DIY balancer repair

In detail: do-it-yourself balancer repair from a real master for the site my.housecope.com.

Yesterday I decided to look at the balances .. several tailless ones had already accumulated and it was necessary to return them to the ranks.
A material like polycarbonate, which is what greenhouses are fashionable now.

1. Cut the squares from the material

2. Then bend the square in half.

3. We give it the shape of the future tail.

4. Make an incision in the front of the tail as long as the tail will sit exactly on the balance body.

5. Then, with small side cutters, we already make a notch for the balance body.

well and then glue the tail into the body of the balance with a second glue, I usually use a monolith. But usually I put several layers.

Well, here the tails are already on the balances.

I use such a repair due to the fact that it's easier to do it))), of course, you can get confused with some other glue, but it's kind of simple ... quickly cut, glued, several layers and it's almost done)) As if it's done, but balances will have to be looked at in the water)) And it is possible to bend the tail or cut it)) In short, adjust.

Perhaps someone doubts the strength of the glue ... but here is a photo of the balance that I caught on the last fishing trip

It shows traces of pike teeth ... marks from the inside.

There is also one more report on fishing on the balance after repair)))

And I do not cut out a piece, but bend it inward and then put it on a hook. A little more fiddling, but even if the glue is chipped, the tail will not be lost

Thank you for your comment and good advice. Yes, indeed, if you fasten it on a hook, it will be stronger, and it will probably also be possible to restore the tail right on the fishing trip, if you need to return the balance to the system on this particular fishing trip))) I somehow did not think about it at all)))

Video (click to play).

Here you will find fishing reports, videos and information on a wide variety of inexpensive lures, as well as reviews of orders from Aliexpress.

Rivers and Lakes 2012
Video dedicated to fishing on rivers, lakes and the river. Dnieper

Winter 2012-2013
Video about winter fishing. Fishing for pike with balances and perch with boldo.

2013
Video about fishing in all reservoirs. There was not a lot of material, so everything was included here and fishing on the DWH and on rivers with lakes.

Ice shackles
Video named in honor of the first attempts to catch zander in winter))) Operation "zander": ice shackles. This video includes all winter fishing trips from 2013-2014.

Spinningshok 2014
a short video about fishing in the 2014 open water season.

The Lead Killers Awakening
Fishing video in winter 2014-2015

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2015 Open Water Fishing Video

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Season # 16
This video contains photos and videos from open water fishing trips in 2016.

White mist
Another winter season is closed, flying by in a flash. This video contains materials from fishing trips in the winter 2016-2017.

Often, winter fishing anglers are faced with such a problem when a catchy, and therefore a favorite bait - a balancer, unexpectedly fails. The most fragile place of this bait is the plastic stabilizer tail; its failure is the most frequent breakdown of this bait.

You can repair the balancer right next to the hole

Going on vacation to Russian resorts, near the city Sochi, we advise you to book a room in the all-season hotel Gala Plaza Krasnaya Polyana. This hotel is located in the most picturesque corner at the very foot of the Aibga mountains, Achishkho, nearby the mountain river Mzymta carries its waters, which flows from the foothills of the Caucasus and flows into the Black Sea. There is unmatched fishing and recreation at any time of the year.The hotel has a developed infrastructure and the highest level of service.

Balancer stabilizer can easily fall off at the most unexpected moment, which often happens with cheap fakes. If this trouble happened not in the hole, then repairing the balancer will not be difficult - you can glue the tail in place using good quality waterproof glue.

But often, the balance beam loses its tail directly in the water, not withstanding the pressure of the predator's jaws. What to do in a situation like this and how to repair balancer? It is a pity to throw away the broken bait, especially if it is a branded expensive balancer. Of course, you can try fishing on a balancer without a tail, but the bait will change its game, so it will not be as catchy as before. The Hunting and Fishing website offers readers an interesting and not too complicated balancer repair method.

To repair the balancer you need:

a piece of heat-shrinkable tube, which, when heated with hot air or over an open fire up to 130 ° -200 ° C, will shrink up to three times in diameter;
open fire (a simple lighter will do);
file.

Before you start repairing a broken rocker, you should remove all remnants of the stabilizer from plastic and any paint or glue smudges in the tail area. Then, on the body of the balancer, 5-7 mm from the end from the tail, we saw through a thin annular groove. This is optional, but highly recommendatory if time permits.

