My first putter mod project

Racerx63 · July 20, 2016

Hi Everyone,

I have been looking for a face balanced blade putter with a double bend shaft for a while and they are hard to find with out going full custom. I have the tools so I figured I would give it a try and see how it turns out. I am glad I did. For $55 and some time I have exactly what I was looking for. I bought this putter for $20, the shaft for $10 and the grip for $25. Everything else I had laying around in the garage. It putts and feels great and has become my gamer.

Pretty proud of this being my first try. I took an Odyssey White Hot XG #1 and made it face balanced, milled an aluminum insert and welded up the sole to remove the stamping.

Before

I have a cheap Jet mill and truthfully this is the first time I have used it as an actual mill instead of an expensive drill press. I milled the insert and finished the outline by hand.

Removed the insert from the head and cut off the plumbers neck.

I had a really old beat up #9 XG that had a flow neck. I cut the top of it off and tig welded it on the flange. Unfortunately I neglected to take pictures of welding on the neck. I then sand blasted it with course sand (probably should have used glass beads but it looks good) and used Caswell's SS darkener.

Here are the finished pictures.

I really like the way it turned out and it putts great! It has become my gamer. I was originally going to go after the button back look but as it was coming together, I really liked the clean simple look. The head started out at 335 grams. After all of the mods and inserting the tungsten plugs it came out to 345 grams.

is76550 · July 20, 2016

That's awesome! I love that you welded the sole clean, did you have to do anything to make it look like one metal?

Great work!

Racerx63 · July 20, 2016

Thank you very much! I used stainless steel filler rod when I was welding it up. When I sanded it down it blended in really well.

alexdub · July 20, 2016

So cool. Great to see some next-level putter mods here. Considering all the work you did, it came out really clean. Thanks for putting this all together—it takes a bit of time to write it all up and posting.

Racerx63 · July 20, 2016

Thanks! It was fun to do. I am tinkerer and love to do things like this. I might try to mill a complete head next just to see if I can. Would be a fun exercise.

sluggerx5 · July 20, 2016

How does the new insert feel? Really like the finish

CheckJV · July 20, 2016

Very cool. Thanks for sharing.

Roadking_6 · July 20, 2016

I am amazed by some of you people. I work with my tools (IBEW Electrician) but doing work like this seems like something I could never do. Even the refinishing/painting work I see guys do. Very very cool. Well done and thanks for sharing.

Racerx63 · July 20, 2016

How does the new insert feel? Really like the finish

I really like the feel. It reminds me of the KP1 carbon head I had. Its nice and solid with a muted sound. I used 6061 Aluminum. I wish now I would have kept the KP1 and made the same mod to add the double bend shaft. Loved the look and feel of that putter but just have issues with plumbers neck. Hard to cut up an expensive putter without doing it to a few cheap ones first. LOL

TPDawnPatrol · July 20, 2016

Head, shaft and grip: $55

Inexpensive Jet Mill/Drill: $1700 (guessing) + tig welder and bead blaster

Having the vision and experience to pull it off, and a few less things lying around in the garage looking for a purpose in life: Priceless!

:to_become_senile:

How did you set and confirm the proper loft and lie?

Racerx63 · July 20, 2016

Head, shaft and grip: $55
Inexpensive Jet Mill/Drill: $1700 (guessing) + tig welder and bead blaster
Having the vision and experience to pull it off, and a few less things lying around in the garage looking for a purpose in life: Priceless!
:to_become_senile:

How did you set and confirm the proper loft and lie?

Luckily, I got the mill for free from a family member that did not use it any longer and wanted a home for it. Fortunately I have a good size garage to fit it. :D

The rest I have collected over the years. I used to tig aluminum a lot on sand car bodies.

Unfortunately I do not have a "proper" loft and lie machine. I wish I did. Maybe in the future but only 1 putter doesn't justify that expense. My welding table is leveled and I can set up the shaft in such a way that I can use a magnetic dial gauge for both. I did buy a shaft for a 90º bore so I welded the neck on straight up. I got it very close. I am not making them and selling them so it does not need to be perfect but just right for me.