Question:
As a former hobbyist rod-maker I can tell you that the spine on a golf shaft is much stronger. I made a simple unit that I’ve checked spines with and wound up making one for my local club builder. What we did was lay the shaft between two vee-blocks and mount a bar with a weight hanging from it across the shaft. The weight bends the shaft and we read the deflection with a dial indicator on the top side …. right off hand I can’t remember how much deflection we’re seeing, but it’s in the .xxx range and would be a matter of how much weight you apply. This method gets you within a few degrees of on target and is not difficult or expensive in comparison to paying Golfsmith <G. When the dial indicator is at it’s highest point you’ve found the spine, or strong side of the shaft. If you build the club with this side facing the ball at address you’ve built it to the weakest flex it can be (in regards to flexing during the downswing), and directly opposite would give you the strongest flex it could be. IMO, the benefit is not that the flex is consistant but that the direction of flex is much more lineal (in line with the target or line of swing). I have a driver that was built this way, and my clubbuilding friend (long time golfer) was impressed enough that he disassembled his ProLogic shafted irons and aligned the spines on them. I think Golfsmith is way overpriced on the spine locating service, but I also think spine locating has definite benefits. My advice (and it’s worth what I’m charging) is to try spining a few clubs and see what your results are … personally I’ve been somewhat impressed. Nip Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation
….. balance snipped for brevity …. End of quotes from email Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above? Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite? Mike
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Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above? Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite? Mike — Mike Dalecki I had all my Driver, 3W and 5W garphite shafts spine-oriented. The clubmaker used a setup he devised himself: The shaft is clamped in a shaft vise at the butt end. He than had a plastic cylinder made, which was drilled through tfor the tip end of the shaft – the shaft being secured in place by a plastic screw. On the end is a $10 laser light ( purchased from Home Depot. The entire object weighs in around 205 grams or thereabouts. Three feet from the tip of the laser is a blank sheet of white cardboard – approx 2′x2′, and centered on the sheet is a vertical 5" line ( approx 1/4" thick) with a centerspot marked at 2.5ins. When the laser is switched on – it points directly at the centerspot, it is then oscillated and one can observe the oscillations in relation to the vertical line form the laser. The shaft is then moved around, if neccessary, until the laser light is moving vertically up and down the vertical 1/4" line. At that point the shaft is marked with proper spine orientation. Sorry if the above might be a bit confusing – but the beauty of it is that is works remarkably well – total cost i believe, including laser was around $20. David — RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/sneddond.htm Sounds brilliant to me – I can’t wait to try it myself! —
And what is even better, joe, is that it is $20 Canadian!!!!. The moulded plastic cylinder was a solid peice he had laying around and drilled it out using a bench press drill. The screw and the threaded hole he made using a buddy’s tool set. I’d imagine the most difficult part is finding the moulded cylinder. On thinking about it, it is ot so much plastic as one of these composite materials. I’ll try to drop by his shop sometime this week and find out exactly what the cylinder is made from, however I have a pretty busy week scheduled and can’t promise. David — RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/sneddond.htm
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Joe, I’m really confused now with this 3:00, 9:00 stuff. I guess it depends on if you’re right handed or left handed and which end of the club you’re looking at. Say I’m right handed, and looking down at the ball getting ready to hit a shot. Should the spine be on the left side of the shaft as I look down or on the right side of the shaft?
