Okay! So first things first: my name is Wes Feeney and this is a blog about my senior project in high school for WISE English and will be continually updating it whenever i draw up new sketches, feel like writing out my progress of a few days, or just  posting pictures of what I've made or learned 
           My project is to make a golf putter. Not just assemble one or anything simple like that; I plan on actually milling the head and carving a shaft! Here's a picture of a modern day putter head for those unfamiliar with golf:

       Coincidentally this is actually the stock photo of the putter I use in competition now; notice it has no grooves along the face, which I will talk about in a later post.
      So you may ask now; why, Wes, do you want to make a putter? 
     Well, I've chosen to make one because I have an avid interest in both engineering and golf, and desgining golf clubs is a beautifully simplistic way of combining the two. The reason I'm making a putter and not something like a wedge, iron, or driver (google these if you don't know what they are/look like) is because it's the most simply to make. However, that does not imply at all that it's the easiest to perfect.
    My overall goal is simple: make a putter that I can use in competition and make it before the NYS high school golf championships in June. The little steps, and as my teacher Mr. Creagan put it, broad strokes (haha), along the way are going to be the challenge. 
    The first bit will be researching current putter head designs, groove desgins, and shaft and grip types. Then will be learning how to work a lathe and finish wood. Eventually I'll have CAD drawings of my head, and I'll mill it on the CNC mill in our school's technology department. 
   
    This project is the second of its kind I'm currently facing this year. The first would be in my class Engineering Desgin & Development, in which I'm working on a year long project using the design process. I think it'll be a real challenge of how I manage my time between the two projects, since both technically demand all of my time and energy. In making my putter though, I especially fear that I will screw up the milling of my head, since it'll be made of aluminum and I don't want to go about finding another 4x2 block of it.


  For my first two weeks I'll be brainstorming ideas for the face grooves, head, and shaft of my putter, and simply researching past solutions to the eternal problem of how to make a club hit it straight, no matter how bad the golfer.