Re-Gripping Clubs

#1

This weekend, I tried to re-grip my clubs for the first time. While I was successful (only wasted 1 grip), I found that my “eagle-eye” isn’t so accurate. I played with my clubs yesterday, and noticed that when my club is grounded, that some of the grips are slightly forward of the leading edge. Are there any tips/tricks to lining the grip lines up? Should I be lining the grip up to the leading edge? I was also thinking about using some sort of laser contraption to make sure everything is aligned.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

#2

Hi, welcome to the refuge!

With re-gripping clubs, I normally practice two things:

  1. Always use Bramptoms solvent. It’s just better and other solvents have changed formula over the years making it very difficult to install a grip well
  2. installed them label down, this more or less eliminates the need to line up the label with your leading edge

With Bramptoms solvent, which has a longer curing time, you have about 20-30 seconds to put the club on the ground and really move the grip around to get it right. I normally put the grip on, then place it at address and make sure it’s not twisted and the butt label is relatively square.

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#3

Thanks for the welcome!

I will definitely purchase some Bramptons solvent for next time. Also, the grips I purchased (Tour Velvet Plus 4) had labels on both sides unfortunately. I guess I could have used the back side which was way smaller.

When you’re applying the new grip, are you aligning it to the leading edge?

Thanks for the insight!

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#4

I see. If I were to install a grip label up, I’d probably try to get the label to face direction up as much as possible, which I guess is lined up with the leading edge…normally I eye it on the line of the shaft.

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#5

Thought / something I’ve heard and can’t figure out source -

Use a laser alignment tool (laser pointer, putting tool, something) to find the center of the shaft against the face. Use an expo or something to mark it right against the grip. Then, align against the drawn line instead of the face.

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#6

I’ve used dry erase markers/tape/etc on the shaft to give a reference point to help with alignment.

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#7

Has anyone installed grips with air? I have a couple of friends who have done it with success, but I’m just not sure I want to trust it on something like my driver.

#8

I used a combo of solvent and and air compressor to put on my new grips recently. It helped a lot and I haven’t had any issues so far with grips moving, etc. I used painters tape instead of grip tape and it worked like a charm.

#9

I make sure to do final adjustments to the grip with the club soled on the ground. Trying to get it right in the vice never works out for me.

#10

@iacas I believe has done a lot of work with air installation and is a proponent if I recall right.

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#11

I found that to be true as well. I’m chalking it up to being a first timer! :wink:

#12

You’ll get better quickly. There’s no such thing as too much solvent.

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#13

Love it. Yes.

#14

You’ll find that your ability to get them aligned on the first try improves, and the need for tweaking after the install will reduce substantially the more you practice.

As someone who used the traditional method for years and just graduated to air for my last set I will say that air has it’s advantages for sure - reduced force to push the grip on, ability to remove / swap grips, play around with different amounts of buildup tape, etc.

My recent set has probably ~50 rounds on them installed as just masking tape (and solvent to help them glide on) and there might be minimal twisting, but nothing that would make me consider changing back to grip tape and solvent.

#15

Tell me again how you do it…do you use compressed air?

#16

I have done air for years, and I have no complaints with the process or how they play.

A bonus is I can rotate a seldom-used 5 iron grip onto my driver, which gets more wear.

I like it because getting old tape off is the worst part of grip changes. The process is fast, and you can tweak alignment of the grip at any time.

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#17

I used to dread this. Two word solution: heat gun. Cut the old grip off, run the heat gun up and down the tape for 20-30 seconds and the tape will come off really easily in one big piece.

#18

Did you use a vise?

I bought a cheap one from Harbor Freight that worked great. Put the leading edge vertical, slide on the grip, look down the grip almost like looking down a gun barrel, and then adjust the graphics until aligned with the face.

I use GP NDMC which have lines that help with alignment (butt, halfway down, and end).

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#19

Found this video, looks really simple. Jeez.

#20

Thats exactly how I did mine… even down to the vice from Harbor Freight. It seemed to work pretty well… Like I said up top, they were pretty easy to remove and put on, but I was just a hair off on the alignment when I put the club on the ground. It’s not gonna keep me up at night, but my OCD might come in to play each time I see my club in my hand.