How wheel balancing was done in the 1960´s

Hello Everyone! This video has gotten a lot of attention for the last week... Never have I gotten so many views on anything! So thank you! I read all of you comments, but there are just to many to reply to them all. I have gotten a lot of advice and observations about how I did this, And it turns out that I might have made a mistake or two. BUT! This was not meant as a guide, more like a attempt to learn how to use it. One year later I think I got it right! I have been using this machine a lot! and are not having any issues with wheel vibrations... I am planning to do another video soon.. also to compare it to a modern machine!

So analogue & so satisfying. My father was a mechanic back then. Machines like this are why at 81 years old he can explain why something isn't right and not just how to fix it. A nod to German engineering too.

I'm a 59 year old mechanical engineer. I have not seen this type of dynamic wheel balancer before. This is interesting.... A very simple and elegant way of balancing a wheel.

I'd love to see a video where you take a wheel such as this, balance it on the old machine from 1960s, then test it using modern equipment to see how well it was balanced. It absolutely blows my mind how simple yet precise this technology is. I understand a huge amount of research went into the design of this machine, I just mean simple in the same way that the mechanisms which allow a piano to work are so simple yet so complicated.

Those were the days when machines were built that lasted 60 years and will probably still work in 100 years.

I started as a mechanic in the late eights and still doing it today. I never saw something like this and it is fascinating. I always thought they just did static balancing with a bubble balancer, did not know they had a analog dynamic balancer for tires back then.

I’m 72 and I used a machine like this in my first job as a mechanic. It wasn’t identical but very similar, with a large central tapered nut to lock the wheel in place. The disc at the rear was coated with a chalk past and you then close a small transparent door with a probe. Once you had spun it both ways to record the spasm you simply read the scale on the door. You then had to work out in your head the weight to apply. It was very simple and easy to use and fairly fast once you got familiar with it.

It's honestly so incredible to see how accurate and perfect their chart is. Incredible machine!

I used to use one of those wheel balancers when I worked with my dad. It took a long time to mount each wheel to the appropriate mounting plate and ballance each wheel compared with a modern machine, but it was a beautifully made machine and a joy to use.

Back in the 60 . I had a machine like that in my repair shop, balancing a wheel could take a long time if it was out of balance a lot.

That's a really cool method of balancing a wheel and the visualization is especially interesting. The name of that shape drawn by the pencil is a "Cardioid" and the reason it's drawn out by the unbalanced wheel has some really cool reasoning in calculus and trigonometry. Sines and Cosines and all that.

For everyone wondering, the manual says something like: Wheel balancing machine Beissbarth Secure wheel, careully aligning in lug nuts. Align inner rim horn to the folded up pointer. dynamic and static balance must always be determined seperately. Dynamic balancing: accelerate wheel on switch position I fully, lay on the writing needle, turn off sqitch and let the wheel fully decelerate, accelerate wheel on switch position II. The intersection shows the direction where the weight is atteched on the outside of the wheel. The diameter of the picture shows the size of the weight needed. After attaching the weight do a control run. Arrow up on graphic: direction arrows to side on graphic: diameter Static balancing: let the wheel balance itself to it's center of gravity and mark the uppermost lightest point. rotate wheel 1/4 rotation to the right, weigh out and attach weights accordingly to the inside of the wheel. Beissbarth Factory for modern shop equipment Munich 5 apologees for my translation skills

You can convert the pencil and paper, on these machines, with a steel pointer/scribe and a hard rubber/plastic disk. Then you just coat the rubber with damp chalk. Makes the same pattern but much less hassle. You can always convert it back if you want.

Looking at the graph, it's incredible how out of balance older tyres used to be. Likewise, the size of the disk implies huge vibrations!

I've been a tire tech for the last 10 years and I've found myself wondering from time to time how tires were balanced years ago before computerized road force balancers. This is awesome!

Mechanical engineering student here. And this machine and other old gems are what made me choose to study engineering. My grandfather had one in his repair shop. And it always fascinated the 12 years old me and still does

Just an idea: If you scan the graph I could give you a formula to calculate the values you need in a more or less simple formula. Or re-make the graph from scratch. Would be a bit of work but could be fun.

That is such an awesome machine, like nothing I've seen before! Thank you so much for sharing this gem with us!

Hi, I'm a 68 year old balanced wheel and I used to be a mechanical engineering mechanic back in the days before modern times. It's so nice to see fellow wheels spinning around in circles all balanced based on experimental mathmatics.

This was a fascinating video. I really enjoyed seeing how this balancer worked. I was wondering how the dynamic balance would be done especially with a piece of paper and a pencil lead.