Another old Ping mod

[MachineHack]

Hey all, seen a few others do similar but figured I’d post up this recent home hack. I’ve always loved original ansers but as everyone knows they are light compared to modern standards. Well I’ve got a mill in the shed, let’s change that 

 

Base head weight on my scale for an 80’s anser 3 was 299 grams

 

got some tungsten inserts off the Amazon (I had order some tungsten rod but I cannot get my hands on anything over 8mm right now so these will do). Just for maths reference I measure these out at 9.47 dia, 11.2 height for a displacement of .79cc. On the scale these should have read as 15g but showed 14g consistently across the board. My scale is either out a gram or these are tungsten steel. 
 

going to use 4 for this one, theoretically this should add 56 grams in tungsten minus 25 grams in manganese bronze for an added 31 grams. Well… this if your  MnBr isn’t leaded. In actuality I got 27 grams, which is about right as I suspected these were leaded MnBr heads for machinability (and I can say the way end mill plunge cut it’s feels like it’s leaded)

 

ended a little shy of what I really wanted to get the head to at 326g. I could fit more weights into this head by offsetting them front to back, but I couldn’t get 11.2mm depth on the back (to be honest I was a bit worry about 11.2 centered). I discarded this as I didn’t want to skew the weight towards the front of the putter for the first attempt, but I might give this a go on the next one and see just how heavy I can get one.

 

finished it off with a true temper stepless black shaft and super stroke grip

 

Now to get my hands on another one, got a few more ideas I wanna try (hopefully get my hands on some bigger dia tungsten). Although I personally like the click off the face of an original anser I’m intrigued to see what they’re like with a face mill as well so that’s probably next. I’ll try to remember to actually take some photos when I’m machining next time, but hey you get in the zone and forget lol.

[mogc60]

That’s looks awesome great work

[Motoboss]

I’d love to have my old Anser at 336g. You want another project?

[MachineHack]

8 hours ago, Motoboss said:

I’d love to have my old Anser at 336g. You want another project?

shipping might be a bit expensive to where I’m at, I’ll send ya a message 

[SWR]

Lovely restoration, nice work!

[MachineHack]

11 hours ago, SWR said:

Lovely restoration, nice work!

thanks!

 

I finally got out and properly rolled this a few days ago. It was good but it can be better, I’ve got some additional weights so I’m going to add more and get the head weight up further.

 

since I’m pulling the head off again, I think I’m gonna mill the face as well. I have a ping pal here i was gonna to do that instead of this anser (because I’ve got a new weight arrangement i wanna try) but now that I’m pulling the head off again might as well.

[Motoboss]

Awesome, can’t wait to see the milled face!

[gsteitz]

Looks excellent!!!

[MachineHack]

So I milled the face, i had to use my really wonky vise to get it level but hey turned out okay. Auto feed would be really nice, that’s feeling that a project that’s getting moved up the list.

 

I should prolly start on milling so more pockets for the extra weights but it’s sunny out and I kinda wanna go hit some balls instead 

[kwcsports]

That turned out great ^^^^^^

[MachineHack]

2 hours ago, kwcsports said:

That turned out great ^^^^^^

thanks mate! I actually had to practice trying to get the “milled” face looks as typically when I mill a face I don’t want it to look like this, I want it smooth as glass. 
 

I did a bit of snooping to see how the big name guys were getting their finish, most use a single flute carbide end mill…. Which I don’t have, I have a carbide facing mill which I tried and manually ran it and it wasn’t bad but the fly cutter was giving me a slightly better pattern. 
 

ill probably order a single flute end mill bit just to experiment with some different finish styles, but all in all the fly cutter works fine. I might even play around with hand shaping a carbide bit for the facing mill. idk stay tuned once I get the head weight up on this I’ll tear into this ping pal.

[MachineHack]

Well my drunk purchase arrived, a shiny old anser 4 

 

304g on the scale, so this old girl is gonna hit 350 when I’m done.

 

You know I completely forgot anser 4’s had the dual loft on the face of them, it’s gonna make for a tricky face mill. Waiting on the weights still so I might tackle that this weekend first 
 

Not sure of finish for this one yet, I’ve been leaning to a black cerakote tho 

 

 

[gsteitz]

haha, you aim well drunk!  

