I was inspired by John’s video bending Newman’s clubs to ABS specs to look for a VAN L machine. To my surprise there was only one on a full internet search of the world. It was in Florida on a random FB Market Place post. I was pretty excited to have found it and for $50 it seemed to be quite the deal. I contacted the seller and asked if she could ship it to me in Texas and she said “no”- local pickup only. Fortunately, I had a childhood friends parents who lived close by and they picked it up and set it to me.
I was pretty excited when it arrived and unpacked it ready to stick a club in it to see the lie and loft of the club. For some reason the club would not sit right in the machine. Super confused I went on another search of the internet with a hunch of what might be wrong. Sure enough I found out that the VAN L made a left handed machine for left handed clubs and a right handed machine!
I was pretty upset as I am not a left handed golfer and would have no use for it. I did find a club maker that was interested in it for his vintage gold repair tool collection so I shipped it off to him for free. This machine is not light weighing about 50lbs so shipping all over the country was not cheap.
Not discouraged I have kept looking for one on the internet and to my surprise I found one a few weeks ago out of Chappaqua NY on FB market place. This time I new my right from my left and confirmed it was the correct one with John. Excited I asked for the seller to ship it to me in Texas and he said “nope” local pickup only! Luckily my daughters boyfriend lives in NYC and he went and picked it up for me. He took the train to get it and I can’t imagine him lugging this thing back on the train to NYC. He is a keeper.
The machine arrived to me in Texas yesterday and was blown away to see its brand new! Not a scratch on it. It also came with the original patent paperwork and a bending bar. I researched the inventor and found out he invented other machinery not just this Loft lie machine. The patent was from 1969 issued to Raul Sundstrom.
Now I just have to figure out how to use it! 
