Can someone direct me in building my own homemade spine finder and FLO tool. Of course, I need the cheapest, RELIABLY ACCURATE tools possible. Thanks in advance for your help!
Do a search for a spine finder and spine alignment and you should find the plans for a spine finder you can build for under $20. All you need to do a FLO alignment is a 200 to 250 gram weight you can attach to the tip of the shaft when you flex it. I build one and have a built in laser pointer that shines a red light on a grid pattern that works very well. Let me know if you can't find the plans on the net or if you need more info.
I'm a machineist, so I made my own 250 gram weight out of a piece of steel. Laser pointer can be had at your local drug store neat the check out line. I just made the weight so it would accept the laser pointer on the far end, and slip over the tip of the shaft on the other end. Works great, and so much better than using a club head.
you make that sound soooo easy. my mind just doesn't work like that, i guess. can you send me a pic? how much to make me a custom weight like yours? BTW, I now have a spine finder and the FLO tool will truly get me set up. Thanks!
I sell the FLO weight with Laser pointer for $25 plus UPS charges. Send me a PM with your email address and I can send you a photo after I take one for you.
I would just bypass the spinefinder altogether. The orientation found on this tool is not interesting unless you like your shafts to wobble. FLO is the way to go. I stop putting shafts in a spine finder a couple of years ago. Sometimes the FLO is near the NBP, sometimes its not. It leads me to believe that often times the orientation found on the spinefinder is artifact.
Next time you do a FLO alignment on a shaft try flexing the shaft both up and down as well as right to left. You'll find you get a straight line pattern in BOTH directions, up and down ,AND right to left. This is why you NEED to do the spine alignment first, so you know where the spine and NBP are. If you have the spine toward the target, the shaft will play stiffer than if you have the NBP toward the target. Depending on the shaft consistancy, it can make a very noticeable difference in how stiff the shaft flex will be. This is the main reason I always do a spine alignment first followed by the FLO alignment to fine tune the spine alignment. Try it, I think you'll see why it matters.
Next time you do a FLO alignment on a shaft try flexing the shaft both up and down as well as right to left. You'll find you get a straight line pattern in BOTH directions, up and down ,AND right to left. This is why you NEED to do the spine alignment first, so you know where the spine and NBP are. If you have the spine toward the target, the shaft will play stiffer than if you have the NBP toward the target. Depending on the shaft consistancy, it can make a very noticeable difference in how stiff the shaft flex will be. This is the main reason I always do a spine alignment first followed by the FLO alignment to fine tune the spine alignment. Try it, I think you'll see why it matters.
Couple of factors that I considered into my decision to stop using a spinefinder. First, what you are finding may not be the spine at all, rather residual bend artifact. Secondly, the majority of shafts that I"ve tested with multiple flo planes, the frequency is +/- 1 cpm on these different orientations. Thirdly, you 're not always going to find FLO conveniently located within a few degrees of your NBP and/or your spine. Lastly, how do you know, really, which would be bettter for the player you are fitting? FLO near NBP or FLO near the spine? How do you know that the 2 cpm stiffer FLO is less suited for the player that the FLO near the "softer plane". Also, I FLO right on my frequency meter... when I see a difference of 1 CPM between planes I perceive this as not interesting. Noone on this god green earth can discern that difference. The vast majority of shafts will wobble on the NBP plane found on a spine finder. Hundreds of shafts later, there is no point to finding the softplane on a spinefinder, IMO. I'm always rotating away from this point. Morever, the better the component, the spinefinder becomes even less interesting. I have read all the material, so don't bother posting links to the stuff you've "read" about. These would be the reasons I USED TO find NBP first.
I sell the FLO weight with Laser pointer for $25 plus UPS charges. Send me a PM with your email address and I can send you a photo after I take one for you.
I'd be interested in recieving a FLO weight with Laser pointer from you. Is there a special clamp that I need to FLO a shaft?
I am new to club making. I have been reading about spine and FLO.
I came across a hint to find spine angle. The suggestion was to lay out two steel rods on a fladt table, roll the shaft on teh rods until the shaft settles. Mark the shaft, this is your NSP. I tried it and it seems to work. I then taped a laser pointer to the end of teh shaft. Twanged the shaft in the same direction as the NSP and found the line to be very straight. Seems like this method, although crude would work for steel iron shafts. Probably not a graphite driver shaft though. Anybody with any advice on this method?
I am new to club making. I have been reading about spine and FLO.
I came across a hint to find spine angle. The suggestion was to lay out two steel rods on a flat table, roll the shaft on the rods until the shaft settles. Mark the shaft. This is your NSP. I tried it and it seems to work. I then taped a laser pointer to the end of the shaft. Twanged the shaft in the same direction as the NSP and found the line to be very straight. Seems like this method, although crude, would work for steel iron shafts. Probably would not be accurate for a graphite driver shaft though. Anybody with any advice on this method?
jjbird: I think you would find it to be a good bit more precise if you were to use a spine finder rather than just rolling the shaft over two rods. And the FLO alignment IS NOT always going to be the same as the NBP you found. Some times it's real close, and other times it's off by up to 15 degrees or so.
February 21st, 2009, 09:15 PM
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