Left preferably, but right alternatively. How’s that? The idea is to keep it parallel to the clubface to limit deflection. It’s sort of like hitting a baseball with the grain of a wooden bat parallel to the ground. Same concept. Joe
Response:
The preferred way is to put it on the left side, although putting it on the right side is OK too (not my idea; it’s according to Golfsmith). — http://home.midsouth.rr.com/joecartpath RSG Roll Call: http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/reedj.htm
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Joe, I’m really confused now with this 3:00, 9:00 stuff. I guess it depends on if you’re right handed or left handed and which end of the club you’re looking at. Say I’m right handed, and looking down at the ball getting ready to hit a shot. Should the spine be on the left side of the shaft as I look down or on the right side of the shaft? According to Golfsmith, the preferred location is to have the spine at 3:00 (pointing toward the target, in other words). The alternate location would be 180* away (at 9:00). — http://home.midsouth.rr.com/joecartpath RSG Roll Call: http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/reedj.htm Matt, is that a typo? 3 or 6 o’clock? I thought they should go at 3 or 9 o’clock. Mike — Mike Dalecki There is no doubt that spine alignment makes a difference. How much, is still unknown, but if I can do anything with little effort and cost that will enhance the performance of clubs, I’m all for it. The simplest method I know of to locate the spine, is to roll the untrimmed shaft along two narrow, parallel and perfectly level bars or yard sticks etc. Roll the shaft perpendicular to the bars. Because the spine is usually the heaviest, the shaft will settle with the spine on the bottom. Check and recheck to be sure the shaft consistently settles on the same location. Mark the spine and when assembling the club, ensure that the spine is at 3 or 6 o’clock. Matt Frey Golfstix Custom Golf Clubs Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts (snip). Thanks, Kenny
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i think this is just more bullshit to allow people to make more money off of golf clubs,
I agree with you Charlie. I think it falls in there with the Ti golf balls. C.J. Elmore ( great golfer wannabe ) Tool & Die maker / Tooling Foreman Pentair Electronic Packaging (Houston Operations) http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/elmorecj.htm
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Joe, I’m really confused now with this 3:00, 9:00 stuff. I guess it depends on if you’re right handed or left handed and which end of the club you’re looking at. Say I’m right handed, and looking down at the ball getting ready to hit a shot. Should the spine be on the left side of the shaft as I look down or on the right side of the shaft? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -According to Golfsmith, the preferred location is to have the spine at 3:00 (pointing toward the target, in other words). The alternate location would be 180* away (at 9:00). — http://home.midsouth.rr.com/joecartpath RSG Roll Call: http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/reedj.htm Matt, is that a typo? 3 or 6 o’clock? I thought they should go at 3 or 9 o’clock. Mike — Mike Dalecki There is no doubt that spine alignment makes a difference. How much, is still unknown, but if I can do anything with little effort and cost that will enhance the performance of clubs, I’m all for it. The simplest method I know of to locate the spine, is to roll the untrimmed shaft along two narrow, parallel and perfectly level bars or yard sticks etc. Roll the shaft perpendicular to the bars. Because the spine is usually the heaviest, the shaft will settle with the spine on the bottom. Check and recheck to be sure the shaft consistently settles on the same location. Mark the spine and when assembling the club, ensure that the spine is at 3 or 6 o’clock. Matt Frey Golfstix Custom Golf Clubs Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts (snip).
Thanks, Kenny
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According to Golfsmith, the preferred location is to have the spine at 3:00 (pointing toward the target, in other words). The alternate location would be 180* away (at 9:00). — http://home.midsouth.rr.com/joecartpath RSG Roll Call: http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/reedj.htm
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Matt, is that a typo? 3 or 6 o’clock? I thought they should go at 3 or 9 o’clock. Mike — Mike Dalecki There is no doubt that spine alignment makes a difference. How much, is still unknown, but if I can do anything with little effort and cost that will enhance the performance of clubs, I’m all for it. The simplest method I know of to locate the spine, is to roll the untrimmed shaft along two narrow, parallel and perfectly level bars or yard sticks etc. Roll the shaft perpendicular to the bars. Because the spine is usually the heaviest, the shaft will settle with the spine on the bottom. Check and recheck to be sure the shaft consistently settles on the same location. Mark the spine and when assembling the club, ensure that the spine is at 3 or 6 o’clock. Matt Frey Golfstix Custom Golf Clubs Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts (snip).
