Balancing Armatures?

[USNRol]

I seriously doubt if you could tell any difference in the vibration levels in the motor.  Any weight imbalance in the armature will not have much effect because the moment arm is so short.  Additionally, the motor RPM is not high enough to make a small imbalance noticeable. 

Earl

Agree...and also any imbalances are likely to very insignificant relative to the total mass of the motor. 

Roland

[3railguy]

I think the weight of O gauge engines along with the mass in the power truck or frame in the case of steam abosorbs any vibration. Plus like others say, we generally don't run our trains at 200 smph. I can see where balancing would save wear on bronze sleeve motor bearings such as those used in spur gear motors.

[dsmith]

I used to race 1/24th scale slotcars and regularly had the armatures balanced and the commutators trued.  Also, the magnets were shimmed to get the stationary magnetic field as close to the amature as possible.  This was important for racing engines that run at incredilbly high speed.  For model trains though, they run at slow speeds even when they are going fast.  I have no practical experience but I would really doubt that there would be any detectable difference if model train engine armatures were balanced.  However it might be possible for a model train engine motor to run a little more smoothly if commutators were trued on a lathe with a diamond cutter.  This would allow the brushes to make more consistent contact with the commutator.  This is also a guess on my part.  And getting the stationary magnetic field closer to the armature seems impossible to me.  I just love postwar engines for what they are.....a good running and very repairable old technology.

[LS1Heli]

I agree. Plus how can a postwar engine get any smoother?

[ChiefEagles]

[EIS2]

I seriously doubt if you could tell any difference in the vibration levels in the motor.  Any weight imbalance in the armature will not have much effect because the moment arm is so short.  Additionally, the motor RPM is not high enough to make a small imbalance noticeable. 

Earl

[choochin3]

Hi Guys,

A friend of mine races HO scale slot cars,and he has his motor armatures balanced.

Have any of you tried this on say a postwar steam engine?

I was thinking of trying to do this on some of my older engines.

Maybe I'll get smoother operation with this.

 

Carl T.