How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

The balance on my Fuchs 25x12 - 3 blade could use some tweaking. With wooden props or smaller composite props I would sand material off the trailing edge of the tip. Is that what I should do here?

Antony

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

Anthony,

That's what I did to my last Mejzlik that needed balancing. Seems to work fine.

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

I'd recommend adding epoxy to the back side of the very tip of the appropriate blades. Rough the area with 400-600 grit paper first. Some guys like to spray clear gloss paint, but it takes to long to dry in my oppinion - and it looses weight as it dries.

I like using 5 minute epoxy......and working quickly. It's thick, so doesn't run too badly, and you can easily remove some if you add to much. Just keep spinning the prop and adding to the lightest blade. When you get two light blades, add the same amount to both. You should end up with epoxy on no more than 2 blades when you're done - in other words, remove some before adding to the third blade.

CJ

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

A quality balancer (of course) and spray clear it evaporates in part so easy does it. I would suggest not to sand propeller tips(s) to balance unless its bvmjethead,who recommends it and the sweet picture is in fact the writer of the thread..:D:);)[8D]

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

A couple of articles.

http://www.bollyprops.com/propbal.html

http://www.modelaircraft.org/templates/ama/0104_1.asp

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

No, that's not me.

I guess I should have noted that my Mejzlik needed only about 1/20th of a gram taken off one blade to balance. I probably could have just left her alone, but I had just spent the $$ on the DuBro balancer and I wanted to use it.

:D

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

I too have a HF 25x12 3 blade and I add small amounts of black tape to the hub to get it close then fine tune it by epoxy'ing it on. Works good on all my carbon fiber props...Bob

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

Spray clear laquer (Top Flight clear Lustercote for example) on the back of the light blade. Do it a little at a time. I usually do a few light coats at a time till it's pretty good and balanced, then let it sit over night and tweak it as you will usually need another little coat again after the solvent evaporates. This method doesn't change the airfoil of the blade like sanding or epoxy. If it off just a slight amount, then sanding should be fine.

If it's a two blade, don't forget to hub balance it then.

...Mark

RE: How to balance a carbon fiber prop?
 

I saw a tip about using the self sticking Monocoat sheet material. I'm going to try that next as I have white and florescent orange already.