I was thinking of making/shortening a driveshaft. I have access to a lathe and am not too worried about making it but I am curious about balancing it. I may be able to get my hands on a vibrobalancer which measures the vibration and calculates weights to be added and at what location relative to a point on the circumference of the object. I did a search but didn't find anything. Any instructions on how to make the shafts as well as how do to balance them?

Kevin

Front or right shaft? If it's front don't worry worry about balancing it. :D

I want to know how to build both front and RIGHT.:flipoff2: I know the front shouldn't spin at the higher speeds that the rear does and therefore isn't as critical for the balancing but I would like to know how to do it right for the next time I have to drive home on front wheel drive only.

Originally posted by pigpen62
I want to know how to build both front and RIGHT.:flipoff2: I know the front shouldn't spin at the higher speeds that the rear does and therefore isn't as critical for the balancing but I would like to know how to do it right for the next time I have to drive home on front wheel drive only.

BAHAHA Good point. Make the shaft and have a shop balance it? It shouldn't cost to much that way.

:D Always a possibility but I only want to do that if I can't do it. Anybody balance their own shafts? How do you do it? I think I can do it with the balancer I mentioned above but obviously I haven't tried it yet.

I just recently started making all of my shafts. I don't have access to a lathe so I use a pipe cutter to cut the tubing, press the ends in and weld. I have done like three now and they don't vibrate. It has probably saved me $200-$300 doing them myself. It sounds pretty crude but it has worked for me.

Good to know.. Anybody else?

On our in-house driveshaft building with the 1/4" wall tube, we build the shafts, then send 'em out to a local big-truck driveline place to balance. If they're front shafts, or on a shop project truck, no need to balance; if they're customers' stuff, they get balanced.

I've curious about the balancer widget you've got access to... what's it supposed to be for? (what industry?) Sounds like a driveshaft balancer, so if I were you, I'd build it, then chuck it in the vibro machine and do what the machine says to do.

I have seen it used in the semiconductor industry for balancing spindles for Wafer Grinding Systems. It has a vibration sensor that is mounted to the system ( I was thinking I could mount it to the lathe and chuck the full shaft and have hard mounts to the lathe with u-joints with the shaft inbetween the joints.) it monitors the differences in vibration and tells you where to add weight relative to a position. I think it would work but it isn't designed for this application.

My bud builds shafts for a living (20yrs.) and very seldom balances them, he is extremely careful that they are true as he can get them, but he says balance isn't as important as the guys selling the service (driveshaft balancing) make it out to be. He should know.

read this

http://www.ottindustries.com/Driveshaft_fun.html