Driver shaft tip breaks inside adapter?

[halliedog]

Has anyone ever had a driver shaft snap inside the adapter? I noticed this morning on about the second hole that the grip/shaft graphics were WAY off, and figured one of my buddies was having some fun with me by adjusting my loft/lie settings when I wasn't paying attention. They all denied it, and when I looked a little closer I noticed that the setting was still the same, but the shaft/grip were rotated way more to the left. I went from hitting slight draws yesterday to big fades today, and all I can guess is the head was spinning open slightly on contact?

 

Anyway, got home today and put it in the puller, and the shaft tip was actually snapped inside the adapter. There was some splintering, but not like a normal broken graphite shaft would show. It was a lot cleaner break than I've ever seen on a graphite shaft. Could I have had a small burr inside the adapter that gradually caused it to shear off? Other than that I'm out of ideas. Luckily the head never flew off and killed someone, but I'm at a loss on how this happened.

 

Bonus question: since the damage was limited to the bottom 1 1/4" of the shaft, I should be OK to trim it up and use in a 3 wood or Mini Driver?

[Z1ggy16]

Yup, has happened twice to me. It's not uncommon.

 

I have two snapped shafts sitting right near me that broke off inside the hosel and there's still some fraying and damage further up inside. You can do it but maybe don't use it with a head you really value, in case it goes flying.

[cardoustie]

Just happened to me at top of adapter, driver tipped 1.25" ... and extended same

[halliedog]

Thanks guys! I have 2 new adapters and another shaft on order. Love this combo, and will try the broken shaft in a 3 wood (on a course with no water hazards!). How are you prepping the inside of the adapter? I use sandpaper rolled around a dowel followed by some acetone on a a Qtip. Just want to make sure I don't miss anything on the next build. Also, I should be good to reuse the adapter in question once I drill out the old broken shaft and carefully prep? Not sure if there might be something inherently wrong with it, hence why I just ordered 2 new ones.

[Z1ggy16]

Just drill it out really good and you should be fine. Sandpaper + acetone is the standard protocol for me, too

 

I shy away from buying pulls now. All three of my broken shafts this year were pulls... If that's not an Omen that I'm not sure what is. Have never had a new one break on me.

[halliedog]

This one was new uncut when installed this spring. Guess I'm kinda like you, the club I swing the fastest in the bag I want to make sure all the components are good to go. Just saw you signature, and am still "gaming" the P770s myself 4-PW, only with some old-school TT Tour Concepts, and haven't hit a more forgiving "player's iron" yet. Thanks again for the input on the driver shaft.

[Z1ggy16]

Hmm that's a bit odd. Only thing I can think of is you prepped the shaft a bit too much and took off more than just paint.

[Socrates]

> @halliedog said:

> Has anyone ever had a driver shaft snap inside the adapter?

>

> Anyway, got home today and put it in the puller, and the shaft tip was actually snapped inside the adapter. There was some splintering, but not like a normal broken graphite shaft would show. It was a lot cleaner break than I've ever seen on a graphite shaft. Could I have had a small burr inside the adapter that gradually caused it to shear off? Other than that I'm out of ideas. Luckily the head never flew off and killed someone, but I'm at a loss on how this happened.

>

The only real way that it could break down there is that the shaft was not adhering to the hosel wall up until the point of breakage. Either the shaft was not adhering to the epoxy or the epoxy was not adhering to the hosel wall. Otherwise any other stress on the shaft would have ended at the top of the adaptor hosel and not extended beyond that.

 

 

[halliedog]

It was prepped on my belt sander just like normal, and definitely didn't go too deep. Strange thing is it lasted all spring/summer and gave way yesterday or today, 2 of the cooler days we've had lately. I did have the bag traveling in the trunk the last few weeks to play in some events away from home, so maybe there is some merit in the "leaving the clubs in the trunk breaking down epoxy" argument? I've never believed in that before, but this incident leaves me open to any possibilities.

