I have performed the flo procedure on all my woods.I lost my laser that I used in the past and wanted to check a friends driver.This a alternative, I clamped the driver shaft in my vise cautiously, cut a thin strip of white tape and put it at right angle to the face and in the center of the head.put my bright pen light to shine on the dot then did a few twangs of the shaft,this works, you can see right to left line or oscillation of tape line quite clearly. I call it poor boy puring.

Thanks, it certainly makes a lot of sense.

Great video! I had never heard of flo before. It makes perfect sense of why it would help consistency.

Great video and easy to understand directions. Thank you for making the video.

Thanks for this. I am just about to build my new clubs glad I found this LOL. Knew of spine aligning but knew nothing of FLO ... I do now , thanks to you. Look bottom line anything Tom Wishon says is gold in my opinion the guy has forgotten more about golf clubs than I will ever know and I'm not USA based I'm Australian based and know of Tom he truly is International.

I spline the shaft in the 2 bushings on a vertical plane, straight up and down. Then I put the clubhead on the shaft without epoxy. Then I stress the shaft and align the face of the club so that it is facing at a 90 degree angle from where the spline is. Then mark the shaft and the hosel so that I can remove the bushings, then reattach the club head with epoxy. When I stress the shaft during the golf swing the same as I stressed it with the bushings the shaft will want to square up the club face the same as it did in the bushings. This method would seem to best simulate the actual stresses generated in the golf swing.

understood with thanks - keep up the awesome work Gents

Excellent vid as usual.

Some would argue the bearing based "spine finder" is not finding a spine, but how the shaft is naturally not perfectly straight but has a slight curve in it , when not flexed. Nothing is manufactured perfectly straight. If a shaft was so unstraight it looked like a kitchen spatula, it would would always rotate to that same position in the bearing curve finder, every time. Yet what does that have to do with how the club actually oscillates when it bends? Not always much, as the shaft is often rotated away from the curve aligned spot to find a spine it will flo in. I prefer to flo the shaft vertical. I have a tip weight with a laser pointed rubber banded to it. I can leave it a tad loose and slightly shake the shaft to get the tip/laser center of gravity to fall straight down, and then tighten it. Then i know the tip weight and laser's center of gravity is straight in line with a straight vertical twang.

I agree 100%, I started flowing my DCB's and only 2 out of 6 were where the Osculation had a flat line. The Epic Max (brand new) was the worst and by rotating it I was able to reduce it to a small oval but the adjustable hosel is a joke.

Like so many....if we have to adjust for course conditions. Shaft building needs a leap forward on development. Thanks for great vid.

I agree completely about putting the softest bending axis of the shaft (the spine) in line with the target line when finding the FLO. Often/usually the FLO will be relatively close to the axis of the spine. There is another advantage in doing this. Having the softest flex axis near the target direction when assembling the club will mean the axis that bends much less will be perpendicular to the target line. That will mean the shaft bends down less and, therefore, the club head droops less at impact, making solid contact easier. I do one thing different than what you show. I use the actual club head jammed on to the shaft with a small piece of rubber band to hold it there. I FLO the shaft that way since it duplicates the center of gravity of the head being away from the center of the shaft. Obviously I turn the head so it starts with the clubface facing the same direction as the mark on the tape and I keep adjusting the head position slightly when turning the shaft in the vise until the shaft oscillates in a straight line. The club face needs to keep being adjusted to face perpendicular to the line of twang. Once I find the FLO axis I mark the tape with a different color line, but on the FLO axis (9 o'clock). When assimbling the club I put the second color line facing the target which is the straight line FLO axis. It is just a different way to get to the same result.

Nice video. Thank you.

Great channel!!! I would be interested to see if the shaft flos a tiny bit differently with the head dry fitted on to it than with just the laser weight. Since the weight of a clubhead is not centered around the shaft but on the side of it.

Great Vid,I really have got to understand the point of this.Other channels have some negative comments,probably because they are not explained so well.If people think that this is not nesessary,then that’s their viewpoint.But with the price of Golf clubs these days,this should be part of the build.I don’t know if all manufacturers go into this detail when assembling their clubs,But! they should.Even if this makes only the slightest difference to an average golfer,then it is needed.

