Spinner Balancing

[Ohio AV8TOR]

What is your preferred method of balancing your spinners? I am not interested in what balancer you are using rather if you add weight, grind weight etc? I have used a Vess Balance ring on my DA60 and balanced prop spinner and bolt all at the same time. Results were good but it does not work for backup props you might take to the field or prop testing. So I am thinking of ensuring all bolts are equal weight and balancing the props and spinner separate. If adding weight to the light side what are you using CA, lead tape etc? Where do you add - on the back plate or inside to cone?

 

[Islandflyer]

The back plate should be balance by itself first: I drill holes on the heavy side.

Then I install the spinner on the back plate to balance the cone: I CA a piece of sticky Velcro (fuzzy side) on the light side, and add CA as needed to balance.

If the cone and back plate are balanced separately, then the cone must be precisely keyed or indexed to the back plate to always put it back in the same position...

 

[Bipeguy03]

Islandflyer;9690 wrote: The back plate should be balance by itself first: I drill holes on the heavy side.

Then I install the spinner on the back plate to balance the cone: I CA a piece of sticky Velcro (fuzzy side) on the light side, and add CA as needed to balance.

If the cone and back plate are balanced separately, then the cone must be precisely keyed or indexed to the back plate to always put it back in the same position...

Good info Herve!! That is how we balance full scale spinners as well, then we use a Dynavibe to dynamically balance the whole rotating mass together.. I'm still trying to figure out how to use the Dynavibe on model engines.... lol



I know it is not a spinner, but one thing that often gets over looked is to check the propeller tracking.

 

[Spats]

Islandflyer;9690 wrote: The back plate should be balance by itself first: I drill holes on the heavy side.

Then I install the spinner on the back plate to balance the cone: I CA a piece of sticky Velcro (fuzzy side) on the light side, and add CA as needed to balance.

If the cone and back plate are balanced separately, then the cone must be precisely keyed or indexed to the back plate to always put it back in the same position...

Thank you Herve, never did it that way. I like it.

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

Thanks, I am already a big fan of the Velcro and CA

 

[-Rick-]

I know it is not a spinner, but one thing that often gets over looked is to check the propeller tracking.


That's something that I have always wondered about, tracking can shake a helicopter apart in no time. I have seen props out as well, I can't understand how they could be? Bent crank is my first thought but the spinner runs true...

 

[Ohio AV8TOR]

-Rick-;10069 wrote: I know it is not a spinner, but one thing that often gets over looked is to check the propeller tracking.



That's something that I have always wondered about, tracking can shake a helicopter apart in no time. I have seen props out as well, I can't understand how they could be? Bent crank is my first thought but the spinner runs true...

Funny you should mention that as I am messing with a 3" carbon Ultimate style spinner that the backplate is not parallel with 0.004" difference just in the area of the prob hub. This angle at the tip is way more. So I took it to work and place it on a mill and spotted off the inside hub to make it parallel to the back. With this said it is only going to be TruTurn for me in the future. I just wanted to paint this red to match the plane.

 

[-Rick-]

So it the spinner back-plate that throws it out? That makes more sense to me than the prop. But then again I have seen props that were out of tracking and spinner running true? And I'm not talking about cheap HK props.

 

[Bipeguy03]

-Rick-;10130 wrote: So it the spinner back-plate that throws it out? That makes more sense to me than the prop. But then again I have seen props that were out of tracking and spinner running true? And I'm not talking about cheap HK props.

It could be the sinner back plate, it could also be some small amount of corrosion on the face of the engine drive hub. One thing to always check is after drilling a multi bolt prop, make sure there are no pieces of wood or carbon w/ gell coat stuck to the back that will keep the prop from bolting nice and flat to the spinner back plate. Had that happen to me.... Spent 4 hours trying to find out why my prop was tracking almost 1/4" out!! lol



The full scale rule is either 1/8' or 1/16" tolerance at the tip of the prop, I'd have to ask dad to be sure. With that said, our model's props should be almost perfect.

 

[-Rick-]

Wood prop would do it as well if someone overtightened the bolts on one side or the wood was a touch softer on one side.