Anyone ever check the balance of their spinners?

I can't believe a spinner could be off that much. Are you sure of your balancing method?

m-m

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Ot maybe the fact you are depending on a ~prop~ balancer to check a spinner has something to do with it?

Did you check just the backplate or the whole thing with the cone on it? If the latter, how_ever_ did you mount it to the prop balancer?

m-m

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I have a Top Flite magnetic balancer that uses a shaft with two "centering tapers" (cone-shaped pieces that slide along the shaft) suspended between two magnets.

I mounted the spinner (cone and backplate) with the shaft through it and centered by the tapers; one into the nose of the spinner cone and the other through the backplate hole. I believe this is an accurate way to mount it to the shaft and measure the balance. Correct me if I'm wrong....

Good flying, desmobob

It just seems that the balancer which is intended for props and a larger error is simply not accurate enough to balance a spinner. Besides any error on a spinner would seem insignificant being it is so close to the center.

But mainly the fact that you drilled all those holes and did not effect a change indicates your measurement method is faulty.

m-m

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This is the most accurate type of balancer. It is designed to be almost totally free of friction (the part being balanced is for the most part, suspended in air) and providing the balancer's shaft and centering cones are first balanced (they were), has negligible error.

This is obviously not the case as the spinner that started this whole spinner-balancing thing was causing excessive vibration in the model it was mounted on. Replacing that spinner solved the problem.

That's your assumption. I mentioned the drilling to show just how out of balance the original spinner was; I tossed it in the trash when it didn't balance after removing a considerable amount of material from the heavy side. (That's why I suggested that the holes may have been drilled off center.) The Great Planes spinner I checked balanced after drilling several small holes in the backplate on the heavy side.

If my methods are faulty, it's peculiar that my higher quality spinners are all very close to being balanced while the cheap spinners are grossly off balance.

Believe what you will.

Good flying, desmobob

SNIP .

And *I* suspect you would have gotten a much warmer reception had you used the term "suggests" rather than indicates. I have also run into spinners as badly out of balance and taken similar steps to bring them in reasonable tolerance. Ever hear of a High Point balancer? Why don't you find out who uses them and what they get used for...

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