What a great video! Thank you for taking the time to make all of your videos your channel sure has helped me a ton. I do have a dumb question! Why even spine the shaft of your going to flo it and it's in a different spot all together. When I first learned that you spine and flo a shaft and they are at different areas of the shaft my question was so which one do you use for alignment. Just not understanding why you spine if your going to flow and use that anyway. Thank you for all your help have a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for the info. Nice, thorough explanation. So, looking at the movement of the laser oscillating after you "twang" the shaft, it seems to take a half dozen oscillations before they begin to get wonky. Makes me wonder if it makes any positive difference. One thing for sure, however, it definitely can't hurt. As little time as it takes to find that ideal plane, I'm all for it regardless.

You explained this process perfectly. I have been floing shafts forever. Whenever I try to explain to a customer why and how it's done they look at me like I'm crazy. I will send them your link from now on! And hell yeah. It does make a huge difference. I love to experiment and have way too much time on my hands to do so. Since I started floing my own shafts, dispersion is RIDICULOUSLY tight! If I'm having a "good golf day", I can land my 8 Iron shots in a hula hoop! Do you find it a little more challenging to find the Flo as the shafts get shorter? For example, steel shafts for 8 or 9 through to the wedges? I eventually find it, but it takes a bit.

I find the way you FLO a shaft interesting. It is the same way I do it. I put the mark 90 degrees different that you do (on the FLO axis) so it is in line with the target line when the club is assembled, but the resulting shaft position in the assembled club is the same. I have never understood why some people assemble the club with the FLO line perpendicular to the target line. It seems that would make the shaft droop more, be less consistent in behavior, and increase the difficulty in hitting the ball in the center of the face.

I never heard of FLO before! Great video with some serious interesting info here. Makes me wonder if my Taylormade R15 has a proper FLO for the standard hosel position. You got my sub. You seem to be pretty smart when it comes to club repair. Any info on how I can fix the nasty sky mark scratches on my black 460cc R15 driver?

Great video. I understand the benefit of flo for graphite shafts, would you use the same process to flo steel shafts. Again great video, look forward to your response.

Great video! thanks! Where did the label end up when installed for this shaft?

It was interesting that the laser maintained the straight line despite it going from left to right. I thought gravity would eventually make it so that the laser line was curved, but it stayed straight.

I used your method and found the high spine just like you show here, worked great and can definitely feel it. The follow the remaining step just as you describe here. I did it on a "Pured" shaft that has the factory sticker just to check and see if my method actually worked along with what they had gotten from this specific shaft before I went on to do it on my newer shaft. The interesting thing is the pure sticker when following your method appears DIRECTLY on the bottom on the opposite side, I mean exactly opposite at the 6 o'clock position. Can you let me know what you think about this. I know sometimes shafts have two spines as you mention, but definitely felt the "high spine as you mention... any thoughts. Thanks and really great videos, really helping me out.

Very interesting video and impressive shop. One item which was not addressed was if shaft spine has any correlation to FLO result. Since FLO is the goal, why bother with finding the spine (other than maybe giving you a good place to start with FLO process) since the shaft needs to be installed at 12 o'clock after FLO completed anyway?

So adjustable hosel driver shafts should be flowed to neutral setting? Is it possible to check flow with the adapt4r in place?

Thanks for comprehensive intro, if final result is to get the FLO, then why not skip the Spine part, pls advise

i have an aldila rip phenom tour x 70 with a line on the but end. it seems safe to say that this is the spine. no? it happens to be label up. additionally i have some new project x flighted 6.5 my clubmaker down the street said that the have a spine label down. the fellow at true temper that i spoke to said they don;t have spines? i am confused. also do you see regularities as far as label orientation goes and flow. i dont have a vice to check for myself and am doing it on the cheap. i appreciate your service and any reply.

OK, got one more question. Doing my new shaft now from scratch now that I've proved with a PURED shaft that I can do it properly. Finding the spine before I FLO it, it has two very noticeable spines, when you say the find the strongest point, do you mean the biggest or tallest spine between the two or the one that gives you the most resistance of flex in the shaft? Because one is noticeably taller, but the other one seems to give more shaft resistance, so which would you mark as you spine? Thanks again, these videos of yours are really awesome and have taught me a lot.

Assuming that the "spine line" and the "FLO line" of a shaft are not the same, why bother finding the spine? If building a club so that the "FLO line" is properly located is most critical/ beneficial to club performance - and it doesn't coincide with the "spine line" - finding the spine location seems to be irrelevant. Correct, or am I missing something? Thanks for your excellent video!

When talking about FLO and Spine, we need to be discussing Natural Bend Plane. It’s the most important vocab word here, and I didn’t hear it once. Are you placing the spine generally in the 12 or 6 position? 6 being ideal imo. And then placing the FLO’d NBP in the 9 position (9 to 3)?