Response:
Mike, As a hobbyists clubmaker, I have chosen an archaic method (but cheap)of spine alignment as follows: I worked on a block of wood (4" x 4" x 7") by drilling a hole the approximate size of the butt of the shaft. Note, the wood standing on end, with hole through the center. I then sliced the block of wood through the center, with half the hole on each piece. I took 1/2 the block and bolted to a 3/4" piece of hardboard, about a 12" x 12" piece. I then bolted the hardboard to a workbench. I then used "T" connectors with long bolts to attach the two pieces together as a clamping device, with butt of shaft between the two pieces of wood. Note, I use an old grip that has been vertically cut to slide onto the butt of the shaft before placing in the clamp. Note, the club head has not been glued at this time. I place the club head on the tip of the shaft by using plastic or any material that can be used as a filler, that will hold the head on tight. I then move in a stable object just beside the shaft, near the club head, and "pluck" the shaft to discover its orientation/oscillation. Note, at this point you will have to loosen bolts and rotate the shaft in small increments and pluck again. After several attempts you will discover that the shaft will oscillate straight up and down without hitting the stable object that you moved in close to shaft. Once this orientation is found, I mark the shaft in this location and assemble head accordingly. I know this is not as accurate as a computer controlled spine machine, but you can actually see a difference in the shaft oscillation if you spend enough time with it. Dennis
Response:
Matt, is that a typo? 3 or 6 o’clock? I thought they should go at 3 or 9 o’clock. Mike — Mike Dalecki – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – There is no doubt that spine alignment makes a difference. How much, is still unknown, but if I can do anything with little effort and cost that will enhance the performance of clubs, I’m all for it. The simplest method I know of to locate the spine, is to roll the untrimmed shaft along two narrow, parallel and perfectly level bars or yard sticks etc. Roll the shaft perpendicular to the bars. Because the spine is usually the heaviest, the shaft will settle with the spine on the bottom. Check and recheck to be sure the shaft consistently settles on the same location. Mark the spine and when assembling the club, ensure that the spine is at 3 or 6 o’clock. Matt Frey Golfstix Custom Golf Clubs Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts (snip).
Response:
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above? Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite? Mike — Mike Dalecki I had all my Driver, 3W and 5W garphite shafts spine-oriented. The clubmaker used a setup he devised himself: The shaft is clamped in a shaft vise at the butt end. He than had a plastic cylinder made, which was drilled through tfor the tip end of the shaft – the shaft being secured in place by a plastic screw. On the end is a $10 laser light ( purchased from Home Depot. The entire object weighs in around 205 grams or thereabouts. Three feet from the tip of the laser is a blank sheet of white cardboard – approx 2′x2′, and centered on the sheet is a vertical 5" line ( approx 1/4" thick) with a centerspot marked at 2.5ins. When the laser is switched on – it points directly at the centerspot, it is then oscillated and one can observe the oscillations in relation to the vertical line form the laser. The shaft is then moved around, if neccessary, until the laser light is moving vertically up and down the vertical 1/4" line. At that point the shaft is marked with proper spine orientation. Sorry if the above might be a bit confusing – but the beauty of it is that is works remarkably well – total cost i believe, including laser was around $20. David — RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/sneddond.htm
Sounds brilliant to me – I can’t wait to try it myself! — http://home.midsouth.rr.com/joecartpath RSG Roll Call: http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/reedj.htm
Response:
At the Golf Works school I attended a couple of weeks ago they showed us a three ways to find the spine. The easiest was to put a cork in each end of the shaft and float it in water (they suggested a piece of roof gutter). The "heavy" side of the shaft would orient itself downward, indicating the spine. Install the shaft so the spine faces the target at address. They also have a device that uses some roller barings in a 2" plastic pipe that works great. The final way was to balance it on a couple of fulcrums – heavy side orients down like in the water (this is mentioned somewhere else in this thread). David
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For those interested in Spine-Orienting shafts, check out Dynacrafts tech forums at the following url. http://209.213.98.1/forums/index.cfm?cfapp=105 — Alton White alton3(at)homedotcom
Response:
Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above? Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite? Mike — Mike Dalecki
I had all my Driver, 3W and 5W garphite shafts spine-oriented. The clubmaker used a setup he devised himself: The shaft is clamped in a shaft vise at the butt end. He than had a plastic cylinder made, which was drilled through tfor the tip end of the shaft – the shaft being secured in place by a plastic screw. On the end is a $10 laser light ( purchased from Home Depot. The entire object weighs in around 205 grams or thereabouts. Three feet from the tip of the laser is a blank sheet of white cardboard – approx 2′x2′, and centered on the sheet is a vertical 5" line ( approx 1/4" thick) with a centerspot marked at 2.5ins. When the laser is switched on – it points directly at the centerspot, it is then oscillated and one can observe the oscillations in relation to the vertical line form the laser. The shaft is then moved around, if neccessary, until the laser light is moving vertically up and down the vertical 1/4" line. At that point the shaft is marked with proper spine orientation. Sorry if the above might be a bit confusing – but the beauty of it is that is works remarkably well – total cost i believe, including laser was around $20. David — RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/sneddond.htm
Response:
Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above?
