wd40

My Feedback: (81)

I now have a turbine balancer working great.

EddieWeeks

Looks good.. how much did it cost total.. if you don't mind..

Eddie

wd40

My Feedback: (81)

It was $70 for the cnc parts, and lot of time and money other parts I will just have add up the cost when I get time.Thanks for the cnc parts.

wd40

My Feedback: (81)

Did you make the change to the part that is wrong? I made a new one

johnnyjet

My Feedback: (4)

Way to go wd40!
Johnny

amtpdb

Hi:
Would you mind giving instructions on building these? What parts and where to get them would be nice. I can see several uses.
Thanks:
Don

dbateman

My Feedback: (31)

How do you plan on actually performing the balance? Will you be using strobe, phase target, vibration sensors? I assume you are going for a dynamic and not static so what kind of rpms does this unit generate? You have to be careful of coupled imbalance where the unit is static balanced but you have a heavy spot on turbine 180 degrees+ or - from heavy spot on compressor. This is a complex topic and i am interested in your results. Doug

John Redman

My Feedback: (8)

My curiousity is how does the unit sense the out of balance vibration? Seems quite odd you can make one at home for some money when the ones we use in the comrecial world cost upwards of $35,000.

wd40

My Feedback: (81)

Here is the info you need read for your self this tubine balancer works one tubine is now back in service now becouse of this unit. http://www.technologie-entwicklung.d...ing_tool..html

wd40

My Feedback: (81)

http://www.technologie-entwicklung.d...cing_tool.html

wd40

My Feedback: (81)

Now I know how Tucker must have felt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !

ChuckC

My Feedback: (24)

I'm not sure of the electronics posted above as they look different than mine, but John Wells sold a kit of parts to make your own balancer that had piezo pick-ups pasted to a vibrating shaft holder as pictured. Basically, as you spin the rotor, the vibrating assembly on top, connected via a spring of some type (not metal) produces a pulse via the piezo. On mine this puls is then translated into a strobe firing. Calibrate a pointer with the strobe firing to a known high point and you're off to the races. -That of course is over simplified, but you get the idea. Much like using a timing light on a car. I think that John developed this technique to get a better balance performance for the MW 44 (during it's development). I could be wrong on the history, though. When I bought my kit, I was kind of put out by the bags of resistors, diodes and chips...but then later found building them on the PC board quite enjoyable. Now all I have to do is finish the mechanics. Everyone that has built one (that I know of) has reported that they work great ("as good as machines costing thousands more"); the sensitivity is more a function of the length and stiffness of the spring. Not so sure about the "...thousands more" part as you can not balance the rotor assembled in the turbine - you must disassemble and reassemble it, there fore you must pay attention to out of phase balance harmonics, etc.

You can find a ton of this kind of information from the Gas Turbine Builder's Association (GTBA). Quite the wealth of info and well, well worth the price of admission if you're actually interested in construction theory and practice with these things.

wd40

My Feedback: (81)

Here is a magnetic balancer set up what works also you guy"s can do your bearing service yourself.

www.5bears.com/magbal.htm

Robrow

Just for info........I have both types of dynamic balancer and the results are equally as good though the homebuilt is probably more open to operator interpritation, also took some time to get used to it.

Rob.

geneh-RCU

My Feedback: (6)

I am the person that built this balancer for WD40. He had the electronics and I did the rest. I am also just about finished building my own pc boards and another balancer for me. I used WD40's after I finished it to balance my Ram 750F. It worked great! This balancer can be so sensitive that you can tap the table that it is on with your finger and the balancer will pick it up and fire the strobe (LED). This balancer does work you just have to learn how to use it! It is a very simple circuit for what it does. Anyone that knows electronics can figure out how it works.

Happy Landings!

Gene

EricJ

WOW! looks great WD40 and Gene! It's great to have the ability to think outside the box to save $34,000. Keep us posted with testing, I may need to pick your brains.

F86_SABRE

Sorry for bringing this topic up again but I wish to ask the gentlemen who made this unit the experience they had with this set-up now that some time has elapsed and probably they have now more experience in its handling.

Can I also ask them whether there is now anybody making these electronic parts?

Thanks

Reuben

ledd4u

My Feedback: (23)

$35k, hilarious. Some of these people making these statements aren’t even in the business anymore. You’d be surprised at the archaic looking units being used to perform that work. An old used turbo unit balancer with calibrated dials and an analog meter is what some use.

scoeroo

My Feedback: (9)

Gotta be a record digging up a thread from 2006 , and if one reads the context it seems some one may have a fetish for nat's farting