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Xcaliber Rapid Taper 105 Iron Shaft Review

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Nippon Shafts
Chef23 said:
I have heard the opposite from people here. I am not going to ream the heads out so I may have to look at something else. @Jman what did you do when you reshafted your T100s?
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They’re sanded. I also sanded for every review I’ve done on them, if you go slow and carefully, it’s fine.
 
Chef23 said:
How do you sand them?
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Slowly. Lmao

I use my sanding belt, but, I’ve done it a lot over the years.

If I was advising someone new who didn’t want to bore out the heads (which is also easy with a hand reamer) then I would use a dremel at low speed to remove a tiny bit at a time. The thing is, you have to keep the shade moving, you also need to realize it’s really only the last 1/4” that need to be .355, above that is .370
 
Typhoon said:
Don’t sand them down to fit. They will snap. I see it a lot.
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This is SO NOT TRUE.
A shaft that is built in a factory to .355 is made on a mandrel. That final taper is not done on the mandrel. The material is run past where the tip would be. It's cut to size, and then the taper is sanded to finish. It's like a pencil sharpener. Then the rest of the shaft is sanded to the final size. It then goes to paint. The final finish is applied along with cosmetics. So, a club builder or a consumer is simply doing a process that is done to every single .355 graphite shaft. The taper is very small. 3/16" is all the taper covers. It goes from .355 to .370 in that space. Remove too much material and get a sloppy fit.. sure you could get a tip failure.
I have never had a customer return with a shaft that broke in the hosel
... Ever.
I have personally converted well over a thousand shafts over the years.
So, your statement is not remotely true.
As for reaming. I prefer not to remove weight from a head. Sure, you can do it, but I prefer converting a shaft to preserve swing weight.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
 
Popeye said:
This is SO NOT TRUE.
A shaft that is built in a factory to .355 is made on a mandrel. That final taper is not done on the mandrel. The material is run past where the tip would be. It's cut to size, and then the taper is sanded to finish. It's like a pencil sharpener. Then the rest of the shaft is sanded to the final size. It then goes to paint. The final finish is applied along with cosmetics. So, a club builder or a consumer is simply doing a process that is done to every single .355 graphite shaft. The taper is very small. 3/16" is all the taper covers. It goes from .355 to .370 in that space. Remove too much material and get a sloppy fit.. sure you could get a tip failure.
I have never had a customer return with a shaft that broke in the hosel
... Ever.
I have personally converted well over a thousand shafts over the years.
So, your statement is not remotely true.
As for reaming. I prefer not to remove weight from a head. Sure, you can do it, but I prefer converting a shaft to preserve swing weight.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
It’s not that much weight. I believe I lost maybe a gram on my 223’s.
 
Popeye said:
This is SO NOT TRUE.
A shaft that is built in a factory to .355 is made on a mandrel. That final taper is not done on the mandrel. The material is run past where the tip would be. It's cut to size, and then the taper is sanded to finish. It's like a pencil sharpener. Then the rest of the shaft is sanded to the final size. It then goes to paint. The final finish is applied along with cosmetics. So, a club builder or a consumer is simply doing a process that is done to every single .355 graphite shaft. The taper is very small. 3/16" is all the taper covers. It goes from .355 to .370 in that space. Remove too much material and get a sloppy fit.. sure you could get a tip failure.
I have never had a customer return with a shaft that broke in the hosel
... Ever.
I have personally converted well over a thousand shafts over the years.
So, your statement is not remotely true.
As for reaming. I prefer not to remove weight from a head. Sure, you can do it, but I prefer converting a shaft to preserve swing weight.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
[/QUOTE

I wouldn’t say “ not remotely true”…🙄. I work in a shop and we get them. Maybe you do a real good job at it but a lot of people out there don’t.
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So you are getting graphite shafts that are breaking inside the hosel?? Not above?? Because I have fixed a half dozen steel shafts that have broken just above the hosel this year.
 
