Balancing Spinning Weapons

I have never created a FBS shell that hasn't been perfectly balanced already until this year and I wanted to hear what methods y'all have used for balancing shells, drums, and bars in the past.

Were sponsored by a local speed shop that puts our drums on the same machine that they use to balance turbos on

really? that sounds promising. do you add weights or drill holes to balance it?

The slots and end caps for the aluminum drum and end caps were wire burnt, so they were perfect, while the tool steel was cut with a sawzaw and i took them to length slowly by hand with a valve grinder(ex. intake/ehaust valves in cars) and the holes were drilled and countersunk on a drill press. Suprisingly they were very well balanced off the start for basically being done by hand so we just trimed the teeth a little bit.

We have used the same 3 drums, two with regular bar teeth and then one with a little bit of a sharper tooth(for chewy aluminuminum) in well over 25 matches now i believe (they shared, i know its cute). But after all of our matches with Uknight, Executer and of course Humdinger takeing out the best chunks, we havent balanced them since and they havent been a problem at all..... wierd

Yeah like i said humdinger

Well. I have a METHOD of testing not machining lol.

We have a 1/2 inch shaft in Dethinator's shell that just attaches with a custom shaft collar attached to the shell, so I made an aluminum shaft that's about 3 inches long, put it in the lathe and put a tiny divot in the center with a tiny center drill. Then I took a piece of small round scrap steel, like it was an 1/8" wire handle or something, cut out a straight piece of it, and sharpened it (I put it in a cordless drill, and spun the drill while pressing it against a belt sander... ), stuck it in a piece of wood (2 short 2x4 pieces stacked up and screwed together onto a piece of plywood), and put the shell on it. Most of the weight of the shell is below the point, so it sits really nice and stable, and it's really obvious to see how it's tipping. We have a steel ring at the bottom of the shell, so I just added little bits of weld here and there until it was perfect. :]

of course, we all know that after a few hits, our balance is going to be thrown off a little anyways. That's why we're bringing this nifty little contraption to San Francisco.