Then you need to pick up and attach the tube. When choosing a heat-shrinkable tube in order to repair the balancer, one must not forget that during heating, the tube will decrease not only in diameter, but also become shorter, and the thickness of the walls will increase. For example, to repair the tail of a balancer, which is 5 cm long, a tube with an 8 mm diameter and a length of about 35-40 mm will fit (Fig. 1-1). The tube should not only fit snugly on the balancer, but also provide the required tail width.

Having found a tube with the required parameters, you need to put the bait's tail hook inside and push the balancer body by 7-8 mm. (Fig. 1-2), and then pierce the wall of the tube with a hook, bringing it out (Fig. 1-3).

The next step - the most important - is the shrinkage of the tube.

One must manage not to set fire to the pipe over the flame from the lighter. First, we heat the part of the tube that is worn on the bait. To do this, hold the balancer by the front hook and rotate it over the flame around its axis, then the shrinkage will be uniform (Fig. 2-4). Then, after the tube has tightly wrapped around the body of the balancer, it is necessary to heat the part of the tube that is put on the shank of the hook in order to also settle it a little (Fig. 2-5). Now it remains to form the tail of the balancer.

This can be done in one of two ways:

We slightly heat the remaining part of the tube, not seated on the balancer, and flatten it in the horizontal plane with our fingers, forming it slightly concave at the bottom. After the tube has cooled down, you need to cut off all excess with scissors, giving the required shape to the stabilizer (Fig. 2-6, 7).

to get the tail of the required shape and size, you can, following the sediment of the tube on the forend of the hook, insert a small wedge inside the tube, which is cut out of a plastic bottle or tin can made of aluminum (Fig. 3-8). When the tail of the balancer with aluminum insert has cooled, it can be bent as required.

Balancer repair using a heat-shrinkable tube will do without any costs and fixtures. It can be carried out directly near the hole. The refurbished balancer is in no way inferior to branded lures with a whole stabilizer tail.

The most common "sore" is the wear of the balancer bushings! The second problem is the wear of the cheeks under the spring. The permissible clearance between the axle and the balancer bushings according to the manufacturer's passport is 1 mm.In fact, with such a gap, the bushing is subjected to enormous loads, especially when turning.

There are 4 types of bushings made of different materials: bronze bushings, aluminum with zinc, just aluminum and plastic! We use alloy bushings: aluminum with zinc, bronze, I'll tell you why! If the axle of the balancer is in normal condition, that is, its cylindrical wear is 0.1 - 0.2 mm, then you can safely use bushings with zinc, they are strong enough and one and a half times cheaper than bronze ones, but they are quite fragile, on worn axles they break off " collar ”. If the axle is worn more than 0.2 mm, it is advisable to use bronze bushings, since bronze is more viscous than zinc and holds heavy loads, especially, I will repeat it again when turning! We do not use aluminum and plastic bushings for the reason that, with today's overloads of machines, they simply do not withstand the loads and after 2 years of operation they simply interrupt, at least on grain carriers.

We practice working on the axle on the spot, without removing the axle itself from the machine. Take a loop of a machine, a liqueur ruler or just a square, a micrometer and having a certain skill and practice, the axis is aligned in cylindricality within up to 87.5 mm. Thus, the life of this axis is extended. In another case, the axle is removed from the machine, installed on a cylindrical grinder and the necks are ground under the bushings, the recommended size, depending on wear, is minimum up to 86 mm. Then the repair bushings are pressed into the shoe and bored to the axle size, the bushings are ordered specifically for repair. In this case, the cementation is completely gone, the axis becomes “wet”, but the cylindricality is restored. It is recommended to install such axles on dump trucks where the axle load is less than on grain trucks!

The third method is surfacing, grooving and axle grinding. We made a dozen of such axes and abandoned this method. Every second axle broke, during surfacing, the structure of the metal changes and the axle, not withstanding the previous loads, breaks.

