Hi guys,

My apologies if this is the wrong subforum for this topic...

What´s up with these props? This is the fifth one in a month that is impossible to balance properly without damaging the prop or deforming it.

I´ve used Masters excessively in the past without too many problems but nowadays they seem to be manufactured with an afterthought or something like that.
I used to go to my hobbyshop with a prop balancer and ask for four or five props the same size and test them quickly in order to get my hands on a prop that had the best balance so balancing would be simple.

The latest props I purchased were ordered on line from the same shop. I had a total of 8 ordered. 5 of those were just junk! Not to balance whatsoever [:@]

What´s the experience in general with these props? Are they really as bad to balance as they seem to be?

Cheers

Tjen il-vec

In my past experiences, master airscrews balck plastis, and Zinger wood props are the worst whens it comes to balancing.[X(] APC are the closest to being balanced, and most of the time are so close, I do not mess with them.

Master props are coming unbalanced.

4 years now that I am using them I had no problem with balancing them. All kinds of them (k-type, classic etc).

Stelios

Same problem here, I have spent too much time trying to balance MA's. Their quality control has seemed to go down the tubes lately. You think that two bladed MA's are difficult to balance, try on of their three bladed models. I use clear polyeurothane spray to balance my props and I am getting pretty proficient with a spray bomb these days.

Here is a little known fact concerning the MasterAirscrew 3 blade props. I use these props a lot and they are "put it on and forget it" props. From the Tower Hobbies website.

FEATURES: Factory-balanced 3-blade prop has NACA airfoils and holds true pitch.
They have been accurately balanced and create a greater thrust
at lower RPM.
Prop is glass-filled nylon as opposed to a wooden prop.

I've had many MA props that seem to have a heavy side, rather than a heavy blade. They'll lie horizontally with one side down and rotate to that position if the other side is down on the balancer, as if the hole is off center. A friend has suggested putting some lead/epoxy mix in the hub cavities on the light side, but I haven't tried it yet.

I too bought three wood 12-6 and one I removed so much wood the tip is pointed. The other two I scrapped off all the finish on one side with a pile of dust but at least thier useable.

They went through a streak of this nonsense over ten years ago. Didn't know they were still doing it.

To me, any prop that needs balancing from the factory is a defective prop. Return them and complain about it to the manufacturer, the retailer and other modelers. If enough of us make it known that we won't be doing their work for them any longer, they will change, or perish.

I have about 20 of the three blade MAs and none has needed any balancing. I've had a couple of APCs that I had to practically remove one blade to balance them and two or three that had the hole drilled at an angle.

If you're not mail-ordering, try before you buy. I take my prop balacer with me to the LHS just to be sure the props are at least in the ballpark.

Hi!
Can't understand why you use Ma props??? They are the worst when it comes to noise and bad performance. APC, RAM and Graupner cam prop are much better.
Regards!
Jan K

All of the APC props I have used needed balancing, some more, some less. The latest one has one side of the hub heavy, and that's a pain. The last MA prop I used was like couple of years back, and that needed balancing too.

That's exactly what I did but they don't like that too much you see :


Check this comment out. Copied from towerhobbies coming from their tech dept:

Excuse me? I really don't think it's appropriate to move the mounting hole off center in order to balance a prop while being produced if it is off balance to start with, especially when it is way off balance? I don't want to know where this mounting hole will end up!

Furthermore, I checked the 2-blade prop before I threw it away and I noticed, while rotating the prop on the propbalancer, that the blades aren't in line at all for about 3mm!! As if a blade was bent.

Well, conclusion, no MA's for me anymore! and I have have four 3-blades coming this way []

cheers,

Tjen il-vec

Quote, As such, your mounting hole may be slightly
off center. Master Airscrew assures us this is perfectly normal
and will not cause any problems during usage.


It says that this is not a problem and that is very true. I have the 3 blade ones from 11x7 to 16x10 and no problem.

Ditch the MA props and go with Graupner, if available in your area.

My expereinces have been absolutly the opposite. Had one that I nearly gave up on before I finally got it balanced. And the best part is on my twins and multis, I can move the props from one engine another to adjust the rpms. Pitch is not consistant with the M/A 3-blades!

