Removing adapter with heat question

badolds

Well-known member
Albatross 2024 Club
Joined
Feb 16, 2018
Messages
5,444
Reaction score
5,191
Location
Houston TX
Handicap
12 est.
I removed an adapter the other day and would like a better outcome. I used my heat gun on its highest setting for several minutes without the epoxy melting. I was concerned about the heat damaging the tip so I used a torch to get it to break loose quicker. It took several minutes with the torch to break the epoxy loose and I started getting nervous about overheating the graphite. I am only going to remove a handful of these a year so I will wait for the heat gun to work if that is the safest method. I can also get some map gas for my torch if the hotter flame will work better. The black anodizing of the tip turned a pretty cool looking bronze color but I would prefer to keep the black color intact.
 
I removed an adapter the other day and would like a better outcome. I used my heat gun on its highest setting for several minutes without the epoxy melting. I was concerned about the heat damaging the tip so I used a torch to get it to break loose quicker. It took several minutes with the torch to break the epoxy loose and I started getting nervous about overheating the graphite. I am only going to remove a handful of these a year so I will wait for the heat gun to work if that is the safest method. I can also get some map gas for my torch if the hotter flame will work better. The black anodizing of the tip turned a pretty cool looking bronze color but I would prefer to keep the black color intact.

That's such a tough question. Lots of OEMs use crazy strong epoxy that take forever to break, but you have to keep in mind that graphite shafts are held together by their own adhesive material, and there's going to be a threshold temperature which is way easier to achieve with a torch.

What is your pull method? Are you using a shaft puller?
 
that's awesome!

At the same time, I wonder if a big part of your issue is a lack of pressure needed to eject an adapter. I use a Roberts frankenpuller and it works very well on even the toughest OEM bonds.

The bottle jack one?
 
you also may be fighting a vacuum when pulling, especially with one-piece hosel sleeves
 
I'm not a fan of using a heat gun for situations like this. Too much heat spills onto the shaft and even if you can block that, the length of time you're applying heat to the adapter may cause the adapter to transfer too much heat to the shaft. I much prefer the directed heat of a butane micro torch instead.

I also agree that your puller is likely not applying enough tension to break the bond quickly enough. I use a butane micro torch in conjunction with the Golfworks enhanced shaft extractor and its spring pushes the head off after only 10-15 seconds of heat, at most.
 
I agree that puller is likely not applying enough force.
 
Keep a glass of cold water to dip the shaft "Tssss"
 
Back
Top