Putter Design Help

[Shaggyhawkings]

All Tips and Advice greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone.

I'm currently doing a product design degree at Nottingham Trent uni in England and im thinking about designing and (hopefully) producing a new one off putter.

The thing is though i have no experience at all in putter design so i thought i would ask some of you guys for advice.

At the moment im thinking about going for a heel shafted, cavity back style however this could change.
Im also thinking about producing it from milling a block of Aluminum however material advice would be much appreciated.

From reading some of the putter threads on here i have noticed theres quite a few real experts in this field and your knowledge will be invaluble to me.

Once i start to get a few ideas together i will post some solidworks models to show you all my progress.

Many thanks in advance,
Ross

[claytonstoker21]

aluminum probably wouldnt work, yes it is easy to mill but there are many limitations. cant heat up and bend, hard to weld, very light. scratches show easy. i would suggest this

 

brass is easier to work than aluminum. pretty heavy. weld doesnt look good

 

i would suggest using a soft carbon 1018 or something along those lines.heavy, easy to weld. pretty easy to mill. that would be what i would use . as for the design i dont know. are you acually going to mill this or is it only a design?

[Shaggyhawkings]

Thanks for your advice clayton.

Hopefully i will be able to make it, I think i have the resources at uni to do so.

I will have to see where i could get a block of carbon 1018. I was thinking about using aluminum as i can get hold of it easy and so that i could add and distribute weight via using heavier metal weights.

My material knowledge is pretty limited though so i didn't think about its limitations.

[claytonstoker21]

metal supermarkets is where i get my stuff. it would also be hard using different metals with aluminum. i would stick with carbon or stainless if possible.

[PaulN]

I made my putter from a block of 6061 aluminum, then drilled out pockets and poured lead directly into them to redistribute the weight. It worked great for me, but my needs could be very different from yours. The aluminum was easy to get, easy to machine, and I like the finished look of my 'Frankenputter'.

 

I was looking to make a test bed putter to check out some design ideas this winter. The first one worked so nicely when I gamed it that I'm currently working on a more pleasing / less hideous design so I can have a gamer next spring that looks as good as it performs.

 

Also, there are ways to mechanically attach a steel neck (which is easy to heat and bend) to an aluminum body. Aluminum can be anodized to any color that you can mix up, and you can do it in your kitchen. Once hard anodized, the surface is tougher than steel. Personally, I like aluminum, but most people in this forum do not for various reasons.

[Shaggyhawkings]

Started to design a couple of ideas.

 

This is one i have been working on today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I started one yesterday too at uni but havent taken any renders of it yet.

 

Added a ball to give a bit of scale (cant take credit for the ball, downloaded that :rolleyes: )

[PaulN]

That's pretty nifty looking. Are you planning on making it in one piece, or welding on the neck?

[Shaggyhawkings]

Thanks paul,

 

I would like to make it all one piece but not sure if i have the equipment at uni to do so, need to talk to some of the workshop guys.

[MchSt805]

Dang! Now there's some sweet computer modeling. Not really my personal taste in looks, but it'd definitely unique. That'd be awesome if you actually follow this through to the end and have yourself a truly custom putter built completely by your own design. Definitely keep us updated on progress.

[Shaggyhawkings]

Thanks!

To be honest id never thought about doing anything like this before i joined this forum and seen some of the custom putters you guys have produced. In fact i didn't even think people produced their own putters, never seen a custom made one before.

I would love to eventually produce it and use it, possibly not that exact design though.

Hopefully soon it should be a reality!

[bgolfing]

What program did you design that in?

[Shaggyhawkings]

It was produced and rendered on solidworks.

We use 3D studio Max too at uni for rendering, which can produce visuals that you would think were real

[claytonstoker21]

now thats a design program, those are sweet because if you use cad and then hook it up to cnc, you can see what it would look like without wasting a bunch of time and material,also it will say the weight and the cog soemtimes.