Nice vid GI. Have been using a variation of this process that I call 'the twang test'. What we are finding is the axis upon which the shaft wants to flex. I use a rubber shaft clamp in a vice and twang the butt end. The axis is the same whichever end the shaft is viewed from. A 'twang ' on any angle across the shaft will find the path of least resistance as the oscillations settle out, then all that's left is to find the top (or bottom). How do we come up with a test to measure the effect of Chubby Checkers (torque) on this axis.As I understand, manufacturers still have no uniform method of torque measurement. Thanks again

Hi XJ Thank you for this very interesting video You are using a laser moving in a horizontal plane to find the FLO.But once you found it - Is the mark you make with your pen on the top of the shaft , say 12 oclock or at 9 oclock , assuming the target is at 9 oclock (R handed golfer) ? - If using a vertical motion of the laser, would you mark the FLO on the shaft at 9 oclock ? - Would you still mount the club head at 12 oclock , refering to that mark ? - Is it possible to mount the club head taking the 6 oclock position , as it is on the same plane ? - If yes, which position should be chosen ? Does the distance to the spine position matters, like the closer the better ? Best regards

In the end of this video, you mention that it comes down to the matter of millimeters when the club head comes into impact with the golf ball when making sure the FLO is in the proper position. There is such a small gap when it comes to the consistency. As far as the installation of the club head in the 12:00 position, is there a certain forgiveness when this takes place? I feel as if this has a certain importance as well and I am just wanting to make sure the golf head is as center as possible when going into the shaft for installation. This is a case for a club (without) an adapter, just shaft to driver head. Wondering if there is anything other than just eyeballing this step for a better accuracy. Any feedback on this would be most helpful. Thank you and thanks for all the videos, they are all great in the info they provide!

Great video !! What is the point to find the spine if you can just FLO the shaft using the laser? Thanks

great video, quick question after you flo the shaft with laser how do you locate and mark iron heads correctly?

I enjoyed your vid - thanks for making. Question: Why do you show how to spine align? Are you just explaining the difference between that and FLOing? It seems to me if I wanted to FLO my own clubs I would just attach the laser (or chuck) and get to it. The position of the spine seems irrelevant at that point or am I missing something? I'm just making sure it is not *necessary* to find the spine before FLOing the club. Thanks again.

when u say put that flod line at the 12 oclock do u mean the line should going in the same direction as the club face or do u mean if looking down at the club head the line should be going straight down like facing the toe of the club?

Hi, was wondering what the difference is between FLO and SST Puring. Thanks and great video!

Thanks for the education, however I want to clarify this with a adjustable driver, the instant you change the setting on the driver the oscillation plane will change. How do we take this into account while re-shafting a adjustable driver.

I mounted a laser. on the club face of my burner driver,then mounted the shaft in my vise with the grip on. The shaft had been filled and marked,dry mounted head with laser and checked oscillation,would not flat line with 12 o clock position but it was fairly close approx 10 degrees off,glued the head on re checked ok but added a little lead tape to the head and no longer flat lined,so weighing the head is problematic and I think you should load the shaft the same amount every time you test and that should be somewhere near the actual bend when in use or at impact.I think with a little practice I could make a driver produce a cut or hook by adjusting the head to spine at different angles.

So if you want to help draw a club, in what position would you align the spine?

If your shaft are professionally Pured.. is this and spinning neccessary or provide any benefits?

Here's what Wishon says in response to that question: "Today, many shaft makers pre-test their shafts to locate a consistent plane of bending in the shaft, and only then paint and apply the name/logo to the shafts. Thus, with the vast majority of quality shafts made today, there is little need to have the shafts checked for spine location and re-installed in the clubheads."

One more question, to locate Spine and FLO are only appropriate on graphite shafts? Or also applicable on iron shafts?

I'm very much a beginner at golf, and made the mistake of reading Tom Wishon's books ;-) This is a DIY project? Take the club head off, find the FLO position, and glue it back on? I have three Adams hybrids, and 6-P irons. The others were done by the club builder (Wishon dealer), but he recommended against me paying him to work much on old hybrids. He set the swing weights, but that's all. I'm re-gripping them.

Is it possible that a shaft has no detectable spine and flo's in all orientations? I have a set of Veylix Alpina and tried spining and floing but i swear it flat lines in all different ways.

question regarding the Flo... Once I have found the Flo line, normally we would install this line on "top" of the golf shaft, as if we were looking down that line, and the club head faced 90 degrees, will the "flowing" on the shaft still work if you put the flo line on the bottom side of the shaft? (think of installing the new mcc align grip, where the flow line would run down the top side of the grip, and I am asking, if the flowing would still work if we ran the flow line down the back side of the shaft, where the "align rib" would be on the new grip..)

