Birth of a Legend (Part 2)
The Making of the Elmer M2 Putter
Here in the 2nd part of this article, we explain the process of taking the brass master and turning it into a stainless steel putter.
In my last post, we left off at the point where the brass master had just been machined and finished. As explained, this master is machined a few percent oversize to allow for some shrinkage in a future part of the process.
Body master and hosel master
We now have to produce the actual production tools for the body and hosel. These tools are machined on a piece of equipment called a copy mill. The copy mill uses a laser to scan the master and machines the scanned image in two parts (top & bottom) into a block of metal called the die. The two parts of the die fit together and have a perfect machined female of the M2 Putter inside.
The next part of the process is to inject the die with molten wax. Once cooled, the die is separated into its two parts and a wax M2 putter is removed. This wax is +/- 3% smaller than the mould in the die.
A wax M2 body and hosel. I can see a few of our readers asking the obvious - what on earth is the need for a wax putter and what is the big lump sticking out of the M2’s underneath for?
Answers: The wax is waiting for its ceramic overcoat and the big lump is the branch of a tree!
Hmmm, I think I better explain this in a little more detail!
The waxes are arranged onto a pre-formed body of wax called a ‘trunk’ - this enables several putters to be produced at a time.
Wax bodies (left) and hosels (right) assembled on their trunks
The next part of the process is to coat the wax trees with ceramic. This is achieved by dipping the whole trunk into liquid ceramic and allowing it to dry in a special temperature and humidity controlled room over a 24 hour period. This dipping process is repeated 4 or 5 times.
Hosels (left) during, and bodies (right) after, ceramic coating
We now have some M2 bodies and hosels covered in ceramic. The first coat was a very fine grain ceramic and subsequent coats were progressively coarser. The fine grain first coat is to ensure the M2 has a hard, smooth and very fine detailed finish. The next part of the process is to fire the ceramic - in the same way pottery is fired to strengthen it and to make it tolerate high temperatures. The complete tree is placed in a furnace with the funnel shape at the bottom and the wax that is still inside the ceramic tree melts as the temperature rises and the molten wax pours out of the funnel.
Hosel 'tree' with funnel underneath after the firing process
The inside of each tree is now a ceramic female of the wax that has melted out. The waxes were produced in the die which featured all the small detail and lettering that were present on the brass master so this detail is now moulded in.
The next part of the process is to pour stainless steel into the tree through the funnel. The room where the steel is melted is occupied by workers that look more like astronauts, due to the special heat resistant protective clothing and headgear they must wear. They told me the temperature in the room would melt the plastic parts of a camera so I don’t have any pictures of this procedure!
However, the stainless steel (formulated to 431 grade) for the M2 Putter is heated to a molten temperature of 1600 degrees and poured into the tree. The tree then takes about 4 hours to cool before it can be handled. Once cooled, the ceramic is smashed (read carefully chiselled!) off the stainless steel parts. These parts, known as AC (As Cast), are placed in another small furnace for 4 hours at a special temperature to anneal and remove the brittleness from the metal.
Rough Cast M2 Body (left), Hosel (centre) and Annealing Cabinet Furnace (right)
The AC parts then go off to the finishing plant where they undergo various treatments. The following pictures show various stages of the finishing process including Sandblasting, Masking, Painting and the Paint Baking Oven.
Sandblasting, Masking, Painting and the Paint Baking Oven
We finally decided to go with a nickel-plated finish on the top, bottom, hosel and back of the M2; with a baked, textured paint finish inside the cavity and a black polymer insert - which will be CNC machined to ensure perfect flatness.
In the next and final post of this article, we will show you the final product and give readers the opportunity to win the very first M2 off the production line.