statci balance or sandbags

[Paul Engle]

Does anyone static balance their wet or dry planks before turning or do you just rely on lots of sand and bricks and etc to keep the lathe from jumping , and what sort of life are you getting out of the bearings? are you having to rebuild after the warrenty runs out?

[Mark Pruitt]

Paul, I've not tried to static balance any out of round blanks; it seems that doing so would present its own set of risks. I simply turn at a speed low enough to prevent shaking and high enough to perform the job as expediently as possible. (The need for that kind of speed control was one of my reasons for upgrading to Mustard early this year.)

[Bob Opsitos]

I don't but some do.
http://www.fholder.com/Woodturning/balancer.pdf

INstead of large mass there is also this.
http://www.fholder.com/Woodturning/Glaser%20Tunable%20Blanacer.pdf

Bob

[Reed Gray]

Like Mark said, start slow. That is one of the reasons that I like my PM, the variable speed. Turn it up until it wobbles, then back it off a bit. There are some pieces of wood that will never balance unless you start adding weights. I don't know if you could put a piece on a tire balancer, then add weights, but they would have to be removed some time during the turning, and then you are out of balance again. I did wear out one set of headstock bearings. I don't use the tailstock which would relieve some stress, and I was turning chainsawn blanks which would only balance when I got lucky. Now I have a big bandsaw, and my blanks are a lot more balanced to start with.
robo hippy

[Dennis Peacock]

Like Mark and others....that's the exact reason why I upgraded to the PM3520 lathe. I don't have to worry about it and the speed control is such that I can turn it down to a "crawl" when necessary. But, I do like Mark stated, I crank it up to just before it starts wobbling and then turn it down just a "fuzz" and turn away.