Making my own putter #2

[Rickp]

43 minutes ago, DStar said:

Another mod, engraving the logo on the rear cavity this time.

Yes or no?

Thank you

Yes for the engraving!

[Nolan220]

1 hour ago, DStar said:

Another mod, engraving the logo on the rear cavity this time.

Yes or no?

Thank you

yes for the engraving .. it looks good 

[IONEPUTT]

On 3/11/2021 at 8:15 AM, DStar said:

A bit slow with updates on this as the machine has been tied up with other work...

Not any more!! I'm pretty chuffed with it so far. Carbon steel, 395g at the moment but have the face machining to do so I reckon around 360g when I'm done.

Looks like "Really Nice Work" on those putter heads. What I would recommend is that you think about designing a putter with a "HIGH" center of gravity instead of the "'LOW CG these putters have. The idea when you putt, is the "ROLL" the ball on top of the grass, NOT pop the ball UP into the air. IF you look at other golf clubs that are designed to get the ball UP into the air, you will notice that they ALL have a LOW CG. That's great IF you want to launch the ball UP into the air, but NOT if you want to ROLL the ball to the cup. Think about it and let me know what you think. 

[one0wonder]

From what I've seen so far, you are doing some beautiful work. Congrats on selling one. The heads just look like they are meant to sink every putt in sight,

[DStar]

9 hours ago, IONEPUTT said:

Looks like "Really Nice Work" on those putter heads. What I would recommend is that you think about designing a putter with a "HIGH" center of gravity instead of the "'LOW CG these putters have. The idea when you putt, is the "ROLL" the ball on top of the grass, NOT pop the ball UP into the air. IF you look at other golf clubs that are designed to get the ball UP into the air, you will notice that they ALL have a LOW CG. That's great IF you want to launch the ball UP into the air, but NOT if you want to ROLL the ball to the cup. Think about it and let me know what you think. 

This is my 1st proper go at making a putter so I'm learning as I go. What feels right, looks weight etc...I doubt I'll sell many but I'm having fun trying and may try  more designs in the future.

Hadn't really thought about the CG, just went with what I thought would be good.

5 hours ago, one0wonder said:

From what I've seen so far, you are doing some beautiful work. Congrats on selling one. The heads just look like they are meant to sink every putt in sight,

Thank you  I wish they did sink every putt, maybe they would in better hands

[YamYam]

On 2/25/2021 at 6:51 AM, DStar said:

As #1 was quite successful and came out better than expected I thought I'd have a go at doing another one.

After a chat with the pro he recommended that a more traditional blade would be a good one to try and sell so that's what I'm doing.

I'm going to do a set of 4 this time, 2 x RH & 2 x LH in both 304SS and carbon steel, so that we can put a couple into the shop for demo. 

It's all programmed on the mill, I just need a window in the work-load to get them machined. I did have time to do a sample of the face machining to see how it looks as I'm trying to keep the engraving/logo's to a minimum to try and give them a clean look.

I'll, hopefully, get them done in time for when we can start playing at the end of March 

I'll update as I get more done but, as usual, all thoughts & input gratefully received. 

Steve

Don't you have to send samples of newly designed clubs to the USGA and R&A for approval before you can start to sell them.

You don't seem to mention this.

 

[DStar]

35 minutes ago, YamYam said:

Don't you have to send samples of newly designed clubs to the USGA and R&A for approval before you can start to sell them.

You don't seem to mention this.

 

"submissions of new equipment to The R&A for a ruling are strongly recommended, but not mandatory" - from the R & A website.

I spent quite a while looking through the requirements for the putter and I'm satisfied that it meets all of the requirements.

 

My putter measurements are: 

A - 4.33"

B - 4.33"

C - 1.2"

D - 0.985"

Shaft angle ~ 72°

Loft angle ~3°

Edited October 19, 2021 by DStar

[DStar]

Gamer done with white paint fill. 

I'm calling this one finished!!

[Rickp]

1 hour ago, DStar said:

Gamer done with white paint fill. 

I'm calling this one finished!!

Well done!

[DStar]

9 minutes ago, Rickp said:

Well done!

Thanks Rick

[Nolan220]

2 hours ago, DStar said:

Gamer done with white paint fill. 

I'm calling this one finished!!

Looks great

[DStar]

23 minutes ago, Nolan220 said:

Looks great

Thanks Ed  

[Nolan220]

54 minutes ago, DStar said:

Thanks Ed  

any interested in doing a mallet putter ?

