Balancing a Hatari Fan Blade - Possible?

[Daffy D]

While cleaning one of the Hatari fans I noticed one of the blades was cracked near the base where it joins the hub. No problem I thought I have a couple of spare blades for just such a situation.

 

Unfortunately when I started the fan with the new blade it started to vibrate like crazy obviously a unbalanced blade

 

No worries, I got another one but that was just the same.

 

These were not Hatari replacement blades, just some no-name ones bought some time ago.

 

Is it possible to get genuine Balanced Hatari fan blades?

 

Point of this post, instead of throwing away a couple of unused blades would it possible to balance them ????

 

I can't think of a simple way of doing this but there are some creative imaginative minds here so maybe someone has a way this can be done.

 

Cheers   

 

[tonray]

Are the blades part of one integral piece or is this some type of older fan with separate blades ?

 

[Kwasaki]

Take off a original blade and get your replacement blade to the same weight.

[mogandave]

If you're sure it fits correctly and the shaft is not bent:

First check to see if there is a piece of plastic from the mold process that was not trimmed. If so, trim it.

Drill a small hole on the tip of each blade. Put a small screw in one blade at a time until you see some improvement. Increase and decrease the size and or number of screws until it runs true.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[anto]

Amorn Electric (shops all over Thailand ) have fan blades for every make .Around B80 .

[Daffy D]

4 hours ago, tonray said:

Are the blades part of one integral piece or is this some type of older fan with separate blades ?

 

It's just a regular 16" wall fan

 

4 hours ago, mogandave said:

If you're sure it fits correctly and the shaft is not bent:

First check to see if there is a piece of plastic from the mold process that was not trimmed. If so, trim it.

Drill a small hole on the tip of each blade. Put a small screw in one blade at a time until you see some improvement. Increase and decrease the size and or number of screws until it runs true.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Shaft is good, no vibration with the old blades. No excess plastic bits, checked for that.

Like the screw idea, would take some time and patience  but sound like a plan that might work  

 

1 hour ago, anto said:

Amorn Electric (shops all over Thailand ) have fan blades for every make .Around B80 .

I know I could buy more blades but would they be made by Hatari or just cheap copies for Hatari ?

A new Amorn has opened near here recently so may well go and have a look.

 

[mogandave]

You can try the heavy duty paper clips first...but you have to be careful.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Daffy D]

3 minutes ago, mogandave said:

You can try the heavy duty paper clips first...but you have to be careful.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

Good thinking Batman.

 

Vibrations start with the slowest speeds so a paperclip stuck on with sticky tape at slow speed should not be too much of a hazard to start with

[anto]

32 minutes ago, Daffy D said:

It's just a regular 16" wall fan

 

Shaft is good, no vibration with the old blades. No excess plastic bits, checked for that.

Like the screw idea, would take some time and patience  but sound like a plan that might work  

 

I know I could buy more blades but would they be made by Hatari or just cheap copies for Hatari ?

A new Amorn has opened near here recently so may well go and have a look.

 

Amorn blades worked fine for me .Blades are manufactured balanced .You may have a problem with the fan itself .

[Thongkorn]

There are two different fittings to the blade, have you the right one, take the blade to the shop 

[Craig krup]

I think duct tape in little bits is the only thing that you can move around, and it'll stay in place despite the rotation. But it's a hell of speed, so if you fix it you'll just have chanced on the solution. 

[maxpower]

2 hours ago, Craig krup said:

I think duct tape in little bits is the only thing that you can move around, and it'll stay in place despite the rotation. But it's a hell of speed, so if you fix it you'll just have chanced on the solution. 

Daffy duck tape

 

[Genghis Khant]

What joy to be an x pat person!!
You'll be asking for help with crosswords next. Life must be very full on and challenging in Thailand lol[emoji23][emoji23]


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[NanLaew]

All sizes of Hatari blades at the domestic appliance department of larger Big C branches.

[impulse]

This is one of those deals where I'm sure it's possible, but I'm not sure it's a good idea, especially if replacement blades cost 80 baht.  You can spend $50 on tools and tapes, and hours and hours balancing a fan blade, only to find out that it wasn't a problem with the blade.  

 

And even if it was, is the aggravation worth 80 baht?   Worst case scenario- you spend 80 baht, the results are the same as the other new blades and you take it back. (Though I'd be more inclined to bin it because it was my bad...)

 

 

[thaibeachlovers]

Well done not wanting to spend money when you have an operating fan. I'd do that too.

First thing is to try the "new" blade on a different fan to see if it is the blade and not the fan.

If it is the blade, mark the lowest blade at rest with a marker pen. Rotate blade by hand and let come to rest. If the same blade always rests lowest, file a tiny bit off the tip and try again. Keep going till it doesn't always rest lowest.

If it doesn't work, you have lost nothing.

[Daffy D]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Well done not wanting to spend money when you have an operating fan. I'd do that too.

First thing is to try the "new" blade on a different fan to see if it is the blade and not the fan.

If it is the blade, mark the lowest blade at rest with a marker pen. Rotate blade by hand and let come to rest. If the same blade always rests lowest, file a tiny bit off the tip and try again. Keep going till it doesn't always rest lowest.

If it doesn't work, you have lost nothing.

Not withstanding any major or minor disasters nor any unexpected distractions, exactly what I have planned for tomorrow after the kid are off to school.

 

We'll see how it goes. 