You can do it on your flex board…that’s what I do…Just watch for any variation and turn the shaft 1/4 turn…This will catch any really significant problems… Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite?
How much deflection is going to depend on how much weight is attached. Rolled Graphite Shafts * MAY * display noticable differences if they are poorly made….CSG has a GREAT short piece explaining graphite spines and why they *DON’T* bother about them in their latest catalog…Modern Steel Shafts are made by DRAWING…they do not have spines… ]]]Z[[[
Response:
There is no doubt that spine alignment makes a difference. How much, is still unknown, but if I can do anything with little effort and cost that will enhance the performance of clubs, I’m all for it. The simplest method I know of to locate the spine, is to roll the untrimmed shaft along two narrow, parallel and perfectly level bars or yard sticks etc. Roll the shaft perpendicular to the bars. Because the spine is usually the heaviest, the shaft will settle with the spine on the bottom. Check and recheck to be sure the shaft consistently settles on the same location. Mark the spine and when assembling the club, ensure that the spine is at 3 or 6 o’clock. Matt Frey Golfstix Custom Golf Clubs – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts (snip).
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Mike, I think setting up something like a deflection board, very similar to those used to measure flex, would work, but I suspect that the differences in deflection will be very slight, perhaps as little as .1 inch or even less for stiff filament wound graphite shafts. It might be greater for sheet or tape wound shafts. I also suspect that the stiffer the shaft, the less of s difference in deflection you will see. This is because what you are looking for is differences in deflection. A stiff shaft will be stiffer at all orientations. Using a heavier weight might accentuate the differences. I like the idea of a vise or shaft clamp. I would also suggest that if this were to become a routine operation or service that a way of accuarately measuring the changes in orientation be developed. Some kind
Buy the commercial machnines… don’t they do it with a frequency machine and just watch the way it oscillates? of a clamp with a rotational scale in degrees that would allow measurable changes in the orinetation would be a good idea. A base starting check might be every 22.5* to establish a general orinetaion for the spine, then in smaller increments until you have established the spine within 1-2*. It occurs to me that a properly sized collet, like those used in lathes, might make a very good clamp for the butt end of
I think for the do it yourselfer the same clamp used for grip changes might work… even if you had to modify it slightly. dsc – acssysdsc
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Charlie, I agree with you to an extent. Hackers and high handicappers will see very little, if any, benefit from spining.
That remains to be proven and depends somewhat on how you define hacker and high handicappers. 
It also depends on just how bad the spine is misaligned. If it is in it’s worst possible position, the club could be very difficult to play… from what I have read. It never hurts in golf to eliminate as many variables as possible. Making sure of your equipment is one less thing to have to worry about. dsc – acssysdsc
Response:
There is no doubt that spine alignment makes a difference. How much, is still unknown, but if I can do anything with little effort and cost that will enhance the performance of clubs, I’m all for it. The simplest method I know of to locate the spine, is to roll the untrimmed shaft along two narrow, parallel and perfectly level bars or yard sticks etc. Roll the shaft perpendicular to the bars. Because the spine is usually the heaviest, the shaft will settle with the spine on the bottom. Check and recheck to be sure the shaft consistently settles on the same location. Mark the spine and when assembling the club, ensure that the spine is at 3 or 6 o’clock.