 

Can't wait to see the progress.

[MachineHack]

Well figured before I start the next project I should finish the first 

 

prolly should have just left it I knew since I never spaced the heel and toe weights to accommodate a center line of weights it could end up looking strange and yah I was right (don’t worry the weights are straight I just need to linish it a bit flatter) 

 

330 final number on this one tho, so no it wasn’t worth the effort to go further lol (the weights had to be very thin through the middle) 

 

this one is probably done now, polish it back up, gonna stamp the weight on it so I don’t forget and I’ll say go play some golf with it but who knows it might end up on the shelf lol

 

edit: well I whack it back on a shaft and rolled a few with it and the extra weight is really nice so I’m not gonna be as hard on myself for ruining it as I initially was

 

 

Edited July 2, 2022 by MachineHack

[tdeutmeyer]

What are you using to blend the face of the tungsten weights with the sole?   

[MachineHack]

I use a linisher for the initial grid down and then hand sand after that until I’m happy 

[cardoustie]

Great work, thx for sharing

[MachineHack]

Well weights arrived today unexpectedly so made some progress on the A4 today 

 

might end up a touch under 350 by the time I linish the weight flat and face mill (304 to start and the first set of 4 added 24g to 328) 

 

I’m pretty excited about this one and a bit nervous for the face milling, my fly cutter is HSS and this stainless is tough cutting! 

[T-3]

Thanks for sharing the details. Fascinating to watch your builds take shape! 

[Motoboss]

Let me ask, could you not drill all the way thru the flange and use a longer weight plug (gaining more weight) and finish both top and bottom smooth instead of using shallow holes? Is it just an aesthetic thing?

[MachineHack]

8 hours ago, Motoboss said:

Let me ask, could you not drill all the way thru the flange and use a longer weight plug (gaining more weight) and finish both top and bottom smooth instead of using shallow holes? Is it just an aesthetic thing?

Yah you can pretty well do whatever you can imagine. Tungsten is pretty hard stuff tho so I’ve avoided that because of how long it would take to shape the top back to original profile 

 

However I did just order some w80 tungsten copper rod, I was considering drilling straight through the face to bumpers with a partial cut in the sole. Then I could machine down the w80 and you’d be left with some copper strips on the bottom I thought could look cool.

 

you do more easily do what you’ve mentioned with w80 as it’s a bit softer 

 

ultimately I really wanna get a boring bar and get some tungsten big enough to make them removable weights 

Edited July 6, 2022 by MachineHack

[Motoboss]

Makes sense. Didn’t really consider the effort to shape the tungsten.

[MachineHack]

 

4 hours ago, Motoboss said:

Makes sense. Didn’t really consider the effort to shape the tungsten.

I might revisit it with this w80cu20 rod tho

 

ive got a ton of ideas half sketched out now. I originally started this as I was curious if I could take an old tired putter and bring it up to date in terms of face milling and modern head weights. That first A3 kind of proved the concept works to me, as it feels really really good to roll.

 

I really want to get a start on an easy adjustable screw in weights design tho, it’s always been in the back of my

mind but it’s been hard to source large enough tungsten rod for it to actually work and well I didn’t want to spend all the money on a boring bar until I really figured it out lol.

 

The real challenge is gonna be how do I hide all these putters from the misses…..

[MachineHack]

I was cleaning up some chips tonight hoping to get some mill time tomorrow and uh 

 

yah thinking the stainless in these old A4 ain’t the highest quality hahahaha (that’s my hold my tool magnet) 

 

Maybe it’s work hardened I’ll try the next one first hahahaha 

Edit: it also likely just 400 series remembering now it’s cast stainless,

prolly a good test to see if your A4 is SS or the more rare BeNi

 

Edited July 8, 2022 by MachineHack

[BIG STU]

On 7/6/2022 at 5:18 PM, Motoboss said:

Makes sense. Didn’t really consider the effort to shape the tungsten.

He is one hell of a machinist from what I have seen on here

[MachineHack]

17 minutes ago, BIG STU said:

He is one hell of a machinist from what I have seen on here

I don’t know about that haha, my grandfather was a lot better then me (it’s actually his old mill). I can still hear his voice critiquing me when I use his mill and lathe lol. 
 