This is, in short, everything I wanted to tell you about replacing the balancer bushings. Goodbye everyone, watch our blog on Youtube

Far Eastern Fishing Forum

Message Konstantin »27 Feb 2011, 20:43

Message hitocu »Feb 27, 2011 9:46 pm

Message Konstantin "Feb 27, 2011, 21:52 pm

Message Kostya "05 Dec 2011, 20:47

Message Kostya »05 Dec 2011, 20:51

Message MATROSKIN "11 Dec 2011, 20:17

Message agan 11 Dec 2011, 21:05

Message Konstantin »11 Jan 2012, 22:40

I experimented with replacing hooks with one balancer, even, it seems, the same company:. 8 & start = 15

Soldered. You can see what happened. But it was possible to remove the coating from them neatly, and then glue it in place.

Message wife »23 Jan 2015, 23:25

Message Konstantin »23 Jan 2015, 23:31

Balance bar bush wear is the most common "ailment". The second problem is the wear of the cheeks under the spring. A gap is allowed between the bushings and the axis of the balancer (according to the manufacturer's passport - about 1 millimeter). With this clearance, in fact, heavy loads are applied to the hub, especially when turning.

There are four types of bushings in different materials: aluminum with zinc, bronze bushings, ordinary plastic and aluminum. In our company, bushings made of bronze and an aluminum-zinc alloy are more often used.

The point is that the balance bar axis is in a normal state, i.e. in terms of cylindricality, its wear is 0.1-0.2 millimeters, in this case bushings with zinc, which are quite strong and one and a half times cheaper than bronze ones, are ideal, but they are rather fragile (a "collar" breaks off on them on worn axles).

When the axle is worn out by more than 0.2 millimeters, it is recommended to use bronze bushings during the overhaul of KAMAZ, because bronze is more viscous than zinc and is able to withstand heavy loads, especially when cornering.Plastic and aluminum bushings are not used, because the parts do not withstand loads and after two years of operation interrupts them.

You should talk about bushing boring and clearances. First of all, it is necessary to correctly select the bushings in size, or rather, in terms of the inner and outer diameters.

For tight fitting of the bushing into the balancer, it must have an outer diameter of 100.2-100.3 millimeters; on bronze bushings, a size of up to 100.5 millimeters is allowed. The bushing must have an inner diameter of 0.5-1 mm less than the nominal value for high-quality boring of the balance bar with bushings.

Boring the bushings on a lathe and further pressing will not give the desired result, because the balancer quite often has a tapered and ellipsoidal seat, the outer diameter of the bushing also has an allowance of 0.2-0.3 millimeters, therefore, after pressing the bushings with 2- x sides, the alignment between them will not be ideal, the inner size of the bushing will repeat all the errors of the balance bar, and as a result, it will be almost impossible to fit along the diameter of the axis. That is why the bushings are pressed into the balancer, installed on the boring machine, then two bushings are calculated simultaneously from the 1st installation.

The bushings must have a calculated diameter 0.05-0.08 millimeters larger than the balance bar axis. If the standard axle has a diameter of 88, then the seat in the balance bar will have a size of 88.05-88.08. The smaller the clearance between the bushings and the axle, the longer it will take for it to wear to critical dimensions.

With every tenth millimeter of the bushing wear, the wear rate increases dramatically, because due to the clearance, the balance bar can swing in different planes, wearing out the axle and bushings. Therefore, the practice of our company allows us to say that before replacing the balancer bushings, the maximum clearance should be no more than 0.5 mm.

You should also touch on the topic of wear on the balance beam axis. The technological procedure for the manufacture of the axles of the balancer is rather complicated and can be carried out only in the factory. The difficulty lies in the fact that this is not just turning grinding, processing the ends for shoes and pressing into brackets, but also heat treatment of areas for bushings.

The ideal situation was in Soviet times, when the places for the bushings were hardened, cemented and ground. The bushing spaces have a Rockwell hardness of 62-64 HRc, which is equal to the hardness of a file. The balancer bush is a softer material and is a replaceable element. Due to the fact that in the old shoes the bushings were lubricated with a “hoist”, which was poured inside, good sliding was ensured, the hardness of the axles did not allow the bushing material to rivet on it.

With the timely replacement of the shoe sleeve and the non-lubrication of the oil, the axle could serve up to 30 years, with less wear (up to 0.2 millimeters). In modern conditions, without a loss of production culture and without quality control, the reliability of spare parts cannot withstand criticism, so it is not surprising that the axles of the balancer are not thermally processed on new trucks, on which axle wear in 2 years is up to 1 millimeter.