Hum.. If you roll it with a little downward pressure (enough to flex it slightly)… any spine should readily appear. dsc – acssysdsc
Response:
I aligned my *first* clubs spine. I don’t see a problem with it. It’s not like its hard to do. Rob – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts that I thought was interesting enough to move to RSG. Spine orientation is a service Golfsmith offers to help align shafts the same way when you make clubs. This is supposed to result in better shotmaking by eliminating inconsistencies within a set due to misalignment. i think this is just more bullshit to allow people to make more money off of golf clubs, especially golfsmith since they seem to be the only one promoting it. sure, you probably can come up with some differences in shots if you put the same club into iron byron with different spine alignments. however, how many people have the consistency of iron byron? touring pros don’t even hit it that consistently. charlie Before you buy.
– RSG Rollcall: http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/hamiltonr.htm
Response:
Charlie, I agree with you to an extent. Hackers and high handicappers will see very little, if any, benefit from spining. But touring pros have been aligning the spines of their shafts for years, long before the USGA formally acknowledged that spines exist. I guaranty you that they didn’t do it because they thought having all their shaft labels misaligned looked cool. i think this is just more bullshit to allow people to make more money off of golf clubs, especially golfsmith since they seem to be the only one promoting it. sure, you probably can come up with some differences in shots if you put the same club into iron byron with different spine alignments. however, how many people have the consistency of iron byron? touring pros don’t even hit it that consistently. charlie Before you buy.
– Dan Driscoll Current USGA Handicap Index – 16.9 RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/driscolld.htm Keep Usenet Clean, Trash a Spammer!
Response:
Mike, I think setting up something like a deflection board, very similar to those used to measure flex, would work, but I suspect that the differences in deflection will be very slight, perhaps as little as .1 inch or even less for stiff filament wound graphite shafts. It might be greater for sheet or tape wound shafts. I also suspect that the stiffer the shaft, the less of s difference in deflection you will see. This is because what you are looking for is differences in deflection. A stiff shaft will be stiffer at all orientations. Using a heavier weight might accentuate the differences. I like the idea of a vise or shaft clamp. I would also suggest that if this were to become a routine operation or service that a way of accuarately measuring the changes in orientation be developed. Some kind of a clamp with a rotational scale in degrees that would allow measurable changes in the orinetation would be a good idea. A base starting check might be every 22.5* to establish a general orinetaion for the spine, then in smaller increments until you have established the spine within 1-2*. It occurs to me that a properly sized collet, like those used in lathes, might make a very good clamp for the butt end of the shaft. In fact, if you have a 50 inch lathe it might make a very good temporary test jig, just to get some experimental data to start with.
<snip – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – From Harlan: "In rodmaking we have to make sure that the spine of the graphite blank is located and properly aligned. I’m interested to find out if it can be located with shafts the same way. I’m not too keen to pay them to locate it for me. Locating the spine on a fishing rod is fairly easy due to the flexibility of the blank, but a shaft presents other problems. "Since the spine will be the stiffest portion of a blank shaft I think it can be located by supporting the butt of the shaft horizontally in a hole drilled in one of the 2×4 shelf supports in my workshop. A weight hung from the end of the shaft ought to drop closer to the floor as the shaft is rotated way from the spine. From what I’ve read, the spine ought to be located on the top or bottom of the shaft (viewed from the address position)." My response: I wonder you’d get enough deflection from the weight to clearly note with which orientation the spine was aligned with. In other words, if we’re talking about an inch-worth of deflection, I’m sure that would be observable; if we’re talking about 1/8", I’m not so sure. If the shaft isn’t perfectly straight, then turning the shaft on the nail will move the weight up or down independently of spine orientation. Further, how much weight would be needed? 2 or 3 pounds? And do you think this would work with steel shafts as well? Any idea how much deflection we’d be talking about? and Which brings to mind a second issue. I would think that clamping the shaft in a vise would create more stability. If you had a good way of releasing the shaft, turning the shaft a bit, and then reclamping, you’d more or less guarantee that the shaft remained in the same position relative to the floor, without the weight attached. There are good clubmaking vises with quick releases that strike me as being appropriate for something like this. End of quotes from email Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above? Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite? Mike — Mike Dalecki
– Dan Driscoll Current USGA Handicap Index – 16.9 RSG Roll Call http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/driscolld.htm Keep Usenet Clean, Trash a Spammer!
