Step 1
Pull and inspect
Heat just enough to break the old film. We keep the adapter threads, the bore wall, and the ferrule as three separate stories. White crust at the threads is chloride, not “just dust from the range bag.”
The sequence
How a hosel is allowed to sit
A sleeve that looks seated on a Friday afternoon can still spin after a humid night. We run a fixed order so the joint is round, dry, and clocked before anyone talks about playing it at Azalea City.
Step 2
Bore measure
Inside diameter at the mouth, halfway, and the floor. Oval of more than a few thousandths and we stop talking about a simple reseat. That is a recut, a through-bore decision, or a polite no.
Step 3
Dry fit and clock
The sleeve or stem must sit without epoxy first. We mark the clock so the face is where you left it, not where a wrench wandered. Stack height is written on the ticket next to the ferrule OD.
Step 4
Epoxy on a Gulf clock
Pour only after the cabinet reading. Fat air means the head stays in the hold overnight. We do not “warm it to speed the cure” with a heat gun pointed at graphite.
Step 5
Ferrule seat
Collar goes on to the measured hosel, not the catalog. If last summer’s plastic still has a belly, it is scrap. A hovering ring is a leak path for the next salt week.
Step 6
Morning torque
Adjustable hosels get a recorded torque after the window, never the same afternoon as the pour. You get the number on the ticket. If you want to change a sleeve setting, you wait for that mark.
How long you actually wait
Overnight is not a delay tactic
Monday through Friday we can often pour before noon and release after the next morning’s open. Saturday is a collar-and-inspect window only — we will not pour a structural epoxy at 11:40 and pretend Sunday’s closed door is a cure chamber. If you need a sleeve for a Saturday shotgun, bring it by Thursday.