However, last year I stumbled across a really great idea for a portable (you can put it in your under-seat tool tray) “Pocket Wheel Balancer” in an article written by Brian Curry on the IBMWR website. In brief, his balancer does away with the heavy, bulky balancing stand by mounting the balancing rollers on two little metal plates which are then hung from any convenient over-head support. The wheel and axle are placed on the suspended balancing rollers and balancing then proceeds as with a normal stand balancer.
Brian’s article is found at: www.ibmwr.org/otech/balancer.html and he deserves the credit for this very excellent idea.
My contribution to his original concept is to use readily-available materials — primarily ABEC3 skateboard bearings — and standard hand-tools for construction. A couple of hours worth of time in the work shop gets you a tiny, go-anywhere, use-anywhere, extremely sensitive (it will react to the weight of a 1/4-20 nut placed on the spoke of a snowflake wheel), static wheel balancer that only costs about $10.
Materials List
4 ABEC3 skateboard bearings
4 machine bolts, 8mm X 20mm (or 5/16″ X 3/4″), with nylock nuts and washers
2 machine screws, 4mm X 20mm (or 1/8″ X 3/4″) with a standard and nylock nut for each screw
8 inches of 2″ wide by 1/8″ thick aluminum bar stock
20 feet of nylon twine
Suggested Tools
hacksaw
electric drill with 4mm (or 1/8″), 8mm (or 5/16″) drill bits and 1-1/4″ hole saw
small steel square/rule
vernier/dial calipers (if you don’t have one, as an AirHead, you really ought to add one to your tool collection — you’ll find yourself using it all the time)
small file (or fine sandpaper, emery paper, etc.)
sharp scribe and center-punch — or just use a good-sized common nail
Building the Balancer
If you don’t have some laying around your garage, go to the local hardware store and get a short piece of the aluminum bar stock that is 2″ wide, about an 1/8″ thick and comes in standard lengths like 3′ or 4′ (you know the place in the store – usually has various sizes of aluminum and mild steel angle, straight, and channel stock in various sizes standing upright in slots at the end of an aisle). I got the three-foot length – it is enough to make 5 sets of balancers.
The center hole on skate board bearings is 8mm (or 5/16″). Get four 8mm (or 5/16″) bolts just long enough to go through the thickness of the plate, a bearing, an 8mm (or 5/16″) flat washer and a 8mm (or 5/16″) nylock nut (I used 8mmX20mm bolts, but 5/16″X3/4″ should work fine — 4 bolts, washers, and nuts total).
