Dynavibe Dynamic Balancers

Re: Dynavine Dynamic Balancers

First of all, unless you are planning to do a lot of airplanes the initial cost of the unit doesn't make it worth it. Second, unless you are an A&P you cannot legally signoff the balance on a certified aircraft.

I did dynamic prop balancing with an Aces 2020 ProBalancer for several years. Typically once you do a balance it's not necessary to do another one unless you change out something such as a spinner or prop or backplate.

To balance a Lycoming the weights are applied to the flywheel. On a Continental powered aircraft you must drill a hole in the backplate and attach the weights.
 
Re: Dynavine Dynamic Balancers

I am not sure what my A&P has, I can ask when I see him next week. But whatever it is he has since my prop was balanced the plan is really running smooth.
Rotor&Wing said:
To balance a Lycoming the weights are applied to the flywheel. On a Continental powered aircraft you must drill a hole in the backplate and attach the weights.
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FWIW the A&P attached the weight to the backplate of my spinner on my Lycoming 0320-D3G.
 
Re: Dynavine Dynamic Balancers

smigaldi said:
I am not sure what my A&P has, I can ask when I see him next week. But whatever it is he has since my prop was balanced the plan is really running smooth.
FWIW the A&P attached the weight to the backplate of my spinner on my Lycoming 0320-D3G.
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You can also attach it there. Typically I just used the flywheel on the Lycoming since the holes are already there and that's what the Aces manual recommended.
 
Re: Dynavine Dynamic Balancers

Rotor&Wing said:
First of all, unless you are planning to do a lot of airplanes the initial cost of the unit doesn't make it worth it. Second, unless you are an A&P you cannot legally signoff the balance on a certified aircraft.
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#1. The cost / benefit analysis is cheap, as I buy, sell, build & re-build RV aircraft. The Aces balancer you mentioned is too expensive, this one is $1,500 which seems too cheap to me. I want to know if they work.

#2. Who would be silly enough to own a certified airplane? :loco:

Does anyone have any 1st hand knowledge of the Dynavibe balancer?
 
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After owning the Dynavibe for 5 years and dynamically balancing dozens of certified, and dozens of experimental aircraft I can honestly say this is the best investment I have made. It is a money maker for sure!

Very easy to use and extremely accurate and fun to help aircraft owners enjoy their airplanes more. I charge a few buck to cover my costs, and charge nothing if the owners can't feel the difference. No one has ever not paid! :eek:

Still not an A&P. Who needs a log book entry anyway? The plane is running smoother! That is a good thing! :yes:

My point? Get your airplane or helo dynamically balanced. You cannot feel the difference until you do. If you haven't had it done then you need to. My goal is under .05 IPS (inches per second) the only airplane I haven't been able to get there is my 10. I had to settle for .08.

Dynavibe customer service is amazing!

http://www.rpxtech.com/
 
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Geico266 said:
After owning the Dynavibe for 5 years and dynamically balancing dozens of certified, and dozens of experimental aircraft I can honestly say this is the best investment I have made. It is a money maker for sure!

Very easy to use and extremely accurate and fun to help aircraft owners enjoy their airplanes more. I charge a few buck to cover my costs, and charge nothing if the owners can't feel the difference. No one has ever not paid! :eek:

Still not an A&P. Who needs a log book entry anyway? The plane is running smoother! That is a good thing! :yes:

My point? Get your airplane or helo dynamically balanced. You cannot feel the difference until you do. If you haven't had it done then you need to. My goal is under .05 IPS (inches per second) the only airplane I haven't been able to get there is my 10. I had to settle for .08.

Dynavibe customer service is amazing!

http://www.rpxtech.com/
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Good to know.
 
Henning said:
Good to know.
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I have the old Dynavibe that only gives to you the heavy point. You add weights on the opposite side. Basically, trial and error until you are in the .06 IPS or less. The new version gives you a solution of where to put the weights and how much weight. It also gives you a full vibration spectrum analyzer to look for out of balance alternators, etc.
 
Geico266 said:
After owning the Dynavibe for 5 years and dynamically balancing dozens of certified, and dozens of experimental aircraft I can honestly say this is the best investment I have made. It is a money maker for sure! /
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What is the average going rate for a balance?

THanks,

Jim
 
Balancing makes a HUGE difference......:yes::yes:

My local A&P uses a ACES unit and we usually get the balance down to .02-.03 IPS......

Glad Geico is sharing his knowledge...:):)...:thumbsup:
 
I've got to get this done, maybe as a Christmas present to myself.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 
Geico266 said:
I have the old Dynavibe that only gives to you the heavy point. You add weights on the opposite side. Basically, trial and error until you are in the .06 IPS or less. The new version gives you a solution of where to put the weights and how much weight. It also gives you a full vibration spectrum analyzer to look for out of balance alternators, etc.
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That's true. I've got both. The new one is $4k and the old one was $1.5K. I'm ashamed to say I haven't yet taken the time to learn how to use the new one even though I've had it since it came out. I've used the old one so much and I've done so many different types of planes since I got it in 2007 that rather than mess around I just use the old one and rarely have to do more than three run-ups. You develop an intuitive sense of how much weight is necessary and really don't need the fancier machine to tell you - you're going to have to do another run-up to confirm what the machine said anyway . . . but that's just a feeble attempt at justifying my laziness in not doing some balances with the new model. About the time I got the new one my aviation activities were interrupted but I'll get back to it and give my two cents on using the new one when I do.

I'm not an A&P, just an Experimental owner that bought it originally so I could do and re-do my props whenever I put a new one on or took the old one off and put it back on, or when I do anything to the spinner or any change at all with the rotational parts. I've ended up doing lots of other planes, singles and twins. An Air Cam was the biggest PITA because of the Rotax prop hub design but they're all doable. It's great fun most of the time and an indispensable hangar tool. You know it's done right when you do it yourself, as with everything. Some of the shops that do balancing have very sloppy standards and figure if they get any improvement at all the aircraft owner will be satisfied. Shops often do their balances when they have time to do it rather than in the early morning when there's no breeze. You can't get consistent readings with any wind. I've followed on the heels of a number of shop balance jobs and they're typically not that great, sometimes awful, which is why someone asked me to do it over. With some planes it sometimes turns into a tedious process trying to figure out why an engine/prop won't balance and by-the-hour shops often can't take the time to track down a slightly loose spinner bulkhead or a bit of engine baffling flopping around. They'll make a little improvement and call it the job done . . . it happens. Perhaps the most difficult problem to identify is if one blade is slightly more or less AOA than the other one(s). Sometimes there's induction system problems and an engine will just run rough no matter what you do. Balancing a prop is something of an art and other than having your own balancer, at least take it to a shop that doesn't treat prop balancing like a production line process.

Whether you have the original one or the new GX2 model, Dynavibe makes a great product and as someone mentioned, customer service is phenomenal. They're in Stillwater, OK.

************

Also, there's no reason to be drilling holes in anyone's spinner. Lycomings of course have a starter ring (probably not the correct name but is what I've always called it) to attach weights and with other engines there's a variety of ways to place weight without drilling any metal. I sometimes use lead tape for fine tuning. The difference between 0.00 and 0.07 IPS (the number below which only an accelerometer can feel it) is such a tiny amount of weight. A little piece of lead tape (normally used for balancing golf clubs) is often the difference between an OK job and a perfect job.

I'd buy one and do your own balance jobs - plus you'll have a lot of new friends around the airport :wink2:

Mike
 
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