P3ProSwing Club Taping

[gprince66]

I have an old set of clubs and painted the bottom of the driver with cheap black spray paint, applied reflective tape strip, then covered the strip with scotch tape. This worked great but the paint and reflective strip wear out sooner than I hoped.

I would like to permanently seal if possible. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Gary

[Stonebattle]

gprince66
The tape supplied by P3pro works well. I have used the black driver and iron tape they supply for the last year and have not replaced it. I have replaced the reflective tape a couple of times and the clear tape many times in that year.

[SFR]

Take care to test first the color and glare you might get. The sensors can pick up reflection so if you laminate with a high gloss film you might get weird readings. Cover the club with flat black tape if you can find some and then apply the reflective strip. After that cover all with a clear laminate or even a clear packing tape as opposed to painting and clearing. Easier to replace the tape.

[gprince66]

Thanks Stonebattle and SFR. I didn't even consider glare and how laser would react, should've been the first thing. I'm going to purchase a few .25 cent irons at local thrift store and test a few methods next week. I'll post my results.

Keep the suggestions flowing.

Thanks,
Gary

[Stonebattle]

I've thought about spray painting the bottom of the clubs with flat black paint, but have never done it. Was the leading edge the main issue? I've found that even clear packing tape needs to be changed often due to that area.

[SFR]

I found that if you trim the tape flush with the leading edge, that area does take a beating. If you can slightly wrap a bit of whatever the clear tape you use, around onto the bottom of the face of the club, it may save that edge from pealing back as fast. If the system read the ball it may effect the ball off the face but seeing it does not matter what the ball does, it would not change the sim flight of the ball.

I'm going to try some clear lamininate I use for signs that I print, and see if that stuff is more durable. My issue is the black tape I use, (not the P3pro tape but my own) rubs off onto the turf top I have and transfers that black onto the strip so I need to rub that off after several shots. Also that black gets on the ball and then the odd time catches the screen just right and transfers a scuff of black there. The clear laminate may help that part for me.

[roach5539]

I only tape my driver, 3 wood and hybrids.. I am using the tape kits available from P3Pro and need to replace the reflective stripe once in a while. Clear tape over the reflective strip seems like a good solution.. Maybe it will make the strip last longer.
I do not tape my irons.. I just never had issues with any of the irons I have worked with and feel like I get very consistant readings. I could imagine issues if the irons are large game improvement or highly reflective (Chrome). Have you guys actually seen reading differences with or without tape on the irons?

[gprince66]

I did a few searches on google and found some paints to try. Here is a short list of a few.

Fire resistant paint (for fireplaces and grills), appliance paint, car primer and paint.

All three say high impact resistant.

what do y'all think of these?

Thanks,
Gary

[SFR]

I do not tape my irons.. I just never had issues with any of the irons I have worked with and feel like I get very consistant readings. I could imagine issues if the irons are large game improvement or highly reflective (Chrome). Have you guys actually seen reading differences with or without tape on the irons?

You may notice that just the reflection from the sole of the club may trigger the hitting spot a bit different. The reflective strip is 2" long where the club sole is longer than that. When you hit a ball off the toe with clubs that are not taped, you may get a slight different hitting position for impact due to the fact that the sensors still see a full 2 inches of reflection. When the sensors see the strip only and only see 1" of it, I would think the reading would reflect that you are almost missing the sensors and show the shot out on the toe or heel. I have tried different things with a smaller strip and longer strip and the 2" is still the best. This may not show up without penalty added and you would have seen little change but if you play with my penalty zone you may then see the difference. Try a club taped with a reflective strip just to see.

I have noticed one of the kid's putter had a reflection off the hosel and would give that weird reading on one of the club positions where one was way open and the rest square. The hosel was not even chrome, but an almost metalic like paint and was enough to reflect. Once covered the readings were good again.

The other area one may notice non taped clubs not working as well might be with an aftermarket pad where you needed to be a 1 1/2" higher than the pad surface. This distance might not read right without having the proper reflective strips.

I am just finishing up on a turf pad (square) I bought from fiberbuilt. I cut out the holes and trimmed the turf fibers. Biggest area is the sensors that read the club height as they are the ones that are sets of 2 and angle toward the tee position. These are the hardest ones to get the fibers of the pad not to block. If these get blocked then the hitting height is messed up and it will show the wrong impact height. This is not a big deal if you don't enable the club penalty. I plan on having this one pad set up as the fairway and putting pad so the height of the fairway will be set for this pad and then have another 2nd driver pad set so that I can set a brushed tee in it and set it for a tee height that will stay the same. Drive off one pad and then play the other as in the fairway. I don't have a hole for the ball position but rather just the spot where you place the ball and hit from. Yet to see how it will work.