In such shoes, lubrication is provided only through grease fittings, there are no oil seals. Therefore, when moisture gets into the shoe and is not pumped out in time, rust and dirt accumulate in the bushings, which affects the axle wear, like emery. In addition, during our reloading of vehicles, especially grain carriers loaded as railway wagons, the plastic bushings break the axle, reaching the body of the shoe.

Basically, the axis of the balancer is produced in a barrel-shaped manner and from below, however, the part of it, where there is no contact with the bushings, does not wear out (this is a gap of 20 millimeters, where the bushings have a distance between themselves in the shoe). Therefore, even when the axle is worn, the size of the shoe bushings during replacement must be standard, otherwise they will not be able to sit in their place.

In our company, it is practiced to work on the axle on the spot without removing it from the car. When performing overhaul of a KAMAZ internal combustion engine, a grinder, a square, a curved ruler or a micrometer are used and the axis is aligned within 87.5 millimeters in cylindricality. This extends the life of the axis.

Another option involves removing the axle from the car, installing it on a cylindrical grinding machine, grinding the neck to fit the bushings. The recommended size, depending on wear, is up to 86 millimeters. Repair bushings are pressed into the shoe and bored along the axis size, bushings for repair are ordered.

In this case, the cementing leaves, the axis becomes "wet", however, it is restored to cylindricality. Such axles are recommended for installation on dump trucks, where axle loads are less than those of grain carriers.

The third method involves grooving, surfacing and grinding the axle. The craftsmen of our company made a large number of such axes and turned out to be from this method. Many axles break, during surfacing the structure of the metal changes and the axle does not withstand loads.

Very often, winter fishermen have to face such a problem when their favorite and catchy bait, the balancer, suddenly fails. The most fragile part of the balancers is the plastic stabilizer tail. And it is the failure of such a tail that is the most frequent breakdown of the balancer.

The balancer stabilizer can simply fall off at the most inopportune moment, which is often the case with cheap fakes. And if this did not happen in the hole, then repairing the balancer will not be difficult. To do this, you can simply glue it in place with good waterproof glue and the bait is restored.

But quite often it happens that the balancer loses its tail right in the water, unable to withstand the pressure of the pike's jaws. In this situation, the question becomes.

What to do and how to repair the balancer? It is a pity to throw away the damaged balancer, especially if it is an expensive branded balancer. You can, of course, try to fish on a tailless balancer, there are even some models that are already produced without a tail. But at the same time, the balancer will lose its game and become less catchy. A very interesting and rather simple way to repair the balancer was suggested by the Muscovite A. Guskov in the fishing newspaper Rybak Rybaka No. 9 2008.

Balancer repair and restoration.

To repair the balancer you will need: a piece of a heat-shrinkable tube, which, when heated with hot air or an open flame to 120 ° -180 ° C, shrinks up to three times in diameter; file; open fire (regular lighter).

When starting to repair the balancer, it is necessary to remove from the balancer the remains of the plastic stabilizer and the accumulation of glue and paint in the tail section. Then, on the body of the balancer 5-7 mm. from the tail end, saw through a shallow annular groove. This operation is not necessary, but if you have time, it is better to do it.

The next stage of the balancer repair is the selection and fitting of the tube.

When choosing a heat-shrinkable tube for repairing the balancer, it should be remembered that when heated, the tube decreases not only in diameter, but also shortens in length and increases the thickness of the walls. For example, an 8mm tube will work to repair the tail of a 5cm balancer. and 35-40 mm long (see photo 1)... The diameter of the tube should provide, in addition to a tight fit on the body of the balancer, also a sufficient width of the tail.

Having picked up the necessary tube, it is necessary to put the tail hook of the balance bar into it and push it onto the bait body by 7-8 mm. (photo 2) and pierce the wall of the tube with a hook and bring it out (photo 3).

Next comes the most crucial stage of balancer repair - tube shrinkage.

The main thing here is not to set fire to the pipe on the flame of the lighter. First, the part of the tube that is put on the bait is heated. To do this, hold the balancer by the front hook, turn it over the flame around the axis so that the shrinkage is uniform. (photo 4)... After the tube has tightly wrapped around the body of the bait, we heat part of the tube on the forend of the hook in order to also slightly restrain it (photo 5)... Next, we proceed to the formation of the tail of the balancer itself.

