I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

"SteveB" writes:

I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Buy a blade balancing kit. Read the directions.

(basically, you put a weight on a blade and see if things get better
or worse. Then you go to the next blade, and so forth until you find
the one that helps the most. Then you move the weight in and out on
the blade. The kit has both a weight that you can clip on and move
around, and one that glues to the blade).

"SteveB" wrote: (clip)What is the way to balance them? (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is a method I used to balance a plain fan, and it ought to work on a
ceiling fan as well. With the fan not running, I held a vibrating engraving
tool against it. The vibration overcame the "sticktion" in the fan
bearings, so the heavy side slowly drifted to the bottom. I removed a
little weight from that side and repeated until it stopped finding a heavy
side.

With a ceiling fan you would have to hold it sideways, but I don't see any
problem with that.

On Jul 11, 7:58 pm, "SteveB" wrote:
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

- I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Ponder this:

Google balancing ceiling fans

You'll get hits to sell you kits, tips on using washers and tape, etc,
etc.

Here's a video that shows how to use a kit, but you could adapt the
process to use pennies, washers, etc.

http://www.hansenwholesale.com/ceili...10&emt=leftnav

I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

Thanks

Mauro

I have never messes with one but one of my customers is a lighting store and
he was mentioning that the usual cause of grief on these is that people do
not read the instructions when installing them and attach the blades before
mounting the fan body.


--
Roger Shoaf
If you are not part of the solution, you are not dissolved in the solvent.



"SteveB" wrote in message
...
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced
into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 01:46:50 GMT, "Leo Lichtman"
wrote:


"SteveB" wrote: (clip)What is the way to balance them? (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is a method I used to balance a plain fan, and it ought to work on a
ceiling fan as well. With the fan not running, I held a vibrating engraving
tool against it. The vibration overcame the "sticktion" in the fan
bearings, so the heavy side slowly drifted to the bottom. I removed a
little weight from that side and repeated until it stopped finding a heavy
side.

With a ceiling fan you would have to hold it sideways, but I don't see any
problem with that.

FIRST thing to do on most ceiling fans is make sure all blades are
pitched the same, and that they track true. Sinse the VAST majority of
ceiling fans in North America are made in China, you need to treat
them as semi-assembled kits.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced
into my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

Most likely the issue isn't always balance, the blades each have a
different twist, or the attach brackets are slightly crooked compared to
each other. I pulled the blades and brackets off of mine, matched the bend
twist of each bracket and put it all back together. It was beautiful. You
can't balance them very well if the blades are out of kilter anyway, as
there are forces other than balance that make it look like it's out of
balance.

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 02:27:47 GMT, "MG" wrote:

I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Well, even the mechanical situation is different when the electricity
is on and the parts are being forced to move. The force is in the
center and probably can't be duplicated by pushing on a blade.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

All I can think of is that it might need oil, but I don't even know if
ceilign fans are designed to be oiled. If it needs oil, you shouldn't
need to open it up.


Thanks

Mauro

According to Leo Lichtman :

"SteveB" wrote: (clip)What is the way to balance them? (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is a method I used to balance a plain fan, and it ought to work on a
ceiling fan as well. With the fan not running, I held a vibrating engraving

[ ... ]

With a ceiling fan you would have to hold it sideways, but I don't see any
problem with that.

Well ... the older Hunter fans, with the inverted rotor (around
the stator) design have a cup surrounding the shaft which is filled with
a light oil. Turn it on its side, and you pour the oil out -- both
making a nice magnet for dust, and leaving you having to find an
appropriate oil to replace what you poured out. :-)

This describes the fans which I added to the house back around
1978 or so, and I don't think that the current ones have the same
design.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

According to MG :
I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

Does it have a lamp fixture mounted below it? If so, look for
vibration between the socket and the mounting shell.

The one in our bedroom does that -- but not as loud as it used
to do, so I can live with it the few nights when it is hot enough (even
with the air conditioning) to need it.

Enjoy,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Next question: I have a good Pelouze scale. I wonder what would happen if
I took off every blade and weighed it separately. I've got about ten fans,
and little time, so this is something that likely won't be tried until some
long boring winter's night.

Steve

On Jul 12, 9:58 am, "SteveB" wrote:
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

two things - there usually marked for best balance, sorta like the
alignment on a 3 jaw chuck. Its in the instructions, which most of us
dont read. (and have thrown out with the rest of the packaging...)