I cannot go along with you on your comment unfortunately It's just the fact that I don't have any experience with MA 3-blades yet but I wouldn't base my purchase upon what they tell you about their products I'm afraid. Just look up the biggest junk available on the internet for RC in general. All those manufacturers tell you in their adds that their product is the best

Maybe those 3 or 4-blades are totally different in their quality compared to their 2-blades.... don't know yet [sm=red_smile.gif]

cheers

Tjen il-vec

great!

Totally agreed!

I also like and use several Graupners but they require extensive sanding to get them balanced.

Out of the several dozen MAS props I've accumulated over the years, I don't think I've ever had one that balanced right out of the package.
Had a few that were so far off that I didn't want to mess with 'em any more...

Some of the newer series seem to be a little better...

Graupner: had a few of those that needed substantial "attention" too...

APC: most of mine have balanced with a few spray coats of Krylon "crystal clear", but I have encountered a few troublesome ones.

Most all brands of props need alittle balancing. I 've seen people complain about MAS balance but still left the warning label stuck on one blade. Factory balancing would require a heathy price increase. Not everybody uses a prop ream and drill them out. Talk about a sloppy hole. Reusing a prop from an SAE to Metric threaded engines cause balance problems too.

To Balance: Take a 1" piece of masking tape and place it on the light blade. Adjust the tape until the prop is in balance. The amount of tape will tell you how much material you will need to add or remove for final balancing.

In most cases, the weight of the tape is so slight it won't show up on a gram scale - say 1" or less of tape. If this is the case, the prop is within spec and can be flown without adding or removing material.

To Add Material: For g/f nylon props, place modeling clay or silver solder in the holes in the back of the hub of the light side until balanced. For wood props, try adding paint or nail polish to the back of the blade.

To Remove Material: For g/f nylon props, use a pocketknife to trim the "trailing"edges of the heavy blade. For both wood and g/f nylon, use sanding paper and take material from the heavy blade to bring into balance.

anyone read their website? I personally use MA but I have not had one that was bad. I had a graupner prop and it flexed so bad I 'm not sure I can use it. Have an apc prop to try but I am not messing with it untill my others are toast. I added "trailing" in the description. only because if you trim the tip, you will get vibration, if you mess with the leading edge, well, it will be bad.

I don't think there is a brand of plastic prop that is better than the other
when it comes to balancing. I have seen a couple wood Zingers that were
perfectly balanced from the factory, but I don't recall ever seeing a plastic
one that was.

The Master Airscrews are the easiest to balance because you can shave
the edges of the blades by scraping them with an Exacto knife on the heavy
side until the prop balances. I have one MAS prop that was heavy on one
side of the hub, and could not be balanced by conventional means.

I had a couple APC props that could not be balanced because the were
impropely drilled (off center) and were tossed. APC's cannot be scraped
and shaved like the harder plastic MAS props, and are harder to balance.
The APC's are made from some kind of rubber/plastic, and resist sanding
and common balancing techniques, that is one of the reasons I don't like
the APC's because of the balance problems.

On the wood props....I sand the backside of the "light" blade, and apply
a thin amount of epoxy...right on the balancer. Then I quickly add or remove
some epoxy till the prop balances, the set the prop aside and let it harden.

I haven't seen any "new" problems with MAS props. I've been using them
since they first came out.

If you look at my gallery you will see wood and black plastic props. I gave
away all my ugly grey plastic ones.

FBD.

Dave,


I never saw a prop that needed very much balancing; the most extreme was an 11x6 MA black that needed about 2 mm cut off the heavy blade tip...

With Bolly Clubmans, just sand off the little casting slag off the leading and trailing edges (to make the prop as efficient as its manufacturer intended it to be and to protect your fingers during hand starts...) and the prop is guaranteed to balance out around the originally cast hole. It is that simple and there is no need for those drilling balancers.

DarZeelon....

....I've never seen a Bolly propeller for sale in the U.S., Tower doesn't
even carry them. []