Shaft Dings

Boil a pot of water. Put a q-tip in the water when its boiling. Putting the heated q-tip on ding will expand the wood. Use a q-whiz or something similar to sand down afterwards.

I have always used a damp cloth and an iron. I don't know how this would work on a laminated shaft, I've never tried.

Boiling pot of water, covered with tinfoil. Put one pinhole in the tinfoil. Then briefly put the dent over the steam. Works well on maple shafts and has never warped one, as for a laminate, it is a quick process, and shouldn't affect the glue. The alternative, is to call the mfg, and just ask their recommendation.

Highmiles said:

Boiling pot of water, covered with tinfoil. Put one pinhole in the tinfoil. Then briefly put the dent over the steam. Works well on maple shafts and has never warped one, as for a laminate, it is a quick process, and shouldn't affect the glue. The alternative, is to call the mfg, and just ask their recommendation.

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What this guy said. I use the vent hole on my rice cooker. Steam will swell the dent almost instantaneously.

Skratch said:

Hey AZBers,

Anyone have a good idea how to get the dings out? I've been using the RX Cue Doctor Dent buffer. Its been ok, but I would like to know how anyone else does it. It works well with my standard shafts, but not so well with my LD shafts. I have an OB1.

Thanks in advance.

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Fill up your bath tub to 2.5 inches below the rim and leave the shaft in the water over night.
The catch is the shaft must be exactly in the middle of the water.
This is best accomplished by putting 10 heavy washers on each side of the shaft with a string in them going around the shaft. This way the shaft can stay fully emerged in water over night and be exactly in the middle of the bath tub.

Do this and your dings will be gone.

Whhhhooooooooaaaaa horsie ... Good luck with the bathtub . Been doing this for 55 plus years . Set your shaft down securely level with the ding at 12 o'clock . Put a dab of spit on the ding directly . Small ding , small dab ... Then strike a match and hold flame directly over the spit , the trick is not to let the spit dry up, keep applying spit as it evaporates . The underside of the flame is not as hot as the top side but will steam the spit . it's a slow process but will bring the ding out , then feather out with some 600 grit and then burnish with backside of said sandpaper . Don't let the spit dry up or you'll get a burn mark , like your skin . A poor guy shut his shaft in a car door , I used 2 books of paper matches a bunch of spit , got it out like it never happened . Maple has pretty good memory , as long as it 's not cut ...

A soldering iron and wet cotton swabs work well.

Depending on the dent, you may not need the steam, iron, or soldering iron. Try this first:

• Take the corner of a small piece of sandpaper and lightly rough-up just the dent -- just kind of removing anything sealing the wood.

• Place the shaft flat on a table, cabinet, floor, or whatever -- with the dent facing up.

• Place one drop of water in the dent.

• Check it after a while (10 min. or more or less, not critical) to see if the dent has risen at all.

• Repeat, if necessary.

• Resort to one of the methods with heat if the simple drop-of-water approach has failed.

[P.S. Dispose of the RX Cue Doctor Dent Buffer. It is not raising the dent, it's just smashing down the wood around it, and probably not even uniformly.]

I use a small piece of a tee shirt, wet a corner put it on the dent and apply the tip of an iron to the it. It will generate steam quickly. Repeat as necessary to remove dent. Wipe dry after each application of the damp cloth corner and iron. When the dent is gone bermish.
I do this on my laminated Predator shafts with no damage!

Dings

OK so the first thing you did wrong is used a buffer. The only thing the glass rod did was crush the surrounding wood fibers to the same level as the ding. Now with that said you may have ruined the shaft. Depending on how deep the ding was. Without having the shaft in front of my I have no way of knowing. Minor dings on solid shafts can be done by hot water. Now here is the disclaimer. It isn't just put water on and poof dent be gone. There is an art to reconditioning shafts. Low deflection shafts are a whole other ballgame due to the type and amount of glue and also the constructed pattern of the wood.


The best advice I can give is take the shaft to a mechanic you trust and let them do it. Why take the risk of destroying a 175$+ shaft for a 15$ repair?



John

dings

Wow---bathtubs---pots of water----rice steamer ----matchbooks......all work I guess.
What I found is just to steam out the dings and dents with a hand held steamer ...cheap to get....works well ..just pay attention to what u do and dont over saturate the wood.

Good luck

Nuke a wet washcloth in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes. Wrap it around the shaft snug for about 30 seconds, remove and dry the shaft. Repeat if necessary. Done it 100s of times, got some nasty dings out that way and never warped a shaft. The iron over a set cloth should work, too, and the direct steam works too. Just don't over do it, check it frequently until the ding is gone. I've rubbed a shot glass firmly and fast enough to generate heat, it works but only for small dings. As far as laminated shafts go, though, I really don't know if all this works or not, never tried it.

RocketQ said:

OK so the first thing you did wrong is used a buffer. The only thing the glass rod did was crush the surrounding wood fibers to the same level as the ding. Now with that said you may have ruined the shaft. Depending on how deep the ding was. Without having the shaft in front of my I have no way of knowing. Minor dings on solid shafts can be done by hot water. Now here is the disclaimer. It isn't just put water on and poof dent be gone. There is an art to reconditioning shafts. Low deflection shafts are a whole other ballgame due to the type and amount of glue and also the constructed pattern of the wood.


The best advice I can give is take the shaft to a mechanic you trust and let them do it. Why take the risk of destroying a 175$+ shaft for a 15$ repair?



John

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Absolutely great advice! I have had a lot of customers bring me shafts they have worked on trying to remove dings. God love em, but most of em had good sized flat spots where they doing their tial and error work. I did the same thing 20 years ago before I learned how to work on cues so I understand. They just don't know what they don't know. For the amount of money charged for dent removal it's just not worth it.

I take a more agressive approach that is sure to bring out the naysayers.......................

Spin the shaft and lightly sand it with 220 to open the grain and remove the skin of hand oil and chalk.

Fold a piece of paper towel several times until it is about 3 X 3.

Hold the paper towel on the spinning shaft and spray it liberally with 409 bath room cleaner. Go up and down the shaft several times to wet the shaft and clean the remaining chalk that will come off.

Immediately heat the shaft with a heat gun to dry the shaft. Go up and down the shaft as it spins. Do the whole length until it is dry and hot to the touch.

Lightly sand it with 220 until it is smooth. This will take care of most of the small dings

Spin the shaft and coat it with lacquer based sanding sealer.... I use deft.

Heat it again with the heat gun to dry the sealer....

Sand it lightly with 220 until it is smooth and then use 600 and sand/burnish it until it feels as smooth as glass. An old used piece of 600 does a nicer job.

Any dings that can still be felt can be filled with a little dab of sealer and heated and sanded separately.

Add a little cue wax and buff it in..............

I have done many many shafts this way and never warped or delaminated any.

Kim

I put my shaft in the freezer for exactly 30 minutes. Not a second shorter or longer. :welcome:

Alcohol prep pad on the ding will pop the grain and evaporate fairly quick. Use a leather burnisher or cue wiz to smooth out and close the grain. Seal and wax. Have used this method on LD and maple shafts for years. No damage or warping experienced at all on my end. Good luck.

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