Response:
Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts that I thought was interesting enough to move to RSG. Spine orientation is a service Golfsmith offers to help align shafts the same way when you make clubs. This is supposed to result in better shotmaking by eliminating inconsistencies within a set due to misalignment.
i think this is just more bullshit to allow people to make more money off of golf clubs, especially golfsmith since they seem to be the only one promoting it. sure, you probably can come up with some differences in shots if you put the same club into iron byron with different spine alignments. however, how many people have the consistency of iron byron? touring pros don’t even hit it that consistently. charlie Before you buy.
Response:
Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above? Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite?
In the real world they do it with vibrations… right. Maybe you could clamp it in a vise and simply pluck it like a banjo string and watch the vibrations. dsc – acssysdsc
Response:
Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts that I thought was interesting enough to move to RSG. Spine orientation is a service Golfsmith offers to help align shafts the same way when you make clubs. This is supposed to result in better shotmaking by eliminating inconsistencies within a set due to misalignment. We have some ideas and questions regarding spine orientation that we’d like some of you to take a crack at. I’m going to quote some things from Harlan’s emails (with his permission). From Harlan: "In rodmaking we have to make sure that the spine of the graphite blank is located and properly aligned. I’m interested to find out if it can be located with shafts the same way. I’m not too keen to pay them to locate it for me. Locating the spine on a fishing rod is fairly easy due to the flexibility of the blank, but a shaft presents other problems. "Since the spine will be the stiffest portion of a blank shaft I think it can be located by supporting the butt of the shaft horizontally in a hole drilled in one of the 2×4 shelf supports in my workshop. A weight hung from the end of the shaft ought to drop closer to the floor as the shaft is rotated way from the spine. From what I’ve read, the spine ought to be located on the top or bottom of the shaft (viewed from the address position)." My response: I wonder you’d get enough deflection from the weight to clearly note with which orientation the spine was aligned with. In other words, if we’re talking about an inch-worth of deflection, I’m sure that would be observable; if we’re talking about 1/8", I’m not so sure. If the shaft isn’t perfectly straight, then turning the shaft on the nail will move the weight up or down independently of spine orientation. Further, how much weight would be needed? 2 or 3 pounds? And do you think this would work with steel shafts as well? Any idea how much deflection we’d be talking about?
and Which brings to mind a second issue. I would think that clamping the shaft in a vise would create more stability. If you had a good way of releasing the shaft, turning the shaft a bit, and then reclamping, you’d more or less guarantee that the shaft remained in the same position relative to the floor, without the weight attached. There are good clubmaking vises with quick releases that strike me as being appropriate for something like this.
End of quotes from email Now, has anyone had any spine-orientation done? Is it possible to do it "on the cheap" as we’ve discussed above? Anyone know how much deflection difference there’d be in the method we propose above? And would it work differently for steel and graphite? Mike — Mike Dalecki
Response:
Harlan Davis and I have been carrying on a private email discussion about spine orientation in shafts that I thought was interesting enough to move to RSG.
(snipped) Hi Mike, While I am a recent, self-professed clubmaking junkie; I haven’t jumped into the "spining" debate. I want to go slow, and, learn the craft from the bottom up. I have seen several threads on ShopTalk that were dedicated to spines and spining. However, if you want to view discussions on the topic between very experienced, competent clubmakers; head to the following URL. http://www.egroups.com/group/spinetalk This is a discussion group regarding the orientation of the spine-effect of Golf Club Shafts. I haven’t "tuned in," but, if it is anything like ShopTalk, there will be lots of good information shared. I hope this can be a good source of information for you. Good Luck. ChiliDipper RSG Roll Call: http://u1.netgate.net/~kirby34/rsg/toyg.htm