Popeye said:
So you are getting graphite shafts that are breaking inside the hosel?? Not above?? Because I have fixed a half dozen steel shafts that have broken just above the hosel this year.
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Yup, sheared off at the hosel and you see sometimes the sanded tip prep above the hosel under the ferrule and it’s like a ridge… not. Smooth transition. Same with driver shaft adapters with someone sanding a .350 to fit into a .335 adapter.

I tell people not to do it themselves… but… as you know🙄
 
I am an absolute novice at this, but I think the important difference in what the last 5 or 6 posts are saying is that you can sand to fit, but only taper the last short portion (3/16" or ¼") of the shaft that needs the taper. And not any more. If you are up into the hosel that's way too far.

This is what I understand anyway, and what I will be doing on the taper tip (edited: rapid taper) shafts that UPS has on their way to my doorstep.

Just have to decide if I "need" to pickup that 30" belt sander from Harbor Freight or not.
 
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Tenja said:
I am an absolute novice at this, but I think the important difference in what the last 5 or 6 posts are saying is that you can sand to fit, but only taper the last short portion (3/16" or ¼") of the shaft that needs the taper. And not any more. If you are up into the hosel that's way too far.

This is what I understand anyway, and what I will be doing on the taper tip shafts that UPS has on their way to my doorstep.

Just have to decide if I "need" to pickup that 30" belt sander from Harbor Freight or not.
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You nailed it. Anyone going up enough to make a ridge doesn’t understand the actual difference between taper and parallel tips and believes in 355 the whole tip must be that size.
 
Tenja said:
I am an absolute novice at this, but I think the important difference in what the last 5 or 6 posts are saying is that you can sand to fit, but only taper the last short portion (3/16" or ¼") of the shaft that needs the taper. And not any more. If you are up into the hosel that's way too far.

This is what I understand anyway, and what I will be doing on the taper tip (edited: rapid taper) shafts that UPS has on their way to my doorstep.

Just have to decide if I "need" to pickup that 30" belt sander from Harbor Freight or not.
Click to expand...
Or course you need that belt sander. Doesn’t everyone.
 
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Popeye said:
This is SO NOT TRUE.
A shaft that is built in a factory to .355 is made on a mandrel. That final taper is not done on the mandrel. The material is run past where the tip would be. It's cut to size, and then the taper is sanded to finish. It's like a pencil sharpener. Then the rest of the shaft is sanded to the final size. It then goes to paint. The final finish is applied along with cosmetics. So, a club builder or a consumer is simply doing a process that is done to every single .355 graphite shaft. The taper is very small. 3/16" is all the taper covers. It goes from .355 to .370 in that space. Remove too much material and get a sloppy fit.. sure you could get a tip failure.
I have never had a customer return with a shaft that broke in the hosel
... Ever.
I have personally converted well over a thousand shafts over the years.
So, your statement is not remotely true.
As for reaming. I prefer not to remove weight from a head. Sure, you can do it, but I prefer converting a shaft to preserve swing weight.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Do you sand in hosel area to scuff paint so epoxy adheres better
 
bbutler said:
Do you sand in hosel area to scuff paint so epoxy adheres better
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Yes the entire shaft area inserted into the hosel is scuffed. I then scuff above the hosel where the ferrule will sit. It helps the ferrule from walking up the shaft, but not fool proof.
When doing a .355 conversion it's, sand then rotate in hosel. You will see the high spots. Lightly sand the high spots and test again. I like a fit that when dry the head almost sticks to the shaft when fully inserted.
 
bbutler said:
Do you sand in hosel area to scuff paint so epoxy adheres better
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You prep the entire tip section as normal. Only extra material removed beyond that is at the very tip to achieve the 355 diameter.
 
