaft with the cutter wheel placed exactly on top of the mark where you want the cut. Spin the tubing cutter around until it starts to get loose and if the cutter still hasn’t cut through the tubing yet, tighten it down some more until the tubing is completely cut. (Note: During the first few turns of the tubing cutter, make sure that the cutting wheel stays exactly over the mark in the same place during each rotation and doesn’t walk or move up or down the shaft inadvertently)

Cutting the shaft to length

Golf club shaft lengths have whats considered to be a standard length. When you purchase clubs from a store already assembled off the shelf, they are in standard lengths. If you are building your own clubs and you feel you need something other than standard length, you can do that easily when you cut the shafts to length. An important consideration for anyone thinking that a longer golf shaft will make it so you can hit the golfball farther. A longer shaft will increase the swing weight of the club and require more strength to swing it. The comparison is if you choke down on your driver, its easier to swing it when its shorter verses holding out on the end at full length. I experimented with this once and added a full inch over standard to my entire set. I did hit it farther by about 10 yards on average through my irons, but it affected my tempo and required much more strength. By around the 15th hole, I often found that I was unable to get the club through the impact area on time and starting slicing the golf ball so I cut the shafts shorter to only 1/4″ inch over standard which is where I should be for my specific body dimensions anyway.

Measure and mark all of your shafts before cutting any of them and then lie them out side by side to make sure that they are all in a consistent stair step pattern. A 2 iron is 1/2″ shorter than a 1 iron and so on until you get to a 9 iron. The 9 iron through Lob Wedge are all the same length.

Once you’re sure you’ve got the lengths right, make the cuts. It’s very helpful to label each shaft accordingly so they can be quickly matched up with the corresponding clubhead.

Adding the clubheads to the shafts

Placing the clubheads on the shafts (without ferrules)
Slide the golf shaft into the hosel and mark the depth on the shaft with a permanent marker that the shaft goes into the hosel so that you will know how far up the shaft to place the epoxy.
Thoroughly mix up some 2-part epoxy. Use a pencil to put a thin layer of epoxy down inside the full length of the clubhead hosel and put a thin layer of epoxy on the golf shaft up to the mark that you just made previously. (You don’t want to puddle the epoxy excessively in the hosel as you will be adding additional weight to the clubhead which will make your swingweight different than other clubs that don’t have the puddled adhesive in the head.) Lean the club against a wall to set while you do this for the rest of the clubs. Once the 5 minute epoxy has set after atleast 5-10 minutes, use a rag with some acetone to remove any excess epoxy from the shaft and clubhead.

Adding Grips

Place grip tape on the shaft.
Grip tape has adhesive on both sides. Double sided adhesive tape comes in narrow widths and wide widths. Depending on which tape you get determines the easiest way to place the tape on the shaft. The narrower tape may require you to wrap the tape in a spiral circular motion down the shaft. Try to get it spaced evenly so that it doesn’t overlap or leave big gaps. If you get the wider tape, you can just place a long strip down the shaft a little longer than the length of the grip, and remove the backing and wrap it around the shaft. Place the grip tape on the shaft so that there is an extra ¼” of tape or so extending out beyond the butt end of the shaft. Squeeze that tape together and push it into the end of the golf shaft to seal the end of the golf shaft and prevent anything from getting into the golf shaft. Once the grip has been slid onto the shaft, any tape that protrudes beyond the grip can be easily trimmed with a razor blade or you can measure how far the grip extends down the shaft in advance and put a mark on the shaft and trim the tape a little shorter than the length of the grip before you put the grip on. As mentioned earlier regarding the diameter of the grip, if you need a little wider grip, you can put an extra wrap or two of tape on the shaft to enlarge the diameter of the grip.

Slide the grip on the shaft.
While covering the little hole in the end of the grip with a finger, put enough grip solvent into the grip so that it can coat all the inside walls of the grip. Put enough in so that while now covering the holes of the grip at both ends with your fingers that you can shake the grip and feel the solvent slosh around in the grip. Carefully dump/pour any excess solvent that is in the grip out over the entire surface of the grip tape on your golf club shaft. Now both the inside of the grip and the exterior surface of the grip tape should be coated with solvent.

Note: the grip solvent prevents the grip tape adhesive from setting up for a short period of time, so you will only have maybe 10 seconds or less to get the grip on and get it aligned before the adhesive sets and the grip cannot be moved any longer.

Now slide the grip onto the shaft. If your grip has grip alignment marks for your hands on the grip or a grip reminder ridge that runs down the backside of the grip, try to make sure the grip goes on as straight as possible in the first place so that you don’t have to twist the grip much once its on the shaft to get it aligned correctly. If you have a shaft vice, aligning the grip will be a little easier at this point however it’s not very hard to align the grip without the vice. Eyeball from the top of the grip down the shaft to make sure the entire grip is aligned with the face of the club.

Let the grips cure overnight before using them.

The first set of clubs you build will give you a sense of pride and satisfaction and you’ll thoroughly enjoy using your personalized set of golf clubs on the course. I’ve built a few sets for myself now and my most recent set is graphite which is a little more difficult and requires more patience but if you want to know more about it, let me know.

Selecting the right golf club shaft.

Selecting the right golf club shaft is by far the most important aspect to consider when purchasing golf club components to build your set. Distance, accuracy and ball flight are all affected by the type of golf shaft that you select.

The most important factor in selecting any golf shaft is the stiffness. Golf Shaft stiffness generically ranges from the most flexible ladies shaft to the least flexible X-Stiff Shaft with Senior, Regular, Firm and Stiff in-between in that order.

