Balancing an engine

[cfellows]

Here's a trick I just tried for balancing my hit n miss engine. I added neodymium magnets to the rim of the flywheel opposite the connecting rod journal. I kept adding them one at a time, on each flywheel, until it was balanced. Now I can just remove the magnets, weigh them, and machine a brass or steel plate of the same weight to screw onto the flywheel in place of the magnets.

Just be careful that you use magnets that are strong enough that they won't fly off. Also, my flywheels have a rim that the magnets rest against making it much harder for them to become dislodged. Finally, you, of course, have to put the flywheels on the same side in the same position every time. My flywheels are held on with setscrews tightened against a flat milled on the crankshaft so they always go on the same way.

 

[BobWarfield]

I use those little tiny neodymiums to hold prints. I can't imagine one flying off in the course of anything remotely normal. I can hardly get them loose myself!

Cheers,

BW