[DStar]

18 minutes ago, Nolan220 said:

any interested in doing a mallet putter ?

It's something I will look into soon. 

[Joel C]

On 10/19/2021 at 2:10 AM, DStar said:

Gamer done with white paint fill. 

I'm calling this one finished!!

Looks great.  Amazing work! 

[DStar]

On 10/20/2021 at 6:43 PM, Joel C said:

Looks great.  Amazing work! 

Thanks Joel  

[cnosil]

On 10/19/2021 at 5:10 AM, DStar said:

Gamer done with white paint fill. 

I'm calling this one finished!!

Looks great.   I’m envious if your skills; I’d love to learn how to mill my own putter.  

[BMart519]

On 10/18/2021 at 10:47 AM, DStar said:

Another mod, engraving the logo on the rear cavity this time.

Yes or no?

Thank you

The engraving in the cavity definitely raises it a level in terms of fit and finish. As someone who has done some CAD design for manufacturing I have a few suggestions that you can take or leave as you wish. 
- You have a lot of different radii/fillets on your corners, I would try to make these similar where possible
- For example most of your vertical lines are sharper edges, but you have rounded all the horizontal edges nicely
- I believe you have already improved some of this from your first prototypes
- Cavity would look cleaner with one depth of milling instead of 3
- Personally, I would make a larger radius on the bottom edges that connect to the putter face as they look very square

Great work overall, I love the small details like the "D" milled into the face and the set screws on the back flange. 

[IONEPUTT]

On 10/18/2021 at 11:48 PM, DStar said:

This is my 1st proper go at making a putter so I'm learning as I go. What feels right, looks weight etc...I doubt I'll sell many but I'm having fun trying and may try  more designs in the future.

Hadn't really thought about the CG, just went with what I thought would be good.

Thank you  I wish they did sink every putt, maybe they would in better hands

About 16 years ago I designed and built a few putters with a HIGH CG and had a dozen or so golf instructors try them out. I almost every case the feedback was that MY putter rolled the ball BETTER than the putter the instructor was currently using. Most of them were using either a Scotty  or an Odyssey putter. My design has a high CG with 4* of lost on the face. The loft gets the ball up out of the slight depression it is in on the green, and then the high CG causes the ball to ROLL over the top of the grass, NOT pop up into the air, which is quite common with all other putters with a low CG. 

Your workmanship looks great, now think about designing a putter with a HIGH CG to get the ball to ROLL not pop up into the air and you will be all set to build a really good putter. 

While it's nice to build a putter that looks and feels good. I hope you will agree that that doesn't really matter if it does not perform any better than what's on the market now. YOU have the machining skills to create a really nice putt. I hope you will take the time to design a putter what will perform as well as it looks. 

 

[PMookie]

15 minutes ago, IONEPUTT said:

About 16 years ago I designed and built a few putters with a HIGH CG and had a dozen or so golf instructors try them out. I almost every case the feedback was that MY putter rolled the ball BETTER than the putter the instructor was currently using. Most of them were using either a Scotty  or an Odyssey putter. My design has a high CG with 4* of lost on the face. The loft gets the ball up out of the slight depression it is in on the green, and then the high CG causes the ball to ROLL over the top of the grass, NOT pop up into the air, which is quite common with all other putters with a low CG. 

Your workmanship looks great, now think about designing a putter with a HIGH CG to get the ball to ROLL not pop up into the air and you will be all set to build a really good putter. 

While it's nice to build a putter that looks and feels good. I hope you will agree that that doesn't really matter if it does not perform any better than what's on the market now. YOU have the machining skills to create a really nice putt. I hope you will take the time to design a putter what will perform as well as it looks. 

 

The assumption here is that these putters won’t perform?

[IONEPUTT]

2 hours ago, PMookie said:

The assumption here is that these putters won’t perform?

NOT AT ALL what I'm saying. What I was trying to say is that for the BEST performance with a putter, you want the ball to ROLL as soon as possible. And to do that a HIGH center of gravity is best. 

Looking at his putter and going by his workmanship, I would say his putter will work as well as all the other putters on the market with a LOW CG, which is just about ALL of them. The point of my post was the advise to him to try designing a putter with a HIGH CG to get the ball rolling and NOT pop it up into the air, which can cause the ball to "Skip" a little when it lands to go off line. A high CG can prevent that problem. 

