[raymo]

Not sure if this is the correct forum location but for the second time in 6 months I have witnessed my buddy snap his driver at the hosel while hitting balls at the range. This has happened with 2 different clubs and shafts.

His swing speed cannot be over 95 max and he was not hitting the ground. Both clubs had stiff shaft name brand shafts (one GD and one Aldila) I know he was hitting most shots poorly but not that bad. I was wondering if the contact with the rubber tees they have at the range could help cause the break coupled with fat contact? It seems so weird to me that this has happened to him twice and I could not think what else could cause that.

Has anyone ever heard of this or had a similar experience?

[mat562]

Most likely culprit is a shortcoming in the installation - probably sharp edges on the hosel owing to the head not being coned out properly. Over time, the edge acts like a knife blade, cutting into the shaft fibres at the head/shaft junction and causing it to fail.

A dodgy shaft can also be the culprit, but my money would be on the former.

[raymo]

I thought it was more shoddy workmanship but it was so odd that it happened to him twice.

[MtlJeff]

doubt it's the rubber tees, have been hitting off them at my range for years and it's never happened to me nor have i seen it happen to anyone else there.

[clubshack]

Overheated pulls will get brittle and snap.

[Bones01gt]

Hitting the ball on the heel of the driver. Especially for newbies or guys who struggle to hit it in the middle of the clubface. I'd say this is the problem since he did it with two different shafts and it would be a strange coincidence for a guy to get two bad shafts. Hitting it on the heel just below the shaft puts a tremendous amount of strain on the shaft just above the hosel. If it broke flush at the top of the hosel I can say I'm 99.9% sure this is the culprit.

[ifixclubs]

hosel shots will also contribute to shaft failure...i havent seen too many graphite shafts last at all no matter how well you install it if the player hits a lot of hossel rockets...check his ball marks on the face of the club...

[LowPost42]

I'm with most of the above posts - a poorly prepped hosel, regular ferrule or a whack of heelies (or all of the above) contribute.

FWIW, I haven't had an issue with breakage since moving to properly coned hosels and collared ferrules.

[tesla]

Clubmaking question- Is it really necessary to re-cone and de-burr an OEM graphite shafted driver when replacing the shaft? How about just checking the hosel to make sure it is smooth and reasonably coned from the factory?

[goondawg]

Hosel shots are usually the cause of shaft breakage down by the hosel. If the shaft was a pull it could be shaft failure due to improper pulling.

[LowPost42]

tesla, on Jan 12 2009, 10:04 AM, said:

Clubmaking question- Is it really necessary to re-cone and de-burr an OEM graphite shafted driver when replacing the shaft? How about just checking the hosel to make sure it is smooth and reasonably coned from the factory?

I've found the coning isn't 'flat' enough in a stock hosel to successfully accept a collared ferrule.

[thewitt]

Cone the hosel - a 20 degree angle - and use a collared ferrule.

Tell your friend to quit hitting his driver on the ground in frustration after a bad drive as well...

I have a regular customer who brings me a driver for a reshaft about once a year. He breaks them off at the hosel regardless of how the shaft is installed. I've played with him and he will hit the driver on the ground after a bad drive - just a small "pop" on the ground. He refuses to believe that this is a problem and even denies doing it unless you call him on it at the time. We reshaft many hundreds of drivers in a year, and this is the ONLY customer who continues to break shafts (any driver head, any shaft) at the hosel. He does NOT hit the ball off the heel, and his swing speed is about 100 mph.

It's clearly his "abuse" of the club that's causing his problems - though the shaft will break at some innocuous time hitting balls at the range or in the middle of a round.

-t

[ghudson]

I've seen some shafts where the tip prep was ????, well lets say they ground off too much of the tip diameter. Only paint remove is necessary for good adhesion.

[PINGeye24ever]

the thing is it might only take 1 bad shot to put a crack in this area. this crack will act as a stress concentrator meaning that the stress around the edges of the crack will be huge compared to the stress throughout the rest of the club, so even on a clean hit causing a routine amount of stress, this could cause the club to fail.

[driverwedge]

I had 3 55-x DVS shafts do this. All in the Adams A3 last year. Pretty annoying. Not a big heel shot guy, but I do swing hard. Never hit the ground. Not sure why it happened, but I'm back to my stock original X-Speed Cobra. I kick the hell out of this thing and it's still with me after 3+ years. The heel shot discussion is pretty good info, though.

[Goodsie]

Today's graphite shafts are pretty tough customers and as mentioned before, abuse can shorten the life of any shaft...however; not withstanding abuse, "if" there is just one little burr sticking out just inside the hosel, this will eventually spell trouble as it can eat into just one layer of graphite and "bingo" she will snap. Sometimes these little burrs are difficult to see and big fat fingers can't go deep enough in the hosel to feel them AND when cleaning/prepping a hosel, those wire brushes skip right over these shaft eaters.

A sandpaper mandrel on a drill can work wonders here and stop the possibility of snapping your shaft. If there is repeated shaft snapping, you really need to deep scrub that hosel with the sandpaper mandrel.