To insure accuracy of play, the heads of golf clubs should be kept as clean as possible. To this end players often carry towels for use in cleaning the club heads as required. Machines, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,831, have also been devised for cleaning clubs at golf courses following rounds of play. These machines typically comprise a carousel in which clubs are routed past water spray nozzles which clean the club heads.
When golf clubs have been used for extended periods of time club head cleaning alone does not restore the club heads to a new or like new condition. This is because the surface of the heads have typically become stained, scratched or marred by objects on or beneath the surface of the terrain against which they strike or brush during play or scratched by typical handling. To refurbish the clubs their heads have usually been hand sanded with steel wool, sand paper or the like. This is a very tedious and time consuming task with only limited results in that the original luster is rarely achieved.
Spray chambers and cabinets have been devised for use in washing, cleaning and refurbishing other types of articles. Such have also been used in the manufacturing of golf club heads before club assembly. Exemplary of such cabinets are those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,416,544, 4,098,033, and 4,433,698. Commercial blasting chambers are also available from the Zero Manufacturing Company of Burlingame, Calif., from the A.L.C. Company of Medina, Ohio, from Infa, Inc. of Salisbury, N.C., and from Econoline Manufacturing Company of Grand Haven, Mich. These blast cabinets, however, are ill suited for use in refurbishing golf club heads. This is because of the fact that golf clubs are quite lengthy and thus would require an inordinately large chamber in which to be placed for blasting with sufficient room for the club head to be manually manipulated. Furthermore, only a small portion of the club, namely the head, exclusive of its hosel and ferrule, that should be subjected to the high pressure stream of abrasive material. Thus, the use of these type of commercially available cabinets would require that almost the entire club be carefully wrapped with protective material prior to being refurbished and that material later removed and discarded. This would be excessively time consuming and costly.
Accordingly, it is seen that a method and apparatus remains needed for use in refurbishing golf clubs. It is to the provision of such therefore that the present invention is primarily directed.