What's this officially called?

Hi Graham,

You are truly optimistic if you think that 6" diameter tube of those dimensions will be anywhere approximating round, good luck,

Regards

T

The 7" ring will be approximately round, but you should be able to average it so it balances. I built a flywheel of a similar size, and you could too. Around the rim I drilled six holes to match the diameter of the spokes (I used old bike spokes). For a hub use a hex nut, with a bore that can be drilled to suit the shaft, drill six holes around the nut, but not into the center hole. Fix the nut to a board, and mark a circle for the rim. Using loctite, glue the spokes to the hub by poking them through the rim, let it cure, center it and put loctite on the spokes at the rim, and after it cures, trim the spokes to length. Ian S C

One way would be to put it on a longish and hopefully straight bar between bearings of some sort, then rev it up slowly (perhaps using an electric drill). If it's out of balance, the bar will flex towards the heavy side, and a felt-tipped pen mounted close to the wheel when static will mark it to show where weight should be removed. This would need a number of iterations at gradually increasing speeds, and a supply of different coloured felt tips so you can tell new marks from old.

Andy

Hi Graham,

The standard way to balance is to insert a short close fitting bar into the hub and let it roll naturally on 'two razor' parallel edge supports, add small weights or drill out material from the rim to balance. If you drill out too much add lead shot into your drilled hole. I had two tyres fitted today on to my car and the balance machine was amazing - you could use one of those

Regards

Terry

Edited By Terryd on 12/11/2012 21:50:23

Hi Terry,
Here is a design for a tool to balance model turbine rotors that probably uses the same principal as the car wheel balancing machine.

Les.