 

 

[MachineHack]

Today was one of those days I shouldn’t have bothered heading to the garage lol 

 

both DRO’s failed on me and in the anger of it I forgot to only drill 5.6mm on the first back weight and drilled through 

 

so gotta buy two new DRO’s and then when I went to get a weight update…. the scale is now broken too lol… pretty

much everything went wrong lol

 

wont have any more updates for a couple weeks as I wait on new DRO’s (yes I could just use the dials but this old girl has heaps of backlash and it takes forever, with the little ones around I don’t have enough time to bother) 

 

I also gotta figure out what I’m gonna do about this unintended hole. Feels like @Motoboss preempted this hahaha. My initial thoughts are get the final weight after face milling, put another hole on the toe and use them to final weight it to 350g. I could also just lathe down some 303 rod I’ve got here and fix it but no matter what finish I end up with it’ll show…. 
 

im actually a bit conflicted on what finish I’m going to put on this. Originally I was gonna cerakote it, I’ll need to use some high temp epoxy on these weights but should be fine. 
 

I’ve thought about torching it but I’m worried about warping on 400 series stainless

 

or I could polish it (or sand blast it matte) 

 

love to hear everyone’s thoughts? 

[BIG STU]

30 minutes ago, MachineHack said:

Today was one of those days I shouldn’t have bothered heading to the garage lol 

 

both DRO’s failed on me and in the anger of it I forgot to only drill 5.6mm on the first back weight and drilled through 

 

so gotta buy two new DRO’s and then when I went to get a weight update…. the scale is now broken too lol… pretty

much everything went wrong lol

 

wont have any more updates for a couple weeks as I wait on new DRO’s (yes I could just use the dials but this old girl has heaps of backlash and it takes forever, with the little ones around I don’t have enough time to bother) 

 

I also gotta figure out what I’m gonna do about this unintended hole. Feels like @Motoboss preempted this hahaha. My initial thoughts are get the final weight after face milling, put another hole on the toe and use them to final weight it to 350g. I could also just lathe down some 303 rod I’ve got here and fix it but no matter what finish I end up with it’ll show…. 
 

im actually a bit conflicted on what finish I’m going to put on this. Originally I was gonna cerakote it, I’ll need to use some high temp epoxy on these weights but should be fine. 
 

I’ve thought about torching it but I’m worried about warping on 400 series stainless

 

or I could polish it (or sand blast it matte) 

 

love to hear everyone’s thoughts? 

Wonder how much weight the cerakote will add to the final product? I also wonder how it will affect the feel? Personally I would polish it that way the face is not affected plus It would leave bare to show off your excellent machine work. Look at some of the old school putters you will see the exposed recesses where they poured the lead in. Personally I think the way you did it looks better than modern screw in weights. Shows the engineering involved

[cardoustie]

I would totally game an old anser 4 BeNi if it could weigh 360 ish

 

thanks for sharing your experiments 

 

 

[MachineHack]

4 hours ago, BIG STU said:

Wonder how much weight the cerakote will add to the final product? I also wonder how it will affect the feel? Personally I would polish it that way the face is not affected plus It would leave bare to show off your excellent machine work. Look at some of the old school putters you will see the exposed recesses where they poured the lead in. Personally I think the way you did it looks better than modern screw in weights. Shows the engineering involved

An excellent machinist probably Wouldn’t have put a brain fart hole all the way through lol. Is what it is my mind was preoccupied with trying to fix the failing DRO scales (both failed so that’s great lol) 

 

I might try a brush look or sand blast finish to this. Done the polish on the first one keen to try some other things 

 

1 hour ago, cardoustie said:

I would totally game an old anser 4 BeNi if it could weigh 360 ish

 

thanks for sharing your experiments 

 

 

 

I could get to 360, I don’t normally

play a head weight that high but it’s very much doable 
 

the accidental hole might be a happy accident, I’ve been thinking of ideas on how to fix it and my thoughts are to drill another on the toe, get the final weight after I face mill and use the two holes to add a touch more weight to dial a perfect 350 in. It’s still not ideal in my mind but it should salvage it