What clamp do you use in the vise to FLO? My rubber clamps dampen the twang too much.

A decade back i imported a set a shafts for my iron heads for replacements as a cple of them had broken down and the grips worn out. Thr american who sent me said that he is sending me spine aligned and pured iron shafts and just ask the local clubfitter to fit them accordingly ! The clubs performed awesome and were consistent . Recently i had to get my m1 adaptor ferrule redone on a shaft which i paid a handsome amount to the dealer . The ferrule and adaptor were getting seperated bcos of impact ! I requested the local certified clubfitter that he should check the spine and set the shaft correctly . What he did was set the neutral setting to upright wherby changing the alignment and original setting . The sad part is as a professional fitter he said the spining didnt matter . I was taken back . What a loss i had . And i found the not so good setting on the lower loft of course not to my liking. I think professionalism needs a new definition. Your vdo is a class apart it explains how seriously club fitting is taken and really helps the player achieve the goals. Thanks for reading this .

You can flo steel shafts in irons too? Thank you

I would make sense that the shaft manufacturer would align the shafts before applying graphics so club manufacturers get maximum advertising.

Does the position of a shaft that has been FLO'd vary when it is inserted into a left handed clubhead? Is it still inserted at the 12 o'clock position?

Really interesting video. Yet, I wonder why was it important to locate the spine if the FLO won't depend on it. Did I miss something?

can you do this with the grip still on, using the "drum" or "pipe" style aligner?

With adjustable hosels on drivers, doesn't the Flo point change in the shaft when you start changing the adjustable hosel for more loft, draw or fade? Thanks,

Can you skip the spine alignment step if your going to flo the shaft and then move the alignment tape anyway?

I'm sure you are inundated with questions, and I'm sure you've answered this before, but I wonder about this. Some guys say to spine first to get close....which makes sense. I see how that might save time. Do you have to twang the club either in the 12/6 plane or the 9/3 plane to get accurate reading? Or can you get accurate readings if you twang in any plane? It's just that people act as if you've got to rotate the shaft in the vice between twangs rather than just leaving it in the vice and rotate the twang plane to get a quicker approximation? I hope what I'm trying to ask makes sense to someone. 🤪

when setting the club head for an iron, i lean the shaft forward and then square the clubface, when i rebuild my club, what is the "12 o clock position" in relation to the club face, when you account for a clubface/hossel that is set up with forward shaft lean?

Question, should FLO-ing be performed before or after the shaft has been trimmed. Thank you!

Could the flo be aligned to correct a slice or hook?

Before FLOing the shaft, do you have to take the adapter off?

Wouldn't it make more sense to flo the club with the club head installed? I would think the club head mass affects the harmonics because the head and the shaft have to work as a unit and each has its own harmonic.

Very well made video on a interesting topic. My concern with F.L.O. an adjustable driver shaft is that if you change the hossel location the F.L.O. location will no longer be correct? (I assume) with this in mind I would need to get happy with the hossel location prior t FLOing the shaft Yes/No? Thanks great video deliver for sure.

Why do you spine the shaft if you are going to build the club with based on its flo? Just curious.

I like this presentation but like many others there is no full explanation of the proper view orientation when setting spine/flo in clubhead. Looking down the shaft to the clubhead, 9 o'clock is the correct spot for the flo line for a right handed golfer, but looking from the head towards the grip end puts it at 3 o'clock as you mention. There are reverse placement for lefties as well. I prefer looking down the shaft with 12 o'clock on top, making it 9 for RH Golfer and 3 for LH.

Is FLO useful for steel shafts as well?

I tested this. and the results are different. 1. I took just the laser 2. the laser on the clubhead 3. a 300gramm weight as you mentioned your laser is 200g. my clubheads are 274g Any ideas or comments?

Can you send the links to buying the devices?

Why find the spine when you’re going to move the tape anyway when you find flat oscillation? Why not just start at oscillation?

Im not bagging flo-ing of golf clubs but from my personal experience with my own clubs I found no difference in distance, feel felt stiffer because I orientated the strongest bend profile toward the target (9 o'clock for Right handers target on left, then fine tuned flo with head on), and consistency was about the same (I didn't miraculously drop 10 shots off my handicap afterwards). I have done both Steel shafted Irons and Graphite shafted fairways and found the same results. In fact the set of clubs I'm using now is untouched (no Flo) and my handicap is the lowest and most consistent its been. Each to their own I Guess.

