Spine Alignment

I go out of my way to order shafts that are inherently round to begin with thus reducing the impact of spine alignment. This information comes from the Radial Integrity readings taken during my Shaft Certification process and also from the Shaft Selection software I subscribe to.

Most of the shafts I select to build with have a negligible spine (difference in stiffness) that may be too small to be measured or, even if detected, too small to make a practical difference but where it can be detected it is aligned.

When I align a shaft, I am aligning a plane of Flat Line Oscillation (FLO) and I take a similar approach to a manual version of the SST PUREing™ procedure. However, unlike the SST PUREing™ procedure that measures the uncut shaft, I carry this out with the shaft clamped at playing length. Given that most grips are in the region of 10” long and the clamp on my frequency meter is 5”, I am aligning the plane of FLO of the club from halfway down the grip, directly under your hands. 

As I will have already located the planes of FLO during the Shaft Certification process, I will align the mark from the FLO plane and mount the club head to the shaft. I then rotate the club head on the shaft to align the scoring lines on the club face with the plane of FLO. At this point I remove the club from the clamp and mark a line from the hosel extending on to the shaft which I will use to align the shaft with the head during assembly.