Best way to balance prop, add or remove wt.
07-07-2006, 04:42 AM
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Best way to balance prop, add or remove wt.
What is the best way to balance a prop? I have heard of removing weight or adding.
Removing; do you sand the tip off or sand the front or sand the back?
Adding; do you add glue to the front or back?
And what about the airfoil with any of the above, doesn't this all affect the aerodynamics of the prop?
Thanks
Removing; do you sand the tip off or sand the front or sand the back?
Adding; do you add glue to the front or back?
And what about the airfoil with any of the above, doesn't this all affect the aerodynamics of the prop?
Thanks
07-07-2006, 05:31 AM
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RE: Best way to balance prop, add or remove wt.
A glow or gas prop should be ballanced by sanding material off of the back of the prop on the heavy blade side. Sand mostly closer to the tip. Most props should not require much material to be removed to ballance. If it is a wood prop you can sand lightly and apply clear dope or polyurethane to the Light side of the prop to make this blade heavier. Most likely you will not be removing and or adding enough material during the ballancing proceedure to affect the areodynamics of the prop. If the prop is out of ballance by a great deal then I would suggest just replacing it. In all my modeling years I have just had to do this a couple of times and the props were wood.
Hope this helps
JEB
Hope this helps
JEB
07-07-2006, 05:59 AM
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RE: Best way to balance prop, add or remove wt.
I sand the heavy blade of an APC prop, doing the back first and then the front, with small amounts of each that won't impact aerodynamics. If the prop shows that the hole is a bit off center - in other words the prop ends up with the blades basically level but one side always down - I add weight to the top of the hub using CyA and kicker until the balance is good.
07-07-2006, 12:09 PM
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RE: Best way to balance prop, add or remove wt.
Here's a link to a very good video showing how to balance a prop.
http://www.downonthedeck.com/videos_instruction.htm
http://www.downonthedeck.com/videos_instruction.htm
07-08-2006, 05:54 PM
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RE: Best way to balance prop, add or remove wt.
Just a note. When you purchase a prop, try to find one that has the same grain on each blade. Don't purchase one that has a lot of grains on one side and a nice big wide grain on the other side. One side will surely be considerably heavier than the other. Ron
07-09-2006, 03:39 PM
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RE: Best way to balance prop, add or remove wt.
If the prop is not to far out of wack I spray the light side with clear coat first the front then the back. works great and the props are very easy to clean after flights.