Sir, why not flo the club with the head of the driver/iron on the shaft then glue the adapter sleeve or head on seems to me the head carries some weight and would change the flo.................

How do I align the flo to create a draw bias for a right handed player?

Could I send my driver to you for this? What would it cost?

Great Vid.... my question is... Current off the shelf drivers come with many settings, Lie, Angle, closed, open etc... so FLO'ing the shaft for these drivers... is it useless?

Also if you pull unevenly on the shaft will render uneven oscillations....

i truly believe f.l.o ing of the shafts is better than not doing so. as you can see from the laser... I'd rather a flat line than a circular pattern. currently I'm gluing back together my irons after doing this. soon I'll check my off the shelf driver. then i feel like i can never have any doubt about the equipment i use.

So do you need to find the spine to FLO it?

So what was the point of doing the spine. You never showed the difference between the mark you put for the spine in the mark you put for the flow

Wouldn't you want to put the shaft into the head with the line on the face side or target side? When you swing the club doesn't it torque this way and kick into the ball. I dont understand why you would want to put the flo on the 12 oclock to the head.

So it's all about FLO...it has nothing to do with finding the spine. You orient the shaft into the club based on the FLO results. Finding the spine is just a waste of time?

Close your eyes.. you will hear Lt. Aldo Raine.

Not so much fun with adjustable club heads?

So Flo'ing a shaft is more important than spinning a shaft?

It's still confusing as to what position you actually put the FLO plane. In your video you flex the shaft horizontally and get FLO on that plane, which would be the 9 and 3 o'clock plane. That seems to be the plane you want the club to be moving/flexing on as your club approaches the ball and through impact. But, your video seems to be saying to put the FLO plane on the 12 to 6 o'clock plane-- but that's not the plane the shaft is flexing as it approaches impact--it's 90 deg. different. ----or were you saying that you would take the shaft you had in the vice, which was moving side-to-side (9 to 3), and THEN while it is in that orientation, mark the top of the shaft (12 o'clock pos.) and insert it into the clubhead in that same orientation, so that the FLO was still in the 9 to 3 plane. Please clarify.

Why not skip the splining process and just FLO the shaft? Make a device that locks up the butt end, but allows rotation, through indents, as it is rotated. The degrees would be marked on the device, and each click is perhaps 2 degree. Rotate through 360 degrees, until the best straight line profile appears, and mark it on the shaft.

Whats the point spining? Why not just get straight to flow??

What happens to the balance of it when you then put a club head on it? Is it still in flow? Doubt it. Why not try it when the club head is on? I don’t see any science here.

Where is the 12 o’clock of the driver head.

I like the video and agree with most things you say in it. However, I believe that there are 2 minor faults in your video, viz. 1. You initially set the spine to the 3 O'clock position (towards the target) and said that you were going to FLO the shaft for a right handed golfer, BUT you flexed the shaft away from the target as though for a left handed player. Wouldn't that be giving you an incorrect FLO result for a right handed golfer? 2. You stated that you could FLO a shaft by flexing up and down OR side ways. You omitted one very important aspect with that. The direction you flex the shaft should be entirely dependent on the vice being used. If the vice is the same as the one in the video, then sideways flexing will give the most accurate result. You should only flex up and down if the vice grips are top & bottom, not side by side. In other words the flexing needs to be against the resistance of the vice otherwise a false result will ensue. Sorry to be nit picky, but I believe you should have clarified point 2 in the video, and been aware that you actually flexed for a lefty even though you set the spine alignment position for a righty.

Why even find the spine, at all?

All the clubs of the world can be made techically perfect. The problem lies with the millions of golfers (even the hundreds in the PGA) that do not have a consistently perfect swing. Humans are not a nd never will be as near to perfection as any tool can be. One can FLO, Spine align any shaft as much as one wants, there will always ne the ''fluke'' effect of the human part of a golf swing. As perfect as the tool may be technically, the human swing will never be consistently perfect. This is why some days one shoots the game of his life and some other days, he'd been better going to the farm and spread manure...

I get the FLO and will use it but the spine alignment part is a waste of time. Just take the piece of tape with a line on it and, once you find the FLO, place it appropriately. No reason to even do the spine alignment because it had nothing to do with the FLO, in this case.

Why not just skip spine step and go straight to FLO

i haven't seen anyone actually prove the benefits. i have seen that tested against each method there is no real benefit with good quality shafts. i don't waste the time or $$ for it.