What level of precision do you use when installing new grips? Especially grips such as the MCC align. What methods work best to insure the grip label (or tic marks) are perpendicular to the club face?
We install grips based on eyesight, experience and in our production facility we have a lazer guide. MCC align grips are more difficult. I know because that is what I currently have on my TS1 set, and I have installed thousands of grips, if not millions in my lifetime. OK, millions might be a stretch, but I have installed a lot of grips. I simply install as precisely as I can by eyesight, and then take a straight edge to back of the grip and make sure the “align” part is straight. Very difficult to get absolute, NASA straight, but you can get straight enough. Just takes a little more time. If it is a little off at the time of installation, while the grip is still movable, I will work it until I feel it is straight along the straight edge that I am using. A 12 inch ruler works for the straight edge.
Britt Lindsey
Eyesight alingment works fine, though not perfect. Honestly, other than the clubmaker who is making the club (us), I think that most folks pay very little attention to the aligment of grips, let alone the level of exactitude. And a thrid-party would really have to look hard and look with one eye down the shaft to try and get an exact measure on alignment. For my personal clubs, I prefer to align the grips a few degrees to the right to help promote a strong grip. When I go to Golf Galaxy or other stores and look at and feel new clubs, even as a clubmaker, I can’t recall checking on grip alignment. Bottom line: yes, be as exact as you can, and the human eye is a pretty good machine. But don’t sweat about being overly exact.