[sirchunksalot]

@DStar, I'm just catching up on this thread and I've just got to say, great work. That putter is beautiful! The color, the paintfill, and the set screws are all nice touches and make for a unique style you can call your own. 

Thanks for sharing this with us and I can't wait to see what you do next.

[DStar]

On 10/25/2021 at 5:58 PM, BMart519 said:

The engraving in the cavity definitely raises it a level in terms of fit and finish. As someone who has done some CAD design for manufacturing I have a few suggestions that you can take or leave as you wish. 
- You have a lot of different radii/fillets on your corners, I would try to make these similar where possible
- For example most of your vertical lines are sharper edges, but you have rounded all the horizontal edges nicely
- I believe you have already improved some of this from your first prototypes
- Cavity would look cleaner with one depth of milling instead of 3
- Personally, I would make a larger radius on the bottom edges that connect to the putter face as they look very square

Great work overall, I love the small details like the "D" milled into the face and the set screws on the back flange. 

Thanks for the feedback. Useful stuff going forwards  

The idea of 3 steps in the cavity was to add a little material for off-centre hits to help improve forgiveness. I don't have a similar head without them but, in testing, there does seem to be very little drop-off in distance.

 

[DStar]

7 hours ago, sirchunksalot said:

@DStar, I'm just catching up on this thread and I've just got to say, great work. That putter is beautiful! The color, the paintfill, and the set screws are all nice touches and make for a unique style you can call your own. 

Thanks for sharing this with us and I can't wait to see what you do next.

Thanks for the very kind words, @sirchunksalot  

[Rickp]

10 hours ago, DStar said:

Thanks for the feedback. Useful stuff going forwards  

The idea of 3 steps in the cavity was to add a little material for off-centre hits to help improve forgiveness. I don't have a similar head without them but, in testing, there does seem to be very little drop-off in distance.

 

I like the design and craftsmanship looks great.  If we were close by I’d like to roll the LH!!!

Keep up the great work

[DStar]

Thanks Rick, really appreciate the kind words

[Grasper Parsnip]

I reckon your putters will work as well as any well balanced putter out there and for a fraction of the price the big companies charge for them.

Too much is being made of modern putters as it depends on the users skill and practice rather than the actual putter in itself.

Good roll  is a great help though. I have a Yes putter and this puts great roll on the ball, equally as wel as any other modern putter being overhyped i recent years.

You only have to look at the AVG Putting stats as far back as the 1990s on the PGA tour to see that the best putters on tour have not improved in spite of manufacturers keep telling us that this putter is an improvement on last yeas model etc.

Every year we are told that putters are getting better and better. if that was really the case then soon they will putt the ball in the hole for us by themselves if we believed that.

Tour Pros could putt with a bit of garden hose tied to a broom handle and there is nothing wrong with these modern putters and they get paid to play them so many do as they work just as well as the old ones.

To put things into perspective Ben Crenshaw back in 1994 got the same kind of puting average with his old Wilson Blade as the best putters in the world do now with the ever changing modern putters and every year after the average putting stats are very very similar, right up until this year.

For me the only interesting thing  in modern putters is the varied loft face on the SIK putters and now incorporated in some new Cobra putters. This will promote the same kind of strike and roll no matter if your stroke is not perfect everytime.

Time will tell if this improves the top putters on the various pro tours putting stats since the early 1990s as no other putters have so far.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Grasper Parsnip
grammar

[DStar]

I've given the mini-mallet type head the plumber's neck treatment. Fresh black oxide finish which we do at work..

377 grams, 72° lie, 3° loft in carbon steel. The red paint fill on the front didn't come out great but I can redo that at some point. 

Going to stick a black KBS CT Tour shaft in until the One Step is back in stock..

[IONEPUTT]

Again , this is beautiful workmanship on your part. Nicely done.

What I would like to suggest is that next time you machine a putter head. INVERT the head so that "Flange" on the bottom of the head at the back, is ON TOO.  That simple change would "Raise" the CG to be above the ball at impact and that would cause the ball to "Roll" sooner and not pop up into the air as much coming off the putter face. 

WEDGES are designed to get the ball UP into the air. and ALL good wedges have a LOW CG for that reason. If you use that same thinking to build a putter, the ball "Will" pop up into the air, just like with a wedge. Reverse the design to a HIGH CG design and I think you'll like the results a lot. 

[DStar]

This one of my previous heads that I'm just revisiting to make a few changes.