It is worth any beginner's time to check the balance of all the props he buys. It shows you what's what with this balance debate.

If you are a beginner, it's also worth your while to buy more than one prop of each size you plan to use. You'll probably need a backup someday, maybe soon. And it'll happen at the field, not at the LHS.

And since you'll have a couple of the same size, check the balance on both. And mark both with something like a magic marker. Put a line on the heavy blade. Put a couple if it's really heavy. Put three if it's awful. Then use the prop with the least lines. Now do a simple test at the field to get a feel for what balance does or doesn't do. If you run both props, you'll see just what an out of balance prop does that a balanced doesn't. Pick the airplane up while the engine is running. You'll feel the vibration or lack of it with the hand that's on the fuselage nose.

Checking every prop you buy for balance will teach you something. When you run into the really bad one, slapping it on an engine and running that will teach you more. And if you never find any out of balance, and checking bothers you, then quit doing it. But if you ever change brands................

When I was a beginner, i was buying props by the six-pack because I was going through them about that fast. That consumption rate seems to have deminished over the years.. I didn't balance them, I hate to repeat this, they were APCs and they worked just fine.

I am not trying to contradict what you are saying, Rock, but I seemed to have more to focus on than prop balance when I was learning. I often went through three props in an afternoon, again during training. And I am sure many newby's here on RCU can smile when they read this because, I think they are going through props as I did back then.

But, balance is a good thing, I guess I just check my larger ones out of curiosity and, I guess out of concern that I may get a bad one.. kind of like why we buy computer virus software.. I don't know anybody that has actually gotten a virus, but the hype has us all buying it.

CGr

Yep, I mis-typed when I said to add the tape to the heavy side. It is added to the light side. I only run electrics. so the fuel, making it slippery, is not an issue. Rich

Hey Rock, I think I hear you. I should keep all options open, learn as I go, don't close out any options. I'll try to follow that guidance. I bought a couple of 10X7 APC props but he had only an expensive balancer on hand that I passed on. Think I'll buy a cheaper one later. If I don't need real precision I don't (likely) need real cost!!
Thanks, and I'll try to learn as I go.

just remember a out of balance prop will destroy you plane over time through vibration

i never balance props and have never had any trouble related to an unbalanced prop.. and the guy who said all the competition/professional flyers balance all of their props.. they may need that level of perfection, but as for my fun flying planes (by fun i mean nothing really difficult just planes that are fairly relaxing and fun to fly) i dont need perfection, the master airscrew props i buy are close enough from the factory for sure! but if you just need something else to do by all means go right ahead but i feel that balancing is unnecessary.

Most competition flyers balance their props for a different reason than "perfection".

They fly a lot. Practice a lot. And vibration kills receivers and servos. Bad vibration kills quicker, but any vibration works and works and works. A mild vibration simply takes longer.

Back when R/C was getting started, we used to have a problem with on/off switches. You know what broke 'em? Yup...... And we used to have problems with batteries. Yup....... Switches and batteries nowadays are light years better than they were, but the gear teeth in servos and the circuit boards in receivers still don't like high frequency pounding.

Radio failures are hard to explain. They're not so hard to avoid. Why do we put that natural rubber around the RX? It won't do spit in a crash. Not anything really. It's not made to. It's natural rubber because it won't transmit vibration like other stuff will.

Hey, if you've not had a problem with your RX in the last year's outings, you can save some time assembling that next model and leave out the rubber around the RX, right? You think that's different than saving time not balancing a prop because you can't see them vibrate? Whatever you do, wrap the RX with a good vibration squelching rubber. And it's worth the time and effort to check all your props for balance. If you can't be bothered to take the time to balance them, at least set aside the bad ones. Take 'em back and swap 'em for others. There seem to be plenty of guys who won't mind using them.

If you're a beginner, this is one topic you owe it to yourself to check out, hands on. It's one that taking anyone's advice just might cost ya'. For sure if you take mine, it'll cost you the price of the balancer. But you can then see how this issue actually applies to you and the specific props that you happen to buy and carry out of the store in your hands.

This most certainly CAN be a true statement.

But here's an example of what I'm talking about...

Last summer I bought a new, used car. I noticed over the last few months that at highway speeds, there was a slight vibration in the steering wheel - A classic case of the front wheels needing balancing. But it was only a very slight vibration, so it wasn't a "Fix it now" situation.

This past weekend we got our first snow. I noticed that I was getting lousy traction, so I bought new tires all around.

But just yesterday, as I was driving home from work the car was shaking violently! It was evident that one of my new tires was grossly out of balance. So I had to pulled over and inspected the tires and found exactly what I thought the problem was. I removed a huge wad of snow from the inside of one of my car's wheels, got back in and it drove smoothly again.

Now, if it hadn't snowed, i would have driven on those tires for a good while longer. Sure, they were slightly out of balance, but not enough to make me uncomfortable, or damage my car.

But once the balance got knocked WAY out of whack, it needed immediate attention.

MinnFlyer you are so wrong on this one it hurts. We spend thousands at work on vibration testing all of our equipment. It DOES cause damage. Your worried about a little piece of tape but you will roll around in a two ton car with vibration? I hate to say it but a wheel is spinning alot faster at 60 mph than you think and the vibration from that wheel goes into ball joints, drag links, wheel bearings on so on. Ie. all saftey issues if they come apart. Just something to think about when you are comparing tape to cars.[:'(]