The same way you balance any prop. Support it by the prop shaft and watch for it to rotate off of horizontal. Blade thicknesses can be measured with a mic, dial gauge or whatever. I've seen the thicknesses varying by a couple of thousandths. Chris Goins' Double Trouble article has info on sanding the blades and the plan shows the thicknesses of his prop blades.
----- Original Message -----
From: LeRoy C Cordes
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Indoor_Construction] Ikara Props
How would you determine that one blade weighs more than the other on an
Ikara prop ? Do you disassemble it ?
LeRoy Cordes
In Downstate Illinois
On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:47:17 -0500 "Bill Gowen" <b.gowen_at_earthlink.net>
writes:
> If the blades are the same size but don't weigh the same then the
> thickness must be different (not unusual). So thinning the heavy
> blade shouldn't cause a problem if both blades wind up the same
> thickness. The best answer to the pitch gauge problem is to get a
> better pitch gauge! The one that Tim Goldstein sells works great.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: calgoddard
> To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 8:00 PM
> Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Ikara Props
>
>
> Our team has trouble with the Ikara props in that they are
> usually unbalanced and therefore often make the stab of the plane
>
> shudder. We have purchased many Ikaras over the years and all but
>
> one or two were out of balance in terms of weight.
>
> If the team balances the Ikara props so that each blade weighs the
>
> same, that is not the end of the problem. If they snip off a
> slight
> amount of the tip of one blade, the blades have unequal areas and
>
> therefore they produce unequal thrust. If they sand one blade, it
>
> gets thinner and may flare more, giving unequal thrust. I assume
> that sanding is better in terms of achieving weight balance.
>
> Now the blades must also have the same pitch. We have two pitch
> gauges, but the blades of the Ikara are free to move a good amount
>
> when they are in the pitch gauges. All you are really doing is
> eyeballing each blade in terms of how it sits up against a 45
> degree
> fence or reading degrees off a scale. How do you determine whether
>
> the pitch is identical for each blade given the relative lack of
> accuracy of these pitch gagues? Moreover, the pitch may only be
> identical at that radius, but not at all radii.
>
> Is this just hit or miss? Is the vibrating stab really not a big
> deal in terms of reducing flight times so our team is wasting time
>
> on this issue?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
LeRoy Cordes
In Downstate Illinois
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Received on Tue Oct 30 2007 - 08:49:17 CET
This archive was generated by Yannick on Sat Dec 14 2019 - 19:13:45 CET