FINE BALANCING
When you are balancing a crankshaft and you need to add a small about of metal in a spot where there is no hole, I use what I call “pixie dust”. Pixie dust is tungsten shavings that I’ve saved from machining slugs to size in the past. Drill a hole approximately twice the depth/weight of what you need to add. Now re-spin the crank. Then weigh and add the tungsten shavings Finally, melt them with the TIG torch and blend in filler rod to bond it back to the crank. I’ve even done it with a MIG welder. The key is to add enough tungsten initially to make up most of the weight you’ve removed. The welding rod will be your added weight. You should have a little extra to fine tune out. This can also be done with nickel rod and a stick welder, but the gain is only something like 10% versus over 100% with tungsten.
Ron Flood
Cedar Machine
March, 2018