Second thing - take it off the ceiling, set it up vertically in a vise
- then balance like you would a lathe chuck with an eccentric object
in it.....

It wont be helped by plain bearings with lotsa slop - don't expect
tooo much. (and, whatya expect for $30 anyway...)

But I agree, it can drive you NUTS - you will be seeing a machine not
working correctly, everyone else will be seeing a ceiling fan.....


Andrew VK3BFA.

"SteveB" wrote in message
...
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced
into my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

I helped a friend install a decent quality Hunter fan a couple of weeks ago.
Before attaching the blades,
I spun the motor and was dismayed to see at least 0.060" runout in the blade
mounting ring. Split the
motor shell, loosened the ring and was able to get it down to very little
runout. With no further adjustments,
the fan wobbles only 1/16" on a 4 foot long pole. I can't imagine what it
would have done if I hadn't
checked the ring first......Paul

SteveB wrote:
Next question: I have a good Pelouze scale. I wonder what would
happen if I took off every blade and weighed it separately. I've
got about ten fans, and little time, so this is something that
likely won't be tried until some long boring winter's night.

I weigh mine.

Got fed up with the warping, drooping fiberboard blades so made my
own from 1/4" marine ply. To weigh, I just made a crude balance beam
scale...found the heaviest blade and added lead slugs (in the hollow
portion of the bracket) to the light ones so they all balanced the
same. Still had to use balancing kits on two of the fans.


--

dadiOH
____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico

On Jul 11, 10:27 pm, "MG" wrote:
I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

Thanks

Mauro


Usually this is windings that can vibrate, or motor laminations. Don't
know why they groan at a certain spot in the rotation, instead of the
'same' all the way around.

Dave

I had one acting up recently. I removed all the blades and
weighed them. Then I added washers as needed so they were
all within a half gram of each other. Three were fine initially,
one was 2 grams light and one was 4 grams light.

It didn't make it perfect, but it helped an awful lot. I could
probably fine tune it with a more accurate scale.


SteveB wrote:
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

Making all the blades the same weight only works if the center of mass of
each blade is equi-distant from the axis of rotation. You can do this by
making each blade balance at the same point on it's length. Just lay each
blade on it's side on a level knife edge to find the balance point. All
balance points should be the same distance from the brackets and all blades
should weigh the same when you are finished.

Randy


"Mike Berger" wrote in message
...
I had one acting up recently. I removed all the blades and
weighed them. Then I added washers as needed so they were
all within a half gram of each other. Three were fine initially,
one was 2 grams light and one was 4 grams light.

It didn't make it perfect, but it helped an awful lot. I could
probably fine tune it with a more accurate scale.


SteveB wrote:
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced
into my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find
out which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

On Jul 12, 10:36 am, "Randal O'Brian" wrote:
Making all the blades the same weight only works if the center of mass of
each blade is equi-distant from the axis of rotation. You can do this by
making each blade balance at the same point on it's length. Just lay each
blade on it's side on a level knife edge to find the balance point. All
balance points should be the same distance from the brackets and all blades
should weigh the same when you are finished.

Randy

Pay attention folks, this is your definitive answer to doing it
right.

Joe

Joe wrote:
On Jul 12, 10:36 am, "Randal O'Brian" wrote:
Making all the blades the same weight only works if the center of mass of
each blade is equi-distant from the axis of rotation. You can do this by
making each blade balance at the same point on it's length. Just lay each
blade on it's side on a level knife edge to find the balance point. All
balance points should be the same distance from the brackets and all blades
should weigh the same when you are finished.

Randy

Pay attention folks, this is your definitive answer to doing it
right.

IF (the proverbial "big if") the hub/etc., is also balanced, that is...

--

If you have alot of ceiling fans throughout your house, the best way
to balance them all at once is to determine which fan blade is causing
all the trouble with each fan, orient all those bad blades north, go
to the south side of your house and jack the foundation up a
centimeter or two with a couple of house jacks, available at your
local home supply center. Be sure to restart all your fans
simultaneously or you will have to start the process over again, using
the west/east method. You may want to get a few packages of shims to
relevel your countertops and keep your small appliances from sliding
off.

get a piece of chalk and tie it to a sitck. Move the stick inward to
touch the tip of the blades while the fan is running. The blade that
gets the mark of the chalk is the heavy one. Put the weight on the
opposite side at the tip... thumb tacks and washers put in the top of
the blade are easy to install.