There are two options for tail shaping:

• You can slightly heat the remaining, not shrunk, part of the tube and flatten it with your fingers in a horizontal plane, making it slightly concave from below. After cooling, trim off the excess with scissors and give the necessary shape to the stabilizer (photo 6, 7);

• to get the tail of the required size and shape, after settling the tube on the forend of the hook, insert a wedge cut from a plastic bottle or aluminum can into the tube (photo 8). After cooling, the tail of the balancer with an aluminum insert can be bent as you like.

Repair of balancers using a heat-shrinkable tube does not require special tools and costs. You can make such a repair without leaving the hole. At the same time, the balancer repaired in this way is in no way inferior in efficiency to balancer arms with a proprietary stabilizer tail.

In modern Kama 3-axle trucks, 2-axle and 3-axle semi-trailers, a suspension is used, at the ends of which there are springs resting on the rear axles, between them on the frame there is a balancing mechanism.

The purpose of the KamAZ balancer:

compensation of vertical loads;
stabilization of lateral displacement;
reduced wear of the undercarriage;
maintaining stability.

The balancer device contains, depending on the machine design, 1 or 2 transverse axes:

In the 1-axle mechanism, the spring connection is reinforced with ladders.
With 2 axles, it is pressed into brackets connected with a tie, fixed with studs to the rear suspension elements. The latter are connected to the welded frame side members with reinforced bolts.

At each free end of the axle there are spring shoes. They fix the parts, have a plug hole through which oil liquid is poured, and are equipped with seals:

rubber cuffs prevent oil leakage;
rings protect the interior from dirt.

A special bushing made of a material with a low coefficient of friction and increased resistance to wear is installed at the point of attachment of the shoe. The manufacturer most often makes it from aluminum or bronze.

Modern trucks are equipped with aluminum-zinc alloy or PTFE bushings.

The lubrication in the shoes is liquid or consistent. When installing polymer sleeves, a dense fill is used, which requires less maintenance.

During the operation of KamAZ, the balancer, despite the strength of the parts, wears out, which leads to the breakdown of its units. Therefore, inspection and maintenance are performed in a timely manner in specialized service centers or by hand.

Rear suspension repair is associated with the diagnosis and replacement of brackets and bushings due to defects that have appeared, such as:At the same time, the condition of the springs, jet thrust loads, ladders, oil seals and shoes is checked.Bushing wear is a common cause of balance bar failure. The fit of the parts is periodically checked by tapping a hammer. When loosening, the pins are replaced with new ones. The bushings are repaired when consumables are worn up to 90.2 mm.If there is an oil leak from the crankcase, the oil seals are replaced.Balancer axle repair consists in removing traces of damage by grinding and installing repair elements, reduced in internal dimensions.Adjustment of the axial clearance in the balancer shoe on the KamAZ car is performed as follows:

Place the machine on the stand.

Pull the spring ends from the supports of the rear axle, remove the part, thereby ensuring the rotation of the balance bar.

Turn the split nut so that the mechanism does not turn by hand.

Unscrew it 1/6 of a turn.

Tighten the tie bolt. The tightening torque should be 8-10 kgf * m.

Check the turns of the balancer.If they are obstructed, loosen the tie bolt and remove the nut.

During the ride, the wear rate increases. The increase in space between the hub and the axle affects the balance bar, which sways in different planes and deforms the parts.The standard axle diameter is 88 mm. For tight fitting, the outer dimensions of the balancer sleeve are 100.2-100.3 mm, the inner dimensions are 1 mm less.The nominal clearance is 0.12-0.30 mm. Replacement of worn out bushings is carried out when a critical value of up to 1 mm is reached.The balancer at the landing site can be ellipsoidal or tapered. For alignment and reliability, it is better to press the bushings into the shoe, install on a boring machine and bore 2 pieces at once. The calculated bushing diameter should be larger by 0.05-0.08 mm. Image - DIY balancer repair

I read a lot of advice on the net, but only one way was chosen: we restore the steering wheel as much as it was. And all the advice on how to impose wool instead of a plastic steering wheel, to hook on a silicone twister - somehow does not inspire me personally with optimism. After all, the most important thing in the balance bar will be violated - its game on the fall, which, thanks to the steering wheel, gives a large amplitude and swing under the ice. Even fish that are at a distance of a couple of meters from your hole can see such a bait and become interested in its game.