[Valtiel]

> @halliedog said:

> It was prepped on my belt sander just like normal, and definitely didn't go too deep. Strange thing is it lasted all spring/summer and gave way yesterday or today, 2 of the cooler days we've had lately. I did have the bag traveling in the trunk the last few weeks to play in some events away from home, so maybe there is some merit in the "leaving the clubs in the trunk breaking down epoxy" argument? I've never believed in that before, but this incident leaves me open to any possibilities.

 

I wonder if it is more of a hot/cold expansion/contraction issue with the metal components involved.

[steeletaylor]

Same thing happened to me with a fairway wood. Shaft broke inside the adapter. I hate it for you, but hey now you have a chance to buy more gear! As if a WRX'r needed an excuse to look for more gear...

[halliedog]

> @steeletaylor said:

> Same thing happened to me with a fairway wood. Shaft broke inside the adapter. I hate it for you, but hey now you have a chance to buy more gear! As if a WRX'r needed an excuse to look for more gear...

 

I already bought the same exact shaft, and 2 adapters, so am doing the correct WRX thing. I thought I could trim up the tip of the old shaft and plug into one of the adapters to try in my 3 wood, but just finding out the adapters for the driver and fairway woods are different? Oh well, need to spend another few more sheckels on a fairway adapter I guess, and I'll be able to try 2 more shafts in the driver.

[huckitchuckit]

I used to work for a golf company and this seemed pretty common

[Nessism]

Have any of these broken shafts been pulled before using a heat gun? Unless you are very careful a heat gun will put a lot of heat into the shaft when heating to pull.

[halliedog]

> @Nessism said:

> Have any of these broken shafts been pulled before using a heat gun? Unless you are very careful a heat gun will put a lot of heat into the shaft when heating to pull.

 

Mine was not, it was a brand new install in about March.

[Howard_Jones]

> @Socrates said:

> > @halliedog said:

> > Has anyone ever had a driver shaft snap inside the adapter?

> >

> > Anyway, got home today and put it in the puller, and the shaft tip was actually snapped inside the adapter. There was some splintering, but not like a normal broken graphite shaft would show. It was a lot cleaner break than I've ever seen on a graphite shaft. Could I have had a small burr inside the adapter that gradually caused it to shear off? Other than that I'm out of ideas. Luckily the head never flew off and killed someone, but I'm at a loss on how this happened.

> >

> The only real way that it could break down there is that the shaft was not adhering to the hosel wall up until the point of breakage. Either the shaft was not adhering to the epoxy or the epoxy was not adhering to the hosel wall. Otherwise any other stress on the shaft would have ended at the top of the adaptor hosel and not extended beyond that.

>

>

 

The same was my thinking, i know some only add epoxy to the bottom of the shaft tip, and hope it will even out, but i always do it the other way, adding epoxy only on the upper 1/3 of the hosel, plus the full length of the tip to prevent the epoxy from escaping into the shaft center. (the shaft will bring epoxy from the upper 1/3 down into the hosel)

 

To the OP, whats your method for applying epoxy to the hosel and tip? that MIGHT answer the question, ive never seen a shaft break of down in the hosel like that, but on the hosel top....many, and its heel side impact that breaks the shaft when it happens at the hosel top.

[Howard_Jones]

> @huckitchuckit said:

> I used to work for a golf company and this seemed pretty common

 

Down in the hosel? if you saw many it should be questioned WHY, and what was the answer to that?

[huckitchuckit]

> @"Howard Jones" said:

> > @huckitchuckit said:

> > I used to work for a golf company and this seemed pretty common

>

> Down in the hosel? if you saw many it should be questioned WHY, and what was the answer to that?

 

How would I know that? I said I saw it, I didnt do it

[Howard_Jones]

> @huckitchuckit said:

> > @"Howard Jones" said:

> > > @huckitchuckit said:

> > > I used to work for a golf company and this seemed pretty common

> >

> > Down in the hosel? if you saw many it should be questioned WHY, and what was the answer to that?