Helicopter blades were done the same way before they came out with
Chadwick balancers.


John

SteveB wrote:

I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve

After all the effort to get the weight exactly the same on
all the blades and the fan is still out of balance. Do this
simple test. Run the fan at low, medium, and high speed.
Does the balance get worse with higher speed? I thought so ;-)

Now, fix the real problem. The pitch of each blade must be
identical! The pitch is the angle of twist from the leading
edge to the trailing edge of the blade. Most blades are
mounted with an "H" shaped bracket and can be adjusted by
slightly twisting the bracket at the short section between
the two outside bars of the H.

You can use the reflection of a light bulb off the flat of
the top or bottom of the mounted blades to adjust the twist
so the bulb appears at exactly the same place on all the
blades as you hand rotate them. I can almost tell you, only
one of the blades will be off when you do the first
reflection test. Tweak it back into position and your fan
will run true at any speed.

I spent 4 hours moving quarters, nickels, and dimes,
swapping brackets, blades (yes, weighing was the first thing
I tried-they were identical) and it ran so well, until I
switched to medium speed ;-) I spotted that the reflection
of a nearby lamp on the blade surfaces "wobbled" as I turned
the blades. It's the pitch! One blade was really "off". In
a few minutes I had the same lamp reflection on all the
blades. Fan then ran smooth and quiet at all speeds.

It is very easy for a blade to get hit and the bracket
twisted.

-larry / dallas

IF (the proverbial "big if") the hub/etc., is also balanced, that is...

Well, IF the goddam thing was balanced, it wouldn't wander all over the room
in the first place, would it?

Steve ;-)

"john" wrote in message
...
get a piece of chalk and tie it to a sitck. Move the stick inward to touch
the tip of the blades while the fan is running. The blade that gets the
mark of the chalk is the heavy one. Put the weight on the opposite side at
the tip... thumb tacks and washers put in the top of the blade are easy to
install.

You know, great minds think alike. Last night, I lay watching the fan and
pondering the same thing. I came up with paint on a brush, but I like the
chalk idea. The heavy blade will always swing farther out.


Helicopter blades were done the same way before they came out with
Chadwick balancers.


I bet they lost a lot of people before the Chadwick balancers.

Steve

"larry" wrote
Now, fix the real problem. The pitch of each blade must be identical!
The pitch is the angle of twist from the leading edge to the trailing edge
of the blade. Most blades are mounted with an "H" shaped bracket and can
be adjusted by slightly twisting the bracket at the short section between
the two outside bars of the H.

Those look like they're cast and won't take much tweaking before breaking.
But I will investigate it with the light bulb thing. Sounds like a simple
solution to a complex problem.

Kind of against my nature.

Steve

IF the fan is suspended on a rod, check for swinging of the rod resulting in
a slight rotation of the rod suspension bearing and a bit of stiction
(breakaway friction) in the dried out suspension bearing. If so, cure it
with a bit of wax or white grease applied to the suspension bearing. Be
sure the fan is turned off when you attempt to do this :-)

David Merrill


"MG" wrote in message
news
I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power
off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong
electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

Thanks

Mauro

First - swap to adjacent ones.
Spin up and see if it is reasonable. Often the case. Installed
a balanced set but two are swapped.

Installer won't take the time.

Martin

Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


SteveB wrote:
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve



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SteveB wrote:

"john" wrote in message
...

get a piece of chalk and tie it to a sitck. Move the stick inward to touch
the tip of the blades while the fan is running. The blade that gets the
mark of the chalk is the heavy one. Put the weight on the opposite side at
the tip... thumb tacks and washers put in the top of the blade are easy to
install.


You know, great minds think alike. Last night, I lay watching the fan and
pondering the same thing. I came up with paint on a brush, but I like the
chalk idea. The heavy blade will always swing farther out.


Helicopter blades were done the same way before they came out with
Chadwick balancers.



I bet they lost a lot of people before the Chadwick balancers.

Steve


Never heard of anyone getting hurt doing tracking of blades, but it's
pretty unnerving!

If the tips are colored with different colors of chalk ( the helo's I
knew of were done with grease pencil/china marker), and a ribbon or
cloth is brought into contact, the colors will transfer and give you a
"print" of the differences in the blade tip paths.