So, let's start repairing the balancer.

We clean it with fine sandpaper and degrease the steering wheel attachment point with alcohol.
We select the material from which we will embed a new one. I came across a package suitable for rigidity from some kind of fishing line.
It's good if you still have one more balancer of the same format as the broken one: you can remove the tail pattern from it. Which I did:

Then, in order to raise the base of the steering wheel and align its upper line with the line of the back of the balancer, we will wrap the part where the steering wheel will be attached to the hook with thread. This will give additional strength when gluing, because first we glue the thread, and after it dries, we glue the steering wheel itself again.
After the glue has dried, fill in all the cavities between the balancer and the tail in order to achieve the smoothest possible surfaces of the steering wheel, without notches and grooves. I did it with regular nail polish. It may be better to use epoxy. It's easier for me to work with what is always at hand. 🙂

Your balancer is ready for use again. Such a steering wheel can still serve for quite a long time, and bring you many more valid fish. 🙂
You can, of course, touch up the paint that has slightly peeled off from glue and emery. This is according to your wishes. For fish, it seems to me that this is not so critical.

15 minutes of free time (depends on your soldering skills, if they are not there, you can dig for an hour).

We solder the loop of the hook to the lead body of the balancer. It is not necessary to treat the body of the balancer with acid and tinning - the lead is perfectly soldered, but it is better to scrape off the paint at the soldering point with a knife. When we solder the loop, make sure that the shank of the hook goes as close and parallel to the rest of the old hook as possible. Next, we solder the rest of the old hook and the donor forend. After everything has been soldered, we remove the excess solder beads with a knife so that the tail fits normally tightly. The photo shows where I removed the excess tin with a knife.

A balancer is an artificial type bait that resembles a small fish in shape. The tail and head are masked by hooks soldered up by a sting (single). The lower and upper parts of the bait contain a pair of loops, one of which is designed to connect the fishing line, and the other serves as an attachment for additional tees.

Specimens equipped with red, black-red and reddish-yellow flies have proven themselves excellently. In addition, a stabilizer is located in the tail section, providing a varied balancer play. Lures can be of different sizes (from 2 to 9 cm).

Balancers can be purchased at any specialty store or made by hand.

Homemade baits have a number of advantages, namely:

Suitable for use in shallow water, and at great depths;
Influence of the tail region into the body of the balancer, which prevents the occurrence of breakdowns;
To facilitate casting, making a small mass of the product (about 10 grams), which is quite enough for an ideal game in the water column. Shop models are heavier and very difficult to swing well under a large ice edge.

Why did the balancers appeal to many fishing enthusiasts? The answer is obvious:

First, the bait completely copies the image of a real fish;
You can select a variety of product weights, outlines and colors, which will allow you to adapt to any fishing conditions;
Equipped with hooks on three sidesthat minimizes the number of retirements;
Possibility of using bait throughout the year.

To make your own balancer, you will need to prepare pieces of soft wood (you can take linden or aspen). In the absence of wood material, polystyrene is suitable.Also, when manufacturing, you can not do without:

steel or copper wire (about 0.5 mm thick);

solder with a low level of melting temperature;

lead;

plastic bottle (thick-walled);

aerosol dyes of various colors;

hooks;

tees of various sizes with a long forearm;

glue (PVA);

mixtures of alabaster, soap and graphite powder;

protective varnish (required after painting the product).

When making a balancer, you should prepare tools, namely:

sharpened knife;

nippers (side cutters);

pliers;

student brush (squirrel pile);

clamp;

a can of canned products;

soldering iron;

acid (phosphoric acid);

wooden beam;

sandpaper (second number);

set of needle files.

Part of the tail area must be made thinner than other areas of the product, the length of this thin part will be about 6-7 mm

For the manufacture of balancers, you will need a blank that is cut from a wooden material or a cardboard box. After giving the product the desired shape, we carefully perform the finishing, which will quickly adjust the workpiece to the required parameters. For processing, wood beams or sandpaper can be used.