[SFR]

I did a few searches on google and found some paints to try. Here is a short list of a few.

Fire resistant paint (for fireplaces and grills), appliance paint, car primer and paint.

All three say high impact resistant.

what do y'all think of these?

Thanks,
Gary

If you get a cheap club to fool with, that you just want to use with the simulator, you might just want to sand off the bottom of the club to remove the reflection. Who cares what the bottom looks like and it won't get wet so rust is not an issue and this way you don't need to paint and repaint. As long as whats under the finish is not enough to reflect. Just add your reflective strip after that.

[gprince66]

SFR, would this work on a driver? This sounds like a simple solution.

[SFR]

SFR, would this work on a driver? This sounds like a simple solution.

I don't think you would need to worry about the driver getting scuffed like the irons do. You should not be hitting down with the driver and more of a sweep off the tee so the edge of the tape on the driver does not get beat up like on the irons. Still it can happen. I would say tape the driver and if you get that cheap iron or two that you don't care about, sand them down to test. Remember you don't need a full set either as you can set up 3 or 4 irons and use them for a couple different irons on the sim. Just remember that irons get a bit longer in length as you get to the longer hitting irons so if you swing a PW but say it was the 6I in the sim, you should get a slower swing speed and thus a bit less yardage than you might with a real 6I. If you want good practice, use every club you have.

I also like to practice with what I use on the course so I tape all my clubs I use. Also a driver is a feel club that you do notice when you change from one to another so if you get a cheap driver to use on the sim, it may not help your real game with what might be your real driver. For that club I say use what you will use on the course.

[gprince66]

My goal is to get the most accurate reading as possible. I want the flat black with 2" reflective strip to insure accurate readings with every swing. Am I correct in assuming that this is what the lasers were designed to look for?

You are correct SFR, the driver should sweep at hopefully 0* attack or slightly upward blow, but I still hit the mat too much.

Fireproof paint did not work, rubbed off with first swing.

SFR, did you try the sign laminant?

[SFR]

My goal is to get the most accurate reading as possible. I want the flat black with 2" reflective strip to insure accurate readings with every swing. Am I correct in assuming that this is what the lasers were designed to look for?

You are correct SFR, the driver should sweep at hopefully 0* attack or slightly upward blow, but I still hit the mat too much.

Fireproof paint did not work, rubbed off with first swing.

SFR, did you try the sign laminant?

I kind of thought any paint would rub off with that kind of friction but now we know. What pad are you hitting off of? Old turf, new turf or rubber top?

Yes to get the most accurate you would tape off the sole of the club with black as well as possibly the hosel if needed and then apply the reflective strip in the proper way. This is the biggest key to not get the strip applied at an angle other than parallel to the face. I will set a flat wooden block on the face of the club and then look at the strip on the bottom and see it it is parallel. After that, if you have it too close to the heel or toe it will cause the impact point to be off a bit but not as critical.

If you just use the irons without tape it may work but your off center hits may not show as they really are due to more than the 2" area being read.

I have been too busy with work to get out an try much of anything. I will try to tape a club up and use one with some laminate and another without and see how they look after a bunch of swings. If that does hold up better than other clear tape then you could find a sign place and ask for some scraps of laminate. Just tell them why and they should have some to give you or even buy a foot or so.

[gprince66]

I owned a P3Pro rubber top a few years ago but sold it. I just ordered the new turf top, it's the new one in between the rubber and the $350 retrofit. Have you had any experience with the new turf? I also purchased a used Vector Pro with Micro Lens and latest software off eBay. They both just shipped.

I finally finished my golf net set up in the garage and have been hitting off a small Callaway turf top. I can't wait for P3Pro to get here, that little Callaway mat is not very good for hitting when it's on cement.

For my second test I used etching primer and flat black chalk board paint. It takes 24 - 48 hours to fully cure. The guy at Home Depot seems to think this will work if only hit from a turf mat. If this doesn't work he told me to try Flat black Epoxy primer and paint. I'm determined to figure this out.

Thanks for all your input.
Gary