 

[tso310]

I clean the blades regularly. Being in a semi-rural environment they do pick up a lot of dust which can cause blade oscilations.

[joeyg]

On 8/26/2017 at 6:36 PM, Daffy D said:

Good thinking Batman.

 

Vibrations start with the slowest speeds so a paperclip stuck on with sticky tape at slow speed should not be too much of a hazard to start with

I just keep sticking chewing gum on until it smooths out...

 

[mogandave]

Balancing a blade is a lot like changing the oil in your car, or even washing the car for that matter. If you don't get some level of pleasure out of it, it's likely not something you want to try.




Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Daffy D]

Well, that was an interesting exercise.

 

First I tried a fanblade from one of the of the other fans and on the shaky fan. That worked fine without any vibrations. Then just to be sure I put the shaky blade on the other fan and that then vibrated like crazy.

 

Obviously the new blade was the problem and not the motor or shaft.

 

 I then put the shakey blade on the fan and spun it with my fingers to see if it would always stop in the same place with the heaviest blade at the bottom. No such luck. The blade assembly was too light to overcome the friction of the motor, and though it spun freely always stopped at random place.

 

To give the the blades some weight and hopefully overcome the drag of the motor I taped 4 small washers on the tip of each blade. Spinning the blade with the additional weight did help and showed one blade always finished at or near the bottom.

 

I then started taping washers, one at a time onto the inside of the hub of the blade assembly. At the back of the hub where it slides onto the shaft is a  lot of space to stick weights and as they are inside the hub no danger of flying off at a later date.

 

By this time I was beginning to realize that it's practically impossible to balance one of these blades without proper equipment so after adding about 4 washers thought it was good enough till I can get into town to buy a proper blade replacement.

 

Did manage to reduce the vibration with the washers, and now the fan instead of trying to shake it's self off the wall just kind off hangs there and shivers.

 

Decided against drilling holes with screws, these plastic blades do tend to crack up sometimes and what better place for a crack to start than a nice screw hole.

 

Also decided against shaving bits off any blade as this could effect the aerodynamics and complicate the vibration problem.

 

 An interesting morning but don't think I'll try it again.

 

Now for the T-Shirt

[Craig krup]

2 minutes ago, Daffy D said:

Well, that was an interesting exercise.

 

That's probably how Barnes Wallis started. 

 

Too late now, but I was thinking, the weight much up the ampage and burn out the motor. 

[Daffy D]

17 minutes ago, Craig krup said:

That's probably how Barnes Wallis started. 

Erm! Not sure about Barns Wallis

 

Think more sort of Frank Whittle

[nisakiman]

What I did when I had this problem with a fan was to cut a couple of thin strips (5mm wide, about) of some aluminium sheet I had (about 1mm thick) and cut those into pieces about 15 - 20 mm long. I then folded those small strips in half, and started crimping them with a pair of pliers to the webs at the back of the blade hub. It was trial and error, but I guess it didn't take much more than half an hour of jiggling around to get the blade balanced, including all the removing and replacing the blade each time.

 

I quite enjoy little challenges like that. I must be getting old.

[mogandave]

The weight has more effect the further away from the hub it is mounted.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Daffy D]

3 hours ago, mogandave said:

The weight has more effect the further away from the hub it is mounted

True but also more chance of it flying off due to centrifugal force.

 

Placing weights inside the hub or as near the hub as "nisakiman" says is safer, alright you need more weight but definitely safer.

 

 

[joeyg]

14 hours ago, Daffy D said:

Well, that was an interesting exercise.

 

First I tried a fanblade from one of the of the other fans and on the shaky fan. That worked fine without any vibrations. Then just to be sure I put the shaky blade on the other fan and that then vibrated like crazy.

 

Obviously the new blade was the problem and not the motor or shaft.

 

 I then put the shakey blade on the fan and spun it with my fingers to see if it would always stop in the same place with the heaviest blade at the bottom. No such luck. The blade assembly was too light to overcome the friction of the motor, and though it spun freely always stopped at random place.

 

To give the the blades some weight and hopefully overcome the drag of the motor I taped 4 small washers on the tip of each blade. Spinning the blade with the additional weight did help and showed one blade always finished at or near the bottom.

 

I then started taping washers, one at a time onto the inside of the hub of the blade assembly. At the back of the hub where it slides onto the shaft is a  lot of space to stick weights and as they are inside the hub no danger of flying off at a later date.

 

By this time I was beginning to realize that it's practically impossible to balance one of these blades without proper equipment so after adding about 4 washers thought it was good enough till I can get into town to buy a proper blade replacement.

 

Did manage to reduce the vibration with the washers, and now the fan instead of trying to shake it's self off the wall just kind off hangs there and shivers.

 

Decided against drilling holes with screws, these plastic blades do tend to crack up sometimes and what better place for a crack to start than a nice screw hole.

 

Also decided against shaving bits off any blade as this could effect the aerodynamics and complicate the vibration problem.

 

 An interesting morning but don't think I'll try it again.

 

Now for the T-Shirt

Chew more gum... 

[pieeyed]

Buy a new blade from Tesco or Big C and see if that fixes the problem.

[joeyg]

Just now, pieeyed said:

Buy a new blade from Tesco or Big C and see if that fixes the problem.

[JaiLai]

I'm amazed that someone would go to these lengths and not just buy a new fan but to each there own.

 

It would do my nut in try f**king about trying to balance it....(whilst getting hot).