>

> How would I know that? I said I saw it, I didnt do it

 

Saw it many times, but never question it so you get to know why?...it explains why things is as they are...the right questions is never asked, so how can we prevent it from happening again....we cant if we dont know why.

[halliedog]

Thanks for chiming in Howard. I can assure everyone this particular instance was a brand new shaft that I tipped 1/2" with a cut-off wheel with the cut area wrapped in taped to prevent splintering. The thing was awesome for 5 1/2 months, then just went to crap in a weekend. Club was never left in trunk for long until recently, and it's not that hot out right now. My method of applying epoxy is to use a Popsicle stick to apply some down the hosel, then apply a lot more to the shaft, slathering all sides. I always have some cleanup rags around because there will be the inevitable seepage from the initial insertion.

 

My main reason for starting this post was that I've seen broken shafts, but never one like this. I would agree with you Howard, if someone has seen this happen "many times", something is off.

[Howard_Jones]

> @halliedog said:

> Thanks for chiming in Howard. I can assure everyone this particular instance was a brand new shaft that I tipped 1/2" with a cut-off wheel with the cut area wrapped in taped to prevent splintering. The thing was awesome for 5 1/2 months, then just went to crap in a weekend. Club was never left in trunk for long until recently, and it's not that hot out right now. My method of applying epoxy is to use a Popsicle stick to apply some down the hosel, then apply a lot more to the shaft, slathering all sides. I always have some cleanup rags around because there will be the inevitable seepage from the initial insertion.

>

> My main reason for starting this post was that I've seen broken shafts, but never one like this. I would agree with you Howard, if someone has seen this happen "many times", something is off.

 

The personnel working with clubs and see this a lot and DONT ask question about it is even more "off", so we should start by finding the "ON button" on those sleep walkers. if its the same folks who assemble clubs who did this observations, and dont ask why, its very understandable if it happens again.

 

For the record, im a former Gun Smith from the Norwegian army, with a very strict regime for quality control and error reports, i would have been fired on the minute if i just observed and never did "the right thing" about it, or simply let it pass my desk.....and Golf club heads that comes of, is just as dangerous as a Gun with malfunction, both can kill someone nearby or the user himself....stop the sleepwalkers, this is serious, those people is just as dangerous as the issue itself, because they just let it pass and do nothing to prevent it from happening again.

[Socrates]

> @halliedog said:

> Thanks for chiming in Howard. I can assure everyone this particular instance was a brand new shaft that I tipped 1/2" with a cut-off wheel with the cut area wrapped in taped to prevent splintering. The thing was awesome for 5 1/2 months, then just went to crap in a weekend. Club was never left in trunk for long until recently, and it's not that hot out right now. My method of applying epoxy is to use a Popsicle stick to apply some down the hosel, then apply a lot more to the shaft, slathering all sides. I always have some cleanup rags around because there will be the inevitable seepage from the initial insertion.

>

Can you recall whether the shaft tip (not the broken chunk inside) had epoxy on it? If it had epoxy on it, was there any on the hosel wall?

 

 

[KRW59]

Over the many years of fixing clubs , I have only seen 1 shaft that had broken more than

1/4" below the top of the hosel or adapter. It was one of the older Ping .350" bore heads

(G10?) that had been reshafted with a .335" shaft and a coil spring shim was used.

The spring had been compressed during install , and the break was about 1/2 " down,

where the top of the spring cut into , or caused a stress point on the shaft.....

 

[Nessism]

> @Socrates said:

> Can you recall whether the shaft tip (not the broken chunk inside) had epoxy on it? If it had epoxy on it, was there any on the hosel wall?

>

 

Some forensic investigation may help; does it look like there might have been a flaw inside the shaft or is it too shattered to try to judge? My first thought is defective shaft...and bad luck.