Balanced flywheel in N scale

[Nelson]

I was quite surprised when opening up an E-R models RF-16 to see that the flywheels have been balanced (you can see the drilled spots).



It is very effective. I removed the motor and held it in my fingers and powered it up and you can barely feel it running.

[Chris333]

Don't think I have ever seen that on a model.

[SquirrelHollow]

I really hope the motor was balanced as an assembly.  Balancing the flywheels individually is a huge step forward, but having the assembly balanced would be amazing.

Being a helicopter mechanic, I deal with vibrations and vibration troubleshooting a lot.
I'm actually surprised we haven't seen this before in our hobby.
With today's technology, this whole process could take no more than 30 seconds per motor. 
And with every day that goes by.... prices are falling on the hardware, data collection, and archiving software and devices.

[brokemoto]

I suspect that Kato balances the flywheels in its power.

I seem to recall reading that Atlas had them balanced in its power, also.

One locomotive that had a flywheel that was way out of balance was the C-C hudson; you can see it wobble as the locomotive runs.  I put the flywheels in mine, because I found that it made a major difference in the pulling power. Still, I am sure that the wobbling wreaks havoc with the motor bearings and the coupling tubes.  I bought a few extra motors for mine, some time back.

[atsf_arizona]

How would one of us hobbyists, balance a flywheel on a existing mechanism?  Or determine that it is needed?   

Thx for any thoughts on this.

[SquirrelHollow]

I've been thinking about this for a few days.  Sorry for not responding sooner, but I really haven't come up with any ideas for the average modeller.  (or even the modeller that owns a machine shop, for that matter)
I've been focusing on dual flywheels mostly, but if I can find a suitable donor in my collection....
I'll try a couple techniques on a single flywheel loco.  If anything works reliably, I'll repost here.

[atsf_arizona]

Squirrelhollow, thx for your previous thoughts.

I'm just bumping this thread back up, wondering if anyone else has any new ideas, or any
ideas on how Bachmann was able to determine where and how much to drill the above balance
holes.   

I've come across a slight vibration problem in the motor of one my Kato C44-9Ws...... but slight enough to cause the infamous Kato "sounds like a turbine whine" mechanism noise problem.  Would be nice if I could try to balance it. 

Thx.

BTW, in researching my vibration problem, came across the following two internet articles that
describe the vibration balance problem....  enjoy.


http://www.reliabilityweb.com/art07/machine_vibration_described.htm

- the above article describes how vibration is measured

http://www.reliabilityweb.com/articles/UNDERSTANDING_THE_BASICS_OF_BALANCING.pdf

- the above article describes how vibration removed by balancing

[Walkercolt]

Maybe the balanced flywheels is why the E-R/ Bachmann Sharks pull so well for their light weight. By their weight, they should pull no better than the original Atlas RS-3's, if not like the RS-1's, at best, but an A-B lash-up of the Sharks will pull over 60 MT ice reefers with no problem. We ran out of room on the store layout before they were "maxed out". Maybe Kader(the manufacteror) is on to something here. ???