hobbyist putter attempt

[draftduffer]

Some of you may remember that a posted a few pics of some of the putters I've made. (3 to date). I thought I might share a few pics of my latest attempt. I designed this with a couple of days work in Autocad. Some of the machining was experimental, for me that is, and the welds were smaller than what I'm used to. The main body is hot rolled steel (1018 I believe). The hosel is a 2 piece weldment that was welded into the main body. I started with the welding as I wasn't sure I could pull it off with my equipment. I think they turned out ok for a complete novice. I tried to leave as many of the as machined or as welded parts looking just like they did when they were completed. I got the bolts from a $1 cigar box full of socket headed cap screws I found last summer. As it turns out the National Guard had a booth at our state fair complete with a jet cockpit the kids could climb into, and an F-16 turbine with windows cut into it, so you could see inside. I was showing it to my 4 year old when I noticed the whole thing was put together with the same bolts. I went through 2 saw blades cutting the six bolts to fit in the main putter body. They were hard little guys. I finished it by bead blasting it and parkerizing. Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Matt

[Emm]

Hi,

 

 

 

Great to see someone making one, I wanted to make one for about 2 years now, just down to time..

 

Is there a slot/sound line in the top i can see? Was that easy to do?

 

Also what is it like for weight and feel?

 

Great pics

 

Emm

[Boba]

Wow that reminds me of a proto that tom sites made for the nike slingshot. Are the screws functional?

[draftduffer]

Emm, yes there is a slot in the topline of the putter, as well as below in the flange. It was made with a 1/16" woodruff keyseat cutter (it's what I had). Adding the slot is pretty easy, but I am limited on the thickness I can cut and the reach of the woodruff cutter. The cutter has a 3/8" diameter and the shank is 3/8" so this isn't the best tool for the job. A slitting saw would be the best and I'm waiting for holiday $$$ to get one. The face is about .1" thick at the bottom and .03125" at the top due to the loft angle I used (4 degrees). The top slot was an afterthought and isn't on my original prints. The head weights 342 grams. What else could the lie angle be but 69...what can I say I'm a bad man...

 

The feel, well it has a pretty high pitched sound due to the thickness of the face at the slot areas. The slitting saw would have allowed me to make the slots longer, but due to the thin top section the putter would likely have caved in. As it stands I would guess I'm riding the ragged edge anyway. The shaft is a cut down Gary Player Black Knight 3 wood shaft, (again it's what I had). I remain undecided as to grip selection, it's narrowed down to either a Grip One Leather or a Winn AVS 17 in Stealth grey. It has a standard Lamkin Crossline with the end cut off now and it seems to hit the ball where you aim, but a putter grip would be better. As I've yet to spend any money on the putter yet I'm torn on the grip decision. I do have a new Lamkin Crossline putter grip and since it's already paid for, the temptation is to use it...

 

When you balance the putter shaft on a finger it points the toe down at a 45 degree angle so I'm not sure if it's toe or face balanced.

 

I started this putter back in June, I think. So yes finding time is factor...

 

Boba, only one of the bolts is actually serving a fastening function, the 6 in the body are threaded into holes but are decorations/ballast. They are blue Locktited in but could be removed if desired.

 

The seventh bolt is there to seal the shaft so I can blow a new grip on, but could be removed without a problem I think. With the end of the grip cut off and the bolt removed you can see right down the shaft.

 

Oh, did I mention that the head is not glued to the shaft...

 

Do you have any pics of the proto, I would be very interested in seeing them.

[xxio]

Wow, is that an autobot or a decepticon (cool)

 

More than meets the eye.........

 

 

Great experiment. You can have those weights on the back moveble and sell the concept to TM.

[draftduffer]

Actually it's an Exoforce MILF-16 linear phased proton accelerator cannon with EMP generator. It was smuggled out of the black lodge by an amishman wearing a mackinaw hat. The plans were implanted in my head the other night by said amishman when my tinfoil CPAP/oxygen enrichment device went askew.

 

Original designs and prototypes were made by Dr. A. Hoffman in the early '40's, as a skunkworks black ops, officially denied knowledge, weapons project in accordance with no Geneva conventions. With no known laws in place to throttle development, the development team moved forward with brutish tenacity. Original plans called for enlarged Buckyballs encased in a glass reinforced thorium containment feild. Literally burried in beaurocratic red tape until recent actions were allowed. A group of Amish strikeforce commandoes specializing in martial arts was sent to Canada to collect this world-vital weapon. Only one of the Amish commandoes made it out alive...

 

But I've said too much already... (cool)

[Emm]

We never spoke about this project......... ok?

 

I don't know who your are...... (cool)

[siennaslammer]

very cool.

lovin the milling work.... all looking very shopworn.

 

there is the idea.. about the movable screw weighs in the back..

so each person can adjust as needed to their putting stroke..

heavier on the toe vs heel or more to the back in general.

hey why not.

 

put me in line for a proto try out.

 

thanks for the great story & pix...

 

PS:

not sure about the EMP story et al... we do use proton beam for precise delivery of radiation to our cancer patients & the giant gantry is 3 story high... so somehow your story on the proton accelerator doesn't fly with me.. but the other parts sounds x-file-ish...or was it blue book.

[draftduffer]

I had plans for a similar design incorporating tungsten rods but started pricing tungsten and was frightened away. And I'm not sure my machines or methods could work with the stuff, and I believe the dust generated from working it is not very cool stuff.

 

The bolts do influence the balance, I removed the front ones and the putter face balanced at about 30 degrees (vs.~45degrees with all of them in place). Removing the rear ones drops the toe down. So they are heavy enough to make changes in groups of 3 at least. Perhaps they could be removed individually for extremly fine tuning. Like I said I used blue Locktite which is good stuff but not semi-perminate like the red stuff, so the bolts are removable.

 

Was out earlier at Golf Galaxy to snoop around and they now have all the club building supplies on display. They even had some CER putter heads that looked pretty nice. I was kind of taken aback by all of it. I saw a rifle putter shaft that would look pretty nice in anything really, and it was pretty cheap. But I ended up getting a Winn AVS 17 grip so I'm down like $6 on my project...I'm gonna go install it now.

 

Thanks to everyone for your kind words/comments.

 

I was just kidding about those amish guys and stuff...but, if I could reduce the size of something 3 stories tall into something handheld that saved lives...well that would be pretty cool, but probably wouldn't be a golf putter and it would have to be stainless steel.