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Old School: Checking lie angle and bending without a high-price bending machine?


Scooper5

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Just a player here who needs to check his lie angles on his iron and wedges. A little disappointed today as I went to my golf shop to have my irons checked to find out it was a 24-48 hour wait. This golf shop is 40-minutes away from my house. And yes I called before I left and while I was in-route to have no one answer the phone. So a wasted trip. I was a little peeved.

Gripe aside, I get that COVID is packing golf stores and their clubfitters/makers. With the increased volume in mind, here is my question: is there a DIY way of checking and adjusting your lies at home without the cost of a high-price bending machine? I found a moderately priced machine and clubmaking gauge at GolfWorks (links below), but I'm curious to know how fitters made adjustments before the digital benders and if it is still a decent way to do so today. If a good golf shop was 10 minutes from me, I could handle the COVID delay. But I'm a father with 2-year-old twins and don't have the time to make multiple trips for drop-off and pick-up. I can't justify that.

Share your thoughts. Value Line Golf Club Bending Machine VALUE LINE GOLF CLUB GAUGE

 

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I use an older Golfsmith loft / lie bending machine very similar the one in your first link. It works fine for the few clubs I tinker with. For a gauge I use a clinometer app on my cell phone along with a loft / lie protractor gauge.

eta...i combine the face impact HJ mentions below with a lie angle board and ball flight pattern to dial in the optimal lie angle for my irons.

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Best Option: High quality loft and lie machine

Medium Option: High quality club gauge + Value Line Bending Machine

Budget Option: Value Line Bending Machine and bend lies based on a vertical line test and lofts based on distance gaping. You don't actually have to measure either to fit yourself properly.

 

Alternative: Ask around your golf league, club, or local amateur association as I'm sure there are quite a few hobbyist who have the machine and would do your clubs quickly and cheaply or even let you use the machine yourself.

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Checking lie angles can be done without any tools, since its not specs themselves that matters (numbers) but if lie angles is neutral at impact or not.

Combining the ball marker test with this label will tell you the need for adjustment if needed. (Just take a photo of the label, you dont need it on the face, we just compare the angles)

image.png

 

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DO NOT SEND PMs WITH CLUB TECH QUESTIONS - USE THE PUBLIC FORUM.

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I have that value line club gauge. It's not very good. It's ok for loft and face angle but IMO it's terrible for measuring lie angles. If I were to do it again, I would have spent more on a better gauge. I might anyways.@Howard_Jones The only problem with that approach is that with the bending machine the OP shared a link to doesn't have a built in gauge to measure how much the specs changed during the attempt to bend. Sure it's possible to iterate back and forth between the range and the bending machine (that's likely at the home workshop). Someone experienced in bending might be able to get away with that approach but that's going to be very tedious (and likely frustrating) for someone that doesn't have any experience bending. So I think a good gauge would be still be very helpful.

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I agree with you, we need a gauge to measure our bending, but the way the OP opened the tread, it sounds like someone who wanted to have the set checked or adjusted to a specific value, and thats useless unless we know that value is right for us. Since most have a lie angle based on either a static fitting or a lie board, they are very often wrong. IF the OP for "corona reasons" did not have access to a bending machine, he could still check his lie angles vs what they should be for him without a bending machine. If he was lucky they was just fine, and no reasons to worries, and if a few was off, he would know what clubs and how much, so when the access to a bending machine came, the job would be faster and simpler.

 

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DO NOT SEND PMs WITH CLUB TECH QUESTIONS - USE THE PUBLIC FORUM.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/1/2020 at 12:35 AM, Howard_Jones said:

Checking lie angles can be done without any tools, since its not specs themselves that matters (numbers) but if lie angles is neutral at impact or not.

Combining the ball marker test with this label will tell you the need for adjustment if needed. (Just take a photo of the label, you dont need it on the face, we just compare the angles)

image.png

Hey Howard_Jones, is there some place I can find those stickers?

On 8/1/2020 at 12:35 AM, Howard_Jones said:

 

 

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9 minutes ago, Scooper5 said:

Hey Howard_Jones, is there some place I can find those stickers?

 


Not after WRX updated the forum, the PFD file with download for printing is gone, but you DONT need that label, its good enough with a photo of it on your phone you compare to the printed lines on the face, we look at the angle, not impact location. The ratio is 10:1 so anyone should be able to make it within 0.25* without the labels on the face.

DO NOT SEND PMs WITH CLUB TECH QUESTIONS - USE THE PUBLIC FORUM.

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12 hours ago, Howard_Jones said:


Not after WRX updated the forum, the PFD file with download for printing is gone, but you DONT need that label, its good enough with a photo of it on your phone you compare to the printed lines on the face, we look at the angle, not impact location. The ratio is 10:1 so anyone should be able to make it within 0.25* without the labels on the face.

 

If you want it, I have a copy of a couple of the pdf's you put up.  Don't know if they were the latest versions or not.

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34 minutes ago, Stuart_G said:

 

If you want it, I have a copy of a couple of the pdf's you put up.  Don't know if they were the latest versions or not.


i dont need them, but others is asking now and then, so if you upload it, (long line version), i can replace it in the tread where they are lost now.

Im not impressed by the forum updates, the first messed up all text, the next removed protos and attachement, so those who was in charge of that job dont seems to know what they are doing.

DO NOT SEND PMs WITH CLUB TECH QUESTIONS - USE THE PUBLIC FORUM.

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2 hours ago, LeoLeo99 said:

I tried the marker method but couldn't get the ink to transfer to my irons. Used a blue white board marker and G400 irons.  Is there a certain marker that works best?  

A white board marker won't work if you are hitting off grass.  Club head hits the ball.  Club head descends into the turf and the turf wipes the white board mark off the face.  Just won't work off grass unless someone doesn't take a divot at all.  

You need a permanent marker (Sharpie).  

Edited by denkea
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