This isn't a How-To? post...this is a victory story.

My son moved into an apartment in a really old house this weekend. The
ceiling fan in the dining room has a downrod of about 6" and wobbled
like crazy. When it got dark and we turned the fan and light on, it
made us dizzy as the light caused the shadows to dance around.

I took the job of trying to balance it. Having never balanced a
ceiling fan before, and having never dealt with a downrod style, I
decided to Google around for some tips. I knew about balancing kits
and taped-on pennies, etc. but had never actually had to balance one
and assumed that there were other tips/tricks available. I was right.

So, the first thing I did was measure the distance of each blade tip
from the ceiling. 11.5, 11.5, 11.5, 12. Well, there's one issue.

Next I checked all the screws. All eight screws that held the blade
brackets to the motor housing *and* all 12 screws that held the blades
to the brackets were loose. OK, let's start there.

I tightened all the screws and remeasured. 11.25, 11.25, 11.25, 11.5.
A big difference and a big improvement. 90% less wobble.

I removed the bracket for the lowest blade, gave it a little tweak and
remounted it. 11.25 all the way around and even less wobble now.

OK, now let's try the penny trick. I took a penny and some tape, and
assuming this was going to be a trial and error exercise, I randomly
picked a blade and taped the penny to the top. Dead nuts solid!
Absolutely no wobble at all, first try.

I climbed off the ladder and treated myself to another slice of pizza
before moving on to fixing a few other "old house" issues.