I was looking on e-bay at stuff.... and I cam across a MacGregor NVG2 10* driver near the end of the auction....I got it for £9.

 Now I have got it home and it is in top notch condition for a used club, only a couple tiny marks on the face. It has 4 tungsten weights in the head, now is tungsten magnetic? My magnet is sticking to them and I was just wondering if this is supposed to happen - basically I'm trying to judge if the club is a fake or not.

cheers

Lewis, I have just run a test on my Taylor Made R7 425 which has four tungsten weights with my very powerful magnet and the weights are magnetic, even though the driver itself is not.

cheers John,

Looks like I got myself a nice bargain then.

Thanks for checking

Technical bit.  The weights are made of tungsten carbide, not pure tungsten which is pretty unstable (along with the other -ium metals).  Tungsten itself is non-magnetic, however the weights are made by sintering (a powder of the metal is dry pressed into shape and heat treated to become a solid) which will usually involve mixing it with a binder, most likely iron.  This allows it to be machined post-manufacture (tungsten carbide is incredibly hard) and does mean that the weight may be magnetic.  How magnetic the weights are is proportional to the amount of ferrous material included, which also means that is cheaper.  Also, the driver head is usually made a titanium alloy, which is also non-magnetic but the retaining screws for the weights are usually made from steel, so that could be what the magnet is picking up. 

everyday IS a school day on here

cheers

We have now had the engineers report, Lewis. Thanks Tim. Would I be able to hit the club better if these weights were non magnetic?

maybe John....but if you got the 'pure' tungsten weights wet, it may look like those science experiments at school where your driver head will fizz, pop and smoke into non-existance......

I missed sooooo much at school

No John, the magnets won't noticeably effect the ball striking ability.  Obviously on a very small scale it will because of the small interactions of the various magnetic forces inherent on the earth, but I wouldn't start blaming it when you slice one.

Incidentally, the only reason they use tungsten is because it's relatively heavy for it's size and reasonably cheap.  Obviously the smaller and heavier you can make the weights the better because of the way it effects the relative C of G's of the club head.  Unfortunately, I can't seem to get anyone to have a go at machining the bar of depleted uranium I've got in my garage which would be ideal.    

Get machining, Tim, I need one of your new atomic drivers.

You'd be stroking them 300yds to keep up with the young 'uns with it John.  And you'd probably glow slightly in the dark....

Actually just replacing the weights would probably make the driver head overweight, as it's about 20% heavier than it's Tungsten equivalent.  It wouldn't have any effect on the relative C of G of the head but would have on effect of the 'C o R' and the polar moment of inertia.

Sorry if anyone is nodding off, bit bored at the moment just waiting for someone to turn up before I go to Tescos... 

well just to add to the science lesson, I just spent a couple of hours at the club, I hit 50 balls at the range with the club - It has drastically cut down my slice (although I have been reading Ben Hogans 5 lessons book that may have helped too), and with it more distance......probable due to less sideways movement.

Also I seem to be hitting my irons cleaner and I'm able to hit the green on the 110 yard academy hole more than 50% of the time using my PW....this may not be amazing but since the start of this week it is a big improvement with less mis-hits

It's also a very,very good driver under rated in this country but not by me I've played one. It was the best selling driver in Japan for the mid to high hanicaper out seller all other brands,you've had a bargain enjoy. 

Welcome to the game Lewis

Dave, that's what alot of the reviews/forums say too - it seems MacGregor didn't market it very well over here which means people tend to not buy it or think that that it is a bad club.

MacGregor clubs generally seem not to get much money secondhand....but I seem to only read good reviews about them from people who actually bought them new. At £9 I feel like I've stole it as it is in great nick - I'm sure I'll get more out of it as I get better also