What's the last thing you think would balance a fan blade?

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  • Cameramonkey

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    Hot glue!

    I s*** you not! And I'm a genius if I do say so myself.

    I had a ceiling fan in the bedroom that no matter what I did I could NOT get balanced. I moved the test weight around for 30 minutes and just couldnt get it. Then I had an revelation.

    1. take down all the blades, including the metal bracket. (leaving it attached to the blade. Dont remove the wood blade from the bracket. You should have just a hub left on the ceiling)
    2. Get out the kitchen scale and set it to grams for the most granular reading.
    3. Measure each blade, marking the weight on each. I found 2 that matched on the heaviest side of 322 grams. I set those aside. The other 3 were within 1-3 grams.
    4. Marked the midpoint lengthwise on each of the 3 blades.
    5. Put the blades one by one back on the scale facing upright so the top of the blade was up.
    6. I slowly dripped hot glue onto the mark on the top of the blade until it read 322g to match the heaviest blades.
    7. Repeat until they are all the same weight.

    I swear I have never had a more balanced ceiling fan. In the past each one has had even the slightest wobble. After this weekend, not anymore. Going to repeat that on the rest of the fans in the house that have a slight wobble.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    You 'eard 'im! E's a bleedin' genius!

    And after trying to balance a few fans, I am inclined to agree. Now, if we can just get him to have some patience with truck drivers. ;):cool:

    Not happenin. :):

    You need to get out more.:wow:

    I guess if I were out more I wouldnt have heard the constant squeaking from the badly unbalanced blades. :):
     

    maxwelhse

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    A place I once rented (that was the kind of cheap dive place that was priced so accordingly that you just understood that you were to make do unless it was a "real" problem) had a seriously out of balance ceiling fan... I used packing tape and pennies to bring it in line. As I recall, it took somewhere around $0.50 scattered around various blades before it ran true. I think about 2 hours of trial and error too. I didn't have a scale, so I was just eyeballing.

    It's only now that I'm considering what has likely happened in the 12 years since I did that, and the tape has come undone, and high speed pennies ejected all over the living room...

    It was good tape... So... Maybe...?
     

    Mr Evilwrench

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    If I had a nickel for every time someone called me OCD I'd have $34.70.

    I think I wouldn't try to balance a fan with cats, but I'd probably have to hot glue them to the blades, anyway.

    The moment of inertia is indeed important. You might make the blades' masses match, but if you're adding mass to achieve this, it matters where on the blade your addition is placed. A good approximation would be to mass the blade balanced on a razor edge placed on the pan of your scale or balance. Make the addition at that point, preserving the point of balance. It wouldn't have to be a razor as such, just narrow enough that an imbalance will be obvious.
     

    halfmileharry

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    Hot glue!

    I s*** you not! And I'm a genius if I do say so myself.

    I had a ceiling fan in the bedroom that no matter what I did I could NOT get balanced. I moved the test weight around for 30 minutes and just couldnt get it. Then I had an revelation.

    1. take down all the blades, including the metal bracket. (leaving it attached to the blade. Dont remove the wood blade from the bracket. You should have just a hub left on the ceiling)
    2. Get out the kitchen scale and set it to grams for the most granular reading.
    3. Measure each blade, marking the weight on each. I found 2 that matched on the heaviest side of 322 grams. I set those aside. The other 3 were within 1-3 grams.
    4. Marked the midpoint lengthwise on each of the 3 blades.
    5. Put the blades one by one back on the scale facing upright so the top of the blade was up.
    6. I slowly dripped hot glue onto the mark on the top of the blade until it read 322g to match the heaviest blades.
    7. Repeat until they are all the same weight.

    I swear I have never had a more balanced ceiling fan. In the past each one has had even the slightest wobble. After this weekend, not anymore. Going to repeat that on the rest of the fans in the house that have a slight wobble.

    I don't think it's legal in Indiana yet so watch who you smoke that **** around.
     

    DoggyDaddy

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    Hmm . . . I sure do hope all of the blade have the same moment of inertia . . .

    If I had a nickel for every time someone called me OCD I'd have $34.70.

    I think I wouldn't try to balance a fan with cats, but I'd probably have to hot glue them to the blades, anyway.

    The moment of inertia is indeed important. You might make the blades' masses match, but if you're adding mass to achieve this, it matters where on the blade your addition is placed. A good approximation would be to mass the blade balanced on a razor edge placed on the pan of your scale or balance. Make the addition at that point, preserving the point of balance. It wouldn't have to be a razor as such, just narrow enough that an imbalance will be obvious.

    source.gif
     

    Cameramonkey

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    If I had a nickel for every time someone called me OCD I'd have $34.70.

    I think I wouldn't try to balance a fan with cats, but I'd probably have to hot glue them to the blades, anyway.

    The moment of inertia is indeed important. You might make the blades' masses match, but if you're adding mass to achieve this, it matters where on the blade your addition is placed. A good approximation would be to mass the blade balanced on a razor edge placed on the pan of your scale or balance. Make the addition at that point, preserving the point of balance. It wouldn't have to be a razor as such, just narrow enough that an imbalance will be obvious.

    I get your point, but my well running fan thinks its a moot point. I placed the weight at the midpoint to strike a balance, and it balanced the fan as it no longer exhibits even the slightest hint of a wobble. So if there is a problem, it doesnt matter in this case because we are literally talking about adding 1-2 grams of glue, so around a half a percent change of total mass. And its a ceiling fan, not an airplane propeller. :):


    Actually, I'm a geek, thankyouverymuch. :p
     

    Mr Evilwrench

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    I get your point, but my well running fan thinks its a moot point. I placed the weight at the midpoint to strike a balance, and it balanced the fan as it no longer exhibits even the slightest hint of a wobble. So if there is a problem, it doesnt matter in this case because we are literally talking about adding 1-2 grams of glue, so around a half a percent change of total mass. And its a ceiling fan, not an airplane propeller. :):

    Perfect is the enemy of "good enough". I know this, I do, but that CDO thing (in alphabetical order, like it should be) does me in. You want me making your stuff, but you don't want to be there while I'm doing it. I've driven more than one girl round the bend just from watching me cook. You want all the meatballs the same size? You're going to get all the meatballs the same size ±0.1g. I was literally forbidden to bring a triple beam balance up to the kitchen.
     

    Cameramonkey

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    Yeah. I'm not OCD. Nor CDO.

    Though I will admit I momentarily tried using my reloading scale to measure the blades in grains. It was heavier than the scale could register, so I settled on grams without a second thought.
     

    maxwelhse

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    Yeah. I'm not OCD. Nor CDO.

    Though I will admit I momentarily tried using my reloading scale to measure the blades in grains. It was heavier than the scale could register, so I settled on grams without a second thought.

    If you were really OCD you would have brought them into the machine shop and asked them to surface grind the heavy ones about the centroid to achieve maximum effectiveness. You're just a handyman, like me! :)
     

    Cameramonkey

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    If you were really OCD you would have brought them into the machine shop and asked them to surface grind the heavy ones about the centroid to achieve maximum effectiveness. You're just a handyman, like me! :)


    Centroid. I used to play that on my Sega Master System. It was an awesome game. :laugh:
     
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