Interested in installing your own golf grips? If you’ve tried to regrip clubs like I have in the past and either found it time consuming or ended up with beat up hands, you might want to try a quick project and make your own DIY Golf Gripping Station.
I built a DIY Golf Gripping Station for approximately $50 give or take a few dollars because I had some of the below items around the house. This was very much a figure it out as you go project. I would have done it slightly differently if I had some longer bolts with matching nuts in my garage or golf cave but in the end it worked out well.
DIY Golf Gripping Station
- 2’x4′ at least 4 feet long
- Quick-Release Drill Press and Workbench Vise
- 2 screws at least 2 1/2″ long
- 2 bolts at least 2 1/2″ long with nuts
- Rubber shaft clamp
Two of the items I purchased are seen below. You can buy a GolfWorks Quick Shaft Clamp instead of the quick release vise I purchased and I would never steer you away from doing that but I was trying to keep costs down to a minimum.
How does the DIY Golf Gripping Station Work?
As you will see in a few of the pictures, the 6 inch block of wood will press against a wall. It is meant to work that way. This gives you leverage. The length of this contraption allows you to change out grips on wedges as well as a driver and everything in-between. The drill press/workbench vise clamp along with the rubber shaft clamp will hold the shaft in place and allow you to both remove golf grips as well as install grips. In a nutshell, that is how it works. As an addition, you could drill a catch basin or paint tray (liner) to go under the vise and catch excess grip solvent when installing a grip. Anyway, enough talk. Time to get to work.
Let’s Build Our Gripping Station
I took an 8 foot long piece of 2’x4′ and cut it to 36 inches long with a miter saw. For this project you really only need about 42″ of wood.
I then cut an additional 6 inch piece with that same miter saw. A table saw or circular saw would work just as well. In fact, it would take a little more time but you could get this job done with a handsaw.
The 6 inch piece of wood was attached to the 36 inch piece of wood by using 2 of the 2 1/2″ screws seen below. You can also see my drill in the pic below. I did pre-drill holes before attaching the two pieces of wood with the screws.
Next, I lined up the quick release vise on the exact opposite end of the 36 inch piece of wood and pre-drilled two holes in the front and one hole in the back for the width of the bolts I was using. Unfortunately, the bolts I had available are about 1 1/2″ long. You can see how the bolts were installed with the arrows below. Hosestly, this worked well in my DIY Golf Gripping Station but…
I would have preferred to have 2 1/2″ long bolts where I could drill through the entire piece of wood, put the bolts in from the bottom and then secure with nuts from the top.
So there you have it. I mean literally. You put the rubber shaft clamp within the quick release vise as you can see above and you are all set to change out your own grips. Below I’ve just removed a grip using a utility knife with a hook blade. Be careful you don’t gouge into a graphite shaft. The shaft I was working on was slightly scratched anyway so even though I was careful about it, I wasn’t overly concerned.
Remember how I mentioned something about adding a paint tray liner to catch grip solvent? Well nothing is secured but the picture below shows how I put a plastic paint tray liner under the vise and how the DIY Golf Gripping Station looks in use. I’ve added some double sided golf grip tape and am now ready to install the golf grip.
And here is a grip that has just been installed. I must say that it is much easier to use the DIY Golf Gripping Station instead of holding the clubhead against the ground while attempting to install a grip. I am very happy with the way this turned out. Yes, I would probably would have liked to use longer bolts and secure with nuts on top of the vise. Actually, that can still be done.