That only works to give you the track, though, and you still have to
adjust both the track and the balance to get a smooth runner.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

Thanks

Mauro

Trevor Jones wrote:
SteveB wrote:

"john" wrote in message
...

get a piece of chalk and tie it to a sitck. Move the stick inward to
touch the tip of the blades while the fan is running. The blade that
gets the mark of the chalk is the heavy one. Put the weight on the
opposite side at the tip... thumb tacks and washers put in the top of
the blade are easy to install.



You know, great minds think alike. Last night, I lay watching the fan
and pondering the same thing. I came up with paint on a brush, but I
like the chalk idea. The heavy blade will always swing farther out.


Helicopter blades were done the same way before they came out with
Chadwick balancers.



I bet they lost a lot of people before the Chadwick balancers.

Steve

Never heard of anyone getting hurt doing tracking of blades, but it's
pretty unnerving!

If the tips are colored with different colors of chalk ( the helo's I
knew of were done with grease pencil/china marker), and a ribbon or
cloth is brought into contact, the colors will transfer and give you a
"print" of the differences in the blade tip paths.

That only works to give you the track, though, and you still have to
adjust both the track and the balance to get a smooth runner.

Cheers
Trevor Jones




I never did Helicopter blade balancing but did a lot of prop balancing.
Its amazing what a couple of washers will do to get rid of vibration.
An old time pilot showed me how to put a cup of coffee to good use. Put
it on the floor of the cockpit and adjust the prop govs. till the
vibration rings disappeared from the surface. That little trick sure
stopped a lot of cowl cracks and other vibration oriented damage.


John

On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:35:19 -0600, "SteveB"
wrote:


"larry" wrote
Now, fix the real problem. The pitch of each blade must be identical!
The pitch is the angle of twist from the leading edge to the trailing edge
of the blade. Most blades are mounted with an "H" shaped bracket and can
be adjusted by slightly twisting the bracket at the short section between
the two outside bars of the H.

Those look like they're cast and won't take much tweaking before breaking.
But I will investigate it with the light bulb thing. Sounds like a simple
solution to a complex problem.

Kind of against my nature.

Steve

If you are afraid to twist, put washers under one screw to raise one
edge. Put washers on the head end of the equivalent screw on all other
blades to maintain ballance.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

It is likely full of dust and oil. Jammed a bearing or a bushing.
Martin H. Eastburn
@ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net
TSRA, Life; NRA LOH & Endowment Member, Golden Eagle, Patriot's Medal.
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder
IHMSA and NRA Metallic Silhouette maker & member.
http://lufkinced.com/


MG wrote:
I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

Thanks

Mauro




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http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! 120,000+ Newsgroups
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On Thu, 12 Jul 2007 17:54:22 -0500, "Martin H. Eastburn"
wrote:

First - swap to adjacent ones.
Spin up and see if it is reasonable. Often the case. Installed
a balanced set but two are swapped.

Installer won't take the time.

Damn skippy - you can spend an hour or two futzing with a fan that
isn't tracking quite right, and still not get it perfect enough for
some picky people. And when I install them the boss usually quotes a
price that doesn't allow for that time.

I make sure the resident saves the balancing kit, and knows why.
And I mention to do the tracking and attack angle checks before
playing with the weights.

The fan may run fine when I'm done, but anyone can bend an arm at
any time if they stuff a hard object into the path of a running fan.

-- Bruce --

On Jul 12, 5:47 pm, john wrote:
get a piece of chalk and tie it to a sitck. Move the stick inward to
touch the tip of the blades while the fan is running. The blade that
gets the mark of the chalk is the heavy one. Put the weight on the
opposite side at the tip... thumb tacks and washers put in the top of
the blade are easy to install.

Helicopter blades were done the same way before they came out with
Chadwick balancers.

John



SteveB wrote:
I don't know why, but there have been a rash of ceiling fans introduced into
my universe, and every one is way out of balance.

What is the way to balance them?

Is there a variable strobe that one can get, mark the blades, and find out
which one is the one that makes the biggest circle?

I've sat here till I'm dizzy pondering the bests approach to this.

Steve- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

-- Helicopter blades were done the same way before they came out with
Chadwick balancers.

Where do I sign up for the job of marking a rotating helicoptor blade
with a piece of chalk tied to a stick? Maybe I'll just look for the
longest line, cuz that's got to be a d*mn popular job!

On 12 Jul 2007 04:53:43 GMT, (DoN. Nichols)
wrote:

According to Leo Lichtman :

"SteveB" wrote: (clip)What is the way to balance them? (clip)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This is a method I used to balance a plain fan, and it ought to work on a
ceiling fan as well. With the fan not running, I held a vibrating engraving

[ ... ]

With a ceiling fan you would have to hold it sideways, but I don't see any
problem with that.

