I would add here IMHO anyone starting in club building should first build the deflection board in the archives, learn to calculate swingweight using what should be one of your first tools, a good gram scale. I am often asked by a customer about "torque" when they more often mean to say "flex". It's easy to illustrate "flex" with a deflection board and this device will always be useful in club making. You can alter flex and swing weight so start with and understand those factors.
That is why I said that a frequency meter is more important than a torque meter. But Arnie is right that a limited-budget shop can measure flex with a flex board instead of an F-meter.
I think that because you cannot change the torque of a shaft this factor is not worth testing against specs. unless you question a shafts supplier's honesty in printing the specs. If you don't trust that why are you buying from them.
I can think of a couple of reasons for owning a torque meter:
(1) Matching shafts against a customer's existing clubs.
(2) Different manufacturers measure torque in different ways. If you want to compare the torque of shafts from different manufacturers, you probably ought to measure them comparably. But... There is a cheaper way that works for most shafts. Dynacraft has a huge archive of shaft measurements for most of the current shafts on the market, and many past models as well. I always go there first to try to evaluate the specs of a shaft.
Component weights, shaft lengths and the effects will become easier to understand. Go on to splining and understand how that relates to flex and soon you will encompass knowledge of such things as "toe droop', and other factors in building. Soon you will want a frequency meter because of it's more exact measurement capabilities. You can't easily measure kickpoint but you need to understand the effect. Than you must get a good bending machine.
How about a swing analyzer? A launch monitor?
Will the list of gotta haves ever end?
Sounds like the voice of experience here. Pay attention!!! No :-) either.
Hope this helps, DaveT
