Balancing with Putty

[SweetAccord]

I wanted to share this with everyone as balancing props has always been a passion of precision with me, although I know to some it's not critical. I've come up with an easier way to get yourself to being able to determine how to know which blade to remove material from as when both blades -2 bladed prop- fall evenly. My issue was that it was hard to know which blade to work on even though it's said to remove from the leading edge on one and the trailing edge of the other, but HOW much time is to be spent on each? What happens is if you equally remove the same amount on each it will never balance as all you are doing is just equally removing the material from both blades and end up keeping the same balance point.

What I like to do is take a very tiny tiny piece of putty, about the size of three or four ants rolled up in a ball, and tack it on the blade I think is the heavier one and put it on the magnetic balancer. If it wobbles that means it's close and it's the other blade that is still heavier and needs to be lightened. You can also move it around on the blade to give you an idea of where to remove material on the opposite blade and location. With this trick, now you know which blade to spend more time on to get to that balanced point.

Hope that helps.

[srislash]

That is a slick trick. I have been removing from hubs and such. Hours of time. I am going to tag this somewhere.

[kfxguy]

Good idea! I hate doing props because of the time involved. I have a pile of new props that I need to do but dread it! Lol

[SweetAccord]

That is a slick trick. I have been removing from hubs and such. Hours of time. I am going to tag this somewhere.

You would only touch the hub initially to clean all the flashes and burrs when starting. Smooth it out nicely, but after that don't touch it anymore only the blades.

[SweetAccord]

Good idea! I hate doing props because of the time involved. I have a pile of new props that I need to do but dread it! Lol

Thank you.

[dasboata]

That is a slick trick. I have been removing from hubs and such. Hours of time. I am going to tag this somewhere.

Removing material from the hub is completely necessary to get 2 blades balanced properly !

[SweetAccord]

Removing material from the hub is completely necessary to get 2 blades balanced properly !

Only to clean the flashing not to balance.

[dasboata]

Only to clean the flashing not to balance.

When they sit horizontal on the shaft and you can not remove anymore material from the tongue and the trailing edge you have no choice then to remove from the hub,

[SweetAccord]

When they sit horizontal on the shaft and you can not remove anymore material from the tongue and the trailing edge you have no choice then to remove from the hub,

You should never have to remove from the hub after the initial cleaning. If you are removing that much from each blade that nothing is left, you are passing the balancing point and then compromising the hub's balance by removing off of it and the blades are not even or balanced. Most well made props such as Octura for example should not need anything removed off the hub except the flashing/burrs. This is why the putty trick works well. If you move the putty around on the blade, you can achieve two things;

1. Finding what blade needs to have material removed instead of filing both blades so thin nothing is left and you compromise the blades integrity and strength.
2. Find where on the blade to remove it. If you put the putty on the trailing edge on one side and it wobbles, that means you need to remove off the tongue off the other.

The issue you will cause is the rotation on the hub will be off causing more vibration as the central point of a hub is less critical when spinning than the blades. If we did that the vibration from the two blades being off will be off more under high RPM as they are further out from the hub in comparison to the hub.

Hope that helps.

[dasboata]

I very rarely have issues with Octura, But,,, ??? are another story and there is no other way of balancing them correctly without removing from the hub I have done thousands of them and the 2 blades are a bitch, when they go on my balancer they go dead horizontal, so if a prop with hardly any tongue goes horizontal both blades need material removed . The shaft and driveline vibration comes from the prop as a single unit and if a prop is balanced so is the hub ??? Lets see what you use for a balancer and other equipment ! Anyway to each his own

[SweetAccord]

I'm using http://www.offshoreelectrics.com/pro...prod=ose-80310 and it's more accurate than 90% of what is on the market and when setup correctly to be made more sensitive than it is it's hard to beat. I have many magnetic balancers which are off balanced, the Top Flight which is junk. The Grim Racer is ok, but not sensitive enough. Two razor blades would be better with the Grim Racer setup. But most people won't care about that extra 10% in balance.

Two blades are the easiest, try a 3 bladed prop now those are a tad more difficult and I've done plenty. When you do those 3 blades you learn how to be patient and when doing two blades it's much easier. What kind of prop are you using that has no tongue?

"If a prop is balanced so is the hub?" This is not possible. Then there is no point of balancing the blades by that logic. That means I can shave half a blade one one side and and not touch the other as much and then shave as close to the other side of the hub at an angle to balance it and then say it's all balanced if I can balance it? No way is that possible. Your prop will hit a vibration point at a certain RPM and be very off. But like you said to each his own. If you have not had any issues with your method nice work then.

[dasboata]

His quote so it don't get edited out when he finds out he is wrong "Two blades are the easiest, try a 3 bladed prop now those are a tad more difficult and I've done plenty. When you do those 3 blades you learn how to be patient and when doing two blades it's much easier. What kind of prop are you using that has no tongue?" Please you could not be more off on the difficulity of a 2 blade , My work is all the over the place just take a look,, let see what you have done ? ,,, I looked in your Pic album did not see 1 prop that you did??? but a lot of information that was copied and pasted to you album I am done here

[SweetAccord]

Whatever. You may have balanced a million props, that does not mean they are right. Ask anyone who does them professionally. I'm not even going to get into balancing then with a strobe light as apparently that is out of your realm and would make no sense to you either.

Apparently you didn't look at my album very well. http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...chmentid=86511 that is one of my props. It's not copied and pasted from anywhere. You must have been so impressed that you thought it could not have been anything I have done! Thanks for the compliment!

Have a nice day.

[dasboata]

Whatever. You may have balanced a million props, that does not mean they are right. Ask anyone who does them professionally. I'm not even going to get into balancing then with a strobe light as apparently that is out of your realm and would make no sense to you either.

Apparently you didn't look at my album very well. http://forums.offshoreelectrics.com/...chmentid=86511 that is one of my props. It's not copied and pasted from anywhere. You must have been so impressed that you thought it could not have been anything I have done! Thanks for the compliment!

Have a nice day.

now your pissing me off your a joke and a phony,, that has read too many books,, and you think because of that, you know how to do everything , like I said lets see some props and not 1 side of some 30 something MM prop

[SweetAccord]

now your pissing me off your a joke and a phony,, that has read too many books,, and you think because of that, you know how to do everything , like I said lets see some props and not 1 side of some 30 something MM prop

Here is some of my recent work to quiet your rude inappropriate insults. You will probably say these are not even my props. Well they are!

CAM00344.jpg


All needle balanced to perfection, hubs only cleaned and polished but NOT touched to remove material to balance the prop blades and MOST importantly the original tongues are there too! They are so polished to perfection that you can see my blue shirt in the reflection from taking the pic. So just because you can't do it right does not mean no one else can or should. Now you may open your mouth and insert foot, and I'm not replying anymore due to your rudeness and attitude.