Manufacturers use different methods to identify the flex of their shafts. For example, Royal Precision rates their Rifle series shafts from 2.0 to 8.0 offering sixty choices as opposed to the 6 mentioned above. This allows a more precise selection of flex to match the golfer’s swing. A consideration to remember is that one manufacturer’s “regular” flex rating may not be the same as the next manufacturer’s “regular” flex rating.

To determine the flex of a shaft, the shaft’s frequency needs to be measured. Frequency is the number of cycles per minute (CPM) or vibrations that the shaft has when the tip end is tweaked while the grip end of the shaft is firmly held at 5.25″ from the grip end. A frequency analyzer is used to measure the shaft’s CPM rating. A higher CPM measurement means it’s a stiffer shaft.

Usually using a club shaft that is too flexible will cause a tendency to hook the ball while using a shaft that is too stiff will cause a tendency to fade or slice the ball. A golfer wants the most flexible shaft that they can control which would provide the greatest distance.

The most popular materials used in shafts today are steel and graphite. Titanium shafts are available although they are not as popular. Steel and graphite have specific characteristics and advantages. Steel’s molecular structure is uniform throughout the shaft. This structure allows manufacturers to produce shafts consistently which is the biggest benefit of steel. Steel shafts are also relatively inexpensive and heavier than graphite. Typical cost of a True Temper Dynamic Gold series steel shaft is $5-6 each with its weight around 125-128 grams and the True Temper TrueLite series can be as light as 89 grams.

Graphite is less consistent than steel due to its complicated manufacturing process. Graphite shafts are significantly lighter than steel typically weighing about 55-60 grams allowing design of longer clubs while maintaining swingweight. Graphite shafts are more expensive than steel ranging from $10-100 per shaft. Graphite is popular for it’s vibration dampening, but recent advances in steel shafts such as Sims’ Shock Relief, True Temper’s Sensicore, and Ping’s Cushin have greatly decreased the gap between steel and graphite.

Kick point also known as flex point refers to the specific point on a shaft where the shaft flexes primarily. Shafts are available with low, mid, or high kick points. A shaft designed with a low kick point is generally easier to control and provides a higher ball flight but with less distance and typically appeal to higher handicap golfers. A shaft with a mid kick point provides a combination of power and accuracy with a medium ball flight. A shaft designed with a high kick point usually is more difficult to control and provides a lower ball flight but with more distance which is preferred by lower handicap golfers.

Torque refers to the minor twisting movement of the shaft that occurs at impact. Torque is measured in degrees. The higher the torque rating the more the twist at impact and thus slightly less control of the shot. The lower the torque rating, the less twist at impact and slightly more control of the shot. Graphite shafts usually have a wider range of torque than do steel shafts making torque a larger consideration when purchasing them.

Get educated prior to selecting the most important component of your golf equipment. Assess the benefits of steel vs. graphite with respect to your needs. Kick point and torque are characteristics to be considered although to a lesser degree than flex and shaft material. The best way to get properly fitted for shafts is to receive assistance from an accredited clubmaking company. Try and test as many different flexes as possible prior to making a selection.

A note about club swingweighting

A golf club’s swingweight can be measured using a swingweight scale. Also, if you do a swingweight scale search online (leaderboard.com has one), you can measure the total weight of your club and also see where along the shaft your golf club balances and measure the distance from the grip end of the club to the balance point and input those two sums into the online calculator which will then tell you what your club’s swingweight is.

To describe the feel of swingweight in your hands, the heavier the clubhead feels and the lighter the grip feels, the higher the swingweight. If the clubhead feels light and the grip feels heavier, then it is a lighter swingweight.

Men’s clubs are usually swingweighted in the low “D” range. Swingweights measure in letters A-G and numbers 0-10. Women’s clubs are usually in the low to mid “C” range. The important thing to remember about swingweight is each golf club within a set should have the same swingweight. If you like a D2 weight, then your entire set should be D2. Swingweight can affect your swing greatly and a club swingweighted too lightly for your physical ability will feel whippy and somewhat uncontrollable while a club that is too heavily swingweighted will feel burdensome and make it difficult to achieve proper tempo.

The weight of a golf club’s head, shaft, and grip are all part of determining the club’s swingweight. Other equally important factors include the weight and balance point of the shaft and the finished club’s length.

One swingweight point is equal to approximately 2 grams in the clubhead. A standard grip (51 grams) accounts for about 9-10 swingweight points at the butt end of the club. If you reduce the weight in the grip end of a club by 4 grams, the resulting swingweight will increase by 1 swingweight point. If you shorten a club by 1/2″, the swingweight will decrease by about 3 swingweight points. On the other hand, if you lengthen a club by 1/2″ the swingweight will increase by about 3 swingweight points. Another method to increase swingweight is to add lead tape to the clubhead. A 1/2″ wide strip of lead tape approximately 4 1/2″ long weighs about 2 grams and will add 1 swingweight point to the club. Keep in mind that the club’s “total weight” may also be altered while altering the club’s swingweight .

If you have access to a set of clubs that feels good for you, you can find out what their swing weight is as a starting point prior to building your own set so you know what combination of grip, clubhead, and shaft to use to achieve the swingweight you desire. Golf club building companies can assist you in choosing the correct combination of components. If you want to alter your swingweight and don’t want to do it yourself, a golf club maker can alter your clubs to meet your specific requirements. My site http://www.AGameGolfClubs.com has some great companies as resources.