Well ... the older Hunter fans, with the inverted rotor (around
the stator) design have a cup surrounding the shaft which is filled with
a light oil. Turn it on its side, and you pour the oil out -- both
making a nice magnet for dust, and leaving you having to find an
appropriate oil to replace what you poured out. :-)

This describes the fans which I added to the house back around
1978 or so, and I don't think that the current ones have the same
design.

Enjoy,
DoN.

These are REAL fans. I have five that have been in three houses.

Don, how is the speed change effected. Is it simple resistance or
cutting out some of the windings or ?

They never groan on high speed and usually only with a single globe
schoolhouse light. Placing a large rubber band around the globe where
the retaining screws contact will help some.

--Andy Asberry--
------Texas-----

DerbyDad03 wrote:

Where do I sign up for the job of marking a rotating helicoptor blade
with a piece of chalk tied to a stick? Maybe I'll just look for the
longest line, cuz that's got to be a d*mn popular job!


You mark -non-rotating- blades ends.

The pilot sarts the rotors turning, stabilizes them at flat pitch,
then a tech or mechanic slowly feeds a special pole with a cloth band on
it, into contact with the tips of the blades.

Have you ever seen those little combination toothpick/dentalfloss
units? Shaped sorta like a letter F, with floss between the tips of the
horizontal bars. Same principle, larger scale. The position of the base
is pre-marked out. Place the butt of the pole on the mark, pivot in
until contact is felt, then out again. Walk clear, read the marks, while
the pilot shuts down, then adjust as required.

Repeat as many times as you have to.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

On Jul 12, 8:39 pm, john wrote:
Trevor Jones wrote:
SteveB wrote:

"john" wrote in message
. ..

get a piece of chalk and tie it to a sitck. Move the stick inward to
touch the tip of the blades while the fan is running. The blade that
gets the mark of the chalk is the heavy one. Put the weight on the
opposite side at the tip... thumb tacks and washers put in the top of
the blade are easy to install.

You know, great minds think alike. Last night, I lay watching the fan
and pondering the same thing. I came up with paint on a brush, but I
like the chalk idea. The heavy blade will always swing farther out.

Helicopter blades were done the same way before they came out with
Chadwick balancers.

I bet they lost a lot of people before the Chadwick balancers.

Steve

Never heard of anyone getting hurt doing tracking of blades, but it's
pretty unnerving!

If the tips are colored with different colors of chalk ( the helo's I
knew of were done with grease pencil/china marker), and a ribbon or
cloth is brought into contact, the colors will transfer and give you a
"print" of the differences in the blade tip paths.

That only works to give you the track, though, and you still have to
adjust both the track and the balance to get a smooth runner.

Cheers
Trevor Jones

I never did Helicopter blade balancing but did a lot of prop balancing.
Its amazing what a couple of washers will do to get rid of vibration.
An old time pilot showed me how to put a cup of coffee to good use. Put
it on the floor of the cockpit and adjust the prop govs. till the
vibration rings disappeared from the surface. That little trick sure
stopped a lot of cowl cracks and other vibration oriented damage.

John

Helipcopters, if properly balanced and hung upsidedown, make a fine
whole-house fan when installed in your attic. Check with your local
helicopter recycler for the recommended copter for your square
footage...Blackhawk for a 2600 square foot home, small news chopper
for a home under 1200 square feet. Be sure to post a warning on your
attic door telling tall visitors to duck.

wrote


Helipcopters, if properly balanced and hung upsidedown, make a fine
whole-house fan when installed in your attic. Check with your local
helicopter recycler for the recommended copter for your square
footage...Blackhawk for a 2600 square foot home, small news chopper
for a home under 1200 square feet. Be sure to post a warning on your
attic door telling tall visitors to duck.


And warn your mother in law with the big hair.

Steve

MG wrote:
I have a ceiling fan goes Groan Groan Groan. As soon as turn the power off
the noise quits which is telling me that the problem has a strong electrical
components rather than simply a mechanical problem.

Any idea on what to look for when I take it down and open it up.

Thanks

Mauro



I had one like that. I thought that the motor was a goner.
It turns out the the hub was a little loose on the shaft and had slipped
down a little to where it was scrapping on something.
I raised the hub slightly and tightened it and removed a handful of
metal scrapings. It now runs great.