would this be USGA legal?

scotte · May 31, 2006

drilling holes & adding melted lead to putter head

I was wondering if I could drill some holes in the soul of the putter head and add some molten lead in the holes to add some weight to it.

The putter is an anser ti, which is cast with a titanium hosel.

The putter is just so darn light, I have tons of tape on it, and would rather do a more perminate solution.

Thanks,

Scott

golfebj · May 31, 2006

Why not try back weighting it with the drop in weights?

scotte · May 31, 2006

golfebj, thanks for the help, do you mean like lead powder/pelets in the shaft? I would really like the weight in the head, and low to the ground. Thanks again for your help.

phillypete · May 31, 2006

The lead will end up weighing less than the steel that you drilled out.

There a lot of putter mods out there that use interference fit tungsten plugs. There was a website out of Japan that did crazy mods on Guage putters. I can't think of the site but one of the old TSG guys should remeber it.

scotte · June 1, 2006

wow PhillyPete, thanks man. I am glad to know that. So if I found some tungston plugs, you think that might be the way to go, is their any other metal you can think of that would work well?

sfdoddsy · June 1, 2006

Whatever the merits of your mods, you won't be breaking USGA rules.

As long as you don't change the characteristics during a round, and don't have the shaft too upright (72 degrees or something), you can do what you like. Oh, and there are grip restrictions too.

However, if your putter is that light and uncomfortable, why not just get a heavier one?

There are dozens of Ansers and clones out there.

oldgoalie · June 1, 2006

The lead will end up weighing less than the steel that you drilled out.

Lead (~11 g/cm^3) is denser than steel (~8 g/sm^3), so it would not end up weighing less.

phillypete · June 1, 2006

The lead will end up weighing less than the steel that you drilled out.

Lead (~11 g/cm^3) is denser than steel (~8 g/sm^3), so it would not end up weighing less.

Its not a question of physics as much as a question of practicality. The volume of lead that will go into the hole will be significantly less than the volume of the steel you removed. You need something with a larger difference in density. 3 grams per cubic cm isn't going to make a noticable difference. Say by some means we were able to drill out a hole on either side and refill it with the exact volume of lead... you would need a big hole to make a decent difference in head weight.

oldgoalie · June 1, 2006

The lead will end up weighing less than the steel that you drilled out.

Lead (~11 g/cm^3) is denser than steel (~8 g/sm^3), so it would not end up weighing less.

Its not a question of physics as much as a question of practicality. The volume of lead that will go into the hole will be significantly less than the volume of the steel you removed. You need something with a larger difference in density. 3 grams per cubic cm isn't going to make a noticable difference. Say by some means we were able to drill out a hole on either side and refill it with the exact volume of lead... you would need a big hole to make a decent difference in head weight.

I see where you are coming from. I was assuming he was going to drill something like a 1/4" hole, in which case, it would not be hard to pour molten lead into the hole and fill it. I agree if you had a very small hole where the surface tension of the molten lead would not allow it to flow into the hole, then you might have an issue.

scotte · June 2, 2006

wow, philly pete check this out, tungston

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/tungstencylinders.htm

phillypete · June 2, 2006

wow, philly pete check this out, tungston

http://www.maximum-velocity.com/tungstencylinders.htm

Sweet link... I am in the process of design my own putter and those will definitely open up some possibilities.

phillypete · June 2, 2006

I see where you are coming from. I was assuming he was going to drill something like a 1/4" hole, in which case, it would not be hard to pour molten lead into the hole and fill it. I agree if you had a very small hole where the surface tension of the molten lead would not allow it to flow into the hole, then you might have an issue.

I wasn't thinking of hot lead. I think your going to want to epoxy a plug in place. In which case the difference in density isn't enough to make a difference. The Tungsten is definitely the way to go.

oldgoalie · June 3, 2006

His title said "adding melted lead".

The tungsten is denser (~19 g/cm^3) as discussed, but the downside is that you won't be able to melt it and it is really hard and thus difficult to cut. This means you are limited to adding the weight in the billetts as supplied. You will have to drill holes the size of those plugs, which you may or may not be able to do without drilling through the head.

The other option is drilling a hole and then doing to epoxy/tungsten powder thing.