These guys seem to do most engine machining, it doesn't mention camshafts specifically on their site however I would give them a call. Most garages in our area use them, I've used them for the dexta engine. If they don't I'm pretty sure they will know who will.
Cam lobes are a chunk smaller than crank throws, setting one up for balancing is easy enough. Less bits to attack with a grinder than a crankshaft with counterweights, more options at the timing gear end as can drill holes in the sprocket itself. At the other end i'm guessing all that's possible is drilling smallish holes axially into the core to remove weight and/or stuffing lumps of tungsten or lead into the holes to add weight?
Probably overkill for most engines... cams are relatively light, lobes are small and cams spin at half crank speed so imbalance is less of an issue most of the time i.e. for a standard production car engine i wouldn't be suprised if there's more imbalance left in a crank than a typical camshaft is capable of producing?
http://vibrationfree.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/EngineBalancingPracticalPerformanceCarMag.pdf is a pretty good piece on engine balancing
Sounds like Shox is sorted with somewhere localish but i was gonna say Newman Cams too
My job is Vibration analysis and balancing ,
Tom, how would you go about balancing a single cylinder motorcycle crank and rod statically (on knife edges) ? If i know the balance factor, how would i work out the weight to hang in the conrod in place of the piston ?
I wouldn't balance it using the core ( i assume you mean what I would call the shaft) as the radius is very small and you would require much larger weight which is very hard to get accurate. As you say the best bet would be on the pulley but I was just curious as to if they get balanced. My job is Vibration analysis and balancing and I regularly balance rotors down to below 1 Micron which is very close to perfection. For my correction planes on a cam I would be using the outer 2 lobes as I think there would be more couple than static unbalance,
We did vibration analysis when in college, they had a rig there with motorised shafts, pulleys etc, we had to do the maths and theory before we were let loose on the rig. It wasn't the most difficult subject by far and it was great to see vibration reducing drastically. Well worth doing.
Im looking at getting a cam reground, along with the followers (12)
Any suggestions
It would more than likely have been balanced before fitting.. but to answer your question, on a knife edge all you can do is look for a drop ( with the con rod removed) where the crank settles will be the heavy spot, stick a bit of weight opposite that, how much weight depends on severity of the drop, the size of the job etc.. but to be honest a job like that would go straight onto our balancing machine and we would single plane balance it to below a micron. we would only statically balance something on site where for example the fan had a massive drop, this drop or massive unbalance plays havoc with the calculations for the instruments we use so our experience would put that right before we did an in-situ balance.
If you want it balancing I can point you in the direction of a few places in Ireland where I calibrate their machines, or stick it in a box and I will get it on our machine in the workshop.
Engine balancing is done on the complete reciprocating assembly, crank, rods, Pistons, bearings, crank hub