Just received three Vess props, all 23B. Put them on the balancer, and found the first was very nearly in perfect balance, rotated very slowly to a point where I will probably add just one or two grams of ballast. The next was absolutely perfect, no rotation whatever from any position I set it at. The third was practically perfect, just a tiny rotation, very slow. I say practically perfect, because I don't think I could balance it any closer--anything I might do to it would probably get me no closer than it is already.

I usually figure with any new package of props I will spend a whole evening balancing. I guess I've done at least a few hundred in my day, blade and hub, including many re-shaping jobs of Zinger paint-stirrers. APC's have a reputation for not needing much balancing, if any, but I've balanced every APC I ever had. Beautiful Mejzliks, same thing. This batch from Vess is the only sample I've ever had that two out of three were beyond improving. A+ for them!

I'm told they pull good too. We'll see about that tomorrow.

Explanation for 'adding ballast:' On larger props I don't remove anything to balance, I add either a small blob of thickened epoxy for light ballast, or a tiny bit of lead (snipped off a coil of plumber's solder), and I add it somewhere around the hub, within the area that stays under the spinner, at the high spot of the first balance, add or subtract ballast until it will hold any angle in the balancer without moving. However, when I re-shape a Zinger (for smaller glow engines, where I want to keep weight out of the nose) then I remove almost half the weight of the prop, take a lot of thickness out of the blade, keep the airfoil, lose the square tips.