We are finalizing the workpiece:

Having prepared the blank material, insert the hooks with the ears removed (we put them on a PVA glue base).
Having determined the center of gravity of the product, we leave a mark with a pencil. Bending the copper wire into an arc (required as a loop), insert it into the wooden base. Incorrectly fixing the loop, you can observe a strong overweight, which will tilt the workpiece to one side.
Having corrected the fastening, we achieve an exclusively horizontal position of the product. After soldering the wings and tail, the workpiece will become heavy and correctly positioned in the water surface when fishing.

Having completed the process of manufacturing the blank, we begin to create a mold for casting. It is very important to choose a convenient container for this, which can be used many times. A great option for a form is a plastic box that housed an ink pen.

Mold making process:

The last stage in the manufacture of the balancer is casting. To ensure ease of removal of the product, the mold is processed with a soap-graphite liquid. Immediately before casting the lead, the loop is inserted along with the hooks.

The finished balancer can be removed only after the lead component has completely solidified. You can achieve maximum quality if the molds are heated to 40-50 degrees before pouring. After taking out the bait, it can be colored in the desired colors.

You can modify both a homemade and a store version of the balancer.Basically, products are being finalized with the presence of roughly manufactured blades. You can correct such a defect with a sharp knife, which can easily remove sagging and burrs. It is very important to maintain symmetry in this case.

After that, files, grinding and polishing go into work. If necessary, you can replace the existing tee (put an analogue made on the basis of a thin wire), which will exclude the commission of poor-quality wiring. Some anglers make the mistake of not using tees on the bait. Most of the fish are usually caught on them.

Staining that accurately repeats the color of the fry will be the most versatile (the sides are made in light gray, and the back is painted in dark colors). However, it is worth remembering that each reservoir is unique and it is impossible to predict how effective this or that shade of the balancer will be. Based on these considerations, experts recommend having several balancers of different tones with you.

When using balancers, do not use thin line. The optimal indicator of thickness will be 0.2-0.22 mm.

Also don't use a leash (only when fishing for pike), since it contributes to the disturbance of the balance bar game and, accordingly, significantly reduces the number of bites.

When making a balancer, it is worth soldering a small copper ring, which will counteract chafing of the fixed line.

A group of fishermen during interrogation revealed the name of the secret bait.

In general, he will decide to come to grips with these issues. The bathtub became the testing ground for tests at home. I took ten different balancers and began to observe the behavior in different games.

I learned a lot of interesting things, but a dozen balancers are not enough to identify any regularities. Buying large quantities in the store is not affordable. That's when the idea came to make your own balancers of different shapes and sizes at home.

The specifics of the reservoir

He immediately refused to make it from lead. I fish mainly on the small river Yuryuzan, where a depth of 1 m under the ice is already considered a hole. You can also fish at shallower depths. In such conditions, it is impossible to play normally with heavy lead balancers. Therefore, I chose copper and tin.

Two months of hard work. I made many balancers of different shapes at home. Changed the suspension point. Changed the shape and angle of the shank bend. I rejected more than a dozen and yet by the end of winter I got what I wanted.

Wide swing of the balance bar with a small amplitude of play. This is very important at shallow depths. With a series of strokes with the rod, the balance bar continues to move in the same direction. It can hang at the same time in the line position of 40-45 °. At the planning stage, it makes small fluctuations, provoking the perch to attack.

A lot of bites in the tail. The return to the starting point during a pause is slower than that of the lead balancer, so the perch manages to catch up with the "escaping fish".

Manufacturing

Within an hour and a half, using a file and a file, I made something similar to a stamp from a piece of metal. I polished the work surface. Of the material for stamping, sheet copper with a thickness of 0.3 mm was best suited.

The basis for stamping was a birch block. Using a heavy hammer, I molded several blanks. Then I cut off the excess with small scissors for metal. With a file and a file, I gave the desired shape.

Testing

Testing was carried out on different bodies of water and by different fishermen. The result and reviews were more than pleasing!
These balancers can and should be played like a spinning player with a wobbler or jerk. It is necessary to perform a series of strokes and pauses of varying intensity and amplitude.
I have one of the main postings when searching for a perch is as follows: swing, pause 5-7 seconds, two successive swings, pause 5-7 seconds, three swings, pause 10-15 seconds.Each subsequent swing in the series must be performed at the end of the gliding segment, until the balance bar has turned around.

Video (click to play).