Popeye said:
This is SO NOT TRUE.
A shaft that is built in a factory to .355 is made on a mandrel. That final taper is not done on the mandrel. The material is run past where the tip would be. It's cut to size, and then the taper is sanded to finish. It's like a pencil sharpener. Then the rest of the shaft is sanded to the final size. It then goes to paint. The final finish is applied along with cosmetics. So, a club builder or a consumer is simply doing a process that is done to every single .355 graphite shaft. The taper is very small. 3/16" is all the taper covers. It goes from .355 to .370 in that space. Remove too much material and get a sloppy fit.. sure you could get a tip failure.
I have never had a customer return with a shaft that broke in the hosel
... Ever.
I have personally converted well over a thousand shafts over the years.
So, your statement is not remotely true.
As for reaming. I prefer not to remove weight from a head. Sure, you can do it, but I prefer converting a shaft to preserve swing weight.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
I have not had any issues on my SMS so far but I also haven't used them for an entire season yet.
 
Popeye said:
Yes the entire shaft area inserted into the hosel is scuffed. I then scuff above the hosel where the ferrule will sit. It helps the ferrule from walking up the shaft, but not fool proof.
When doing a .355 conversion it's, sand then rotate in hosel. You will see the high spots. Lightly sand the high spots and test again. I like a fit that when dry the head almost sticks to the shaft when fully inserted.
Click to expand...
You might want to tell people how to get a clean ferrule to hosel fit. We’d get the .350 ferrules with a large OD and they’d either look like a “bucket hat” on a .335 hosel or they did some kind of awful sanding/acetone job to eliminate the ridge.
 
Typhoon said:
You might want to tell people how to get a clean ferrule to hosel fit. We’d get the .350 ferrules with a large OD and they’d either look like a “bucket hat” on a .335 hosel or they did some kind of awful sanding/acetone job to eliminate the ridge.
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It’s easy, soak the 355’s in warm/hot water and go straight to the shaft to seat them.
 
Tenja said:
that's does it, yes, buying it this week.
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Check out the orange one that is sitting next to it with a disc sander on the side. Goes on sale for about the same price as the green one.

Sanded mine down with some 1000 grit boron belts off Amazon. One belt will last barely for a set but it doesn't remove much at a time, which is nice.

Have fun!
 
J4U said:
Check out the orange one that is sitting next to it with a disc sander on the side. Goes on sale for about the same price as the green one.

Sanded mine down with some 1000 grit boron belts off Amazon. One belt will last barely for a set but it doesn't remove much at a time, which is nice.

Have fun!
Click to expand...
timely, as I'm going there at lunch time. I was considering one with the side disc. I could see that being handy.
 
J4U said:
Check out the orange one that is sitting next to it with a disc sander on the side. Goes on sale for about the same price as the green one.

Sanded mine down with some 1000 grit boron belts off Amazon. One belt will last barely for a set but it doesn't remove much at a time, which is nice.

Have fun!
Click to expand...
got a link to the belts you use?
 
Tenja said:
timely, as I'm going there at lunch time. I was considering one with the side disc. I could see that being handy.
Click to expand...
Getting the disc platform square with pad is a pain, but can be done with small washers under the support braces. You'll understand if you get that one.

Have fun in the toy store!
 
Tenja said:
got a link to the belts you use?
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Sackorange 24 Pack 1 x 30 Inch High Performance Silicon Carbide Sanding Belts - 4 Pcs Each of 120 240 400 600 800 and 1000 Grits Premium Knife Sharpening Sanding Belts https://a.co/d/9TMa2kz

I had a set of the shafts so I practiced on the scoring irons as I was going to cut a bunch off anyway. Started with the 600 grit, but found the 1000 did the best and slowest removal.
 
J4U said:
Sackorange 24 Pack 1 x 30 Inch High Performance Silicon Carbide Sanding Belts - 4 Pcs Each of 120 240 400 600 800 and 1000 Grits Premium Knife Sharpening Sanding Belts https://a.co/d/9TMa2kz

I had a set of the shafts so I practiced on the scoring irons as I was going to cut a bunch off anyway. Started with the 600 grit, but found the 1000 did the best and slowest removal.
Click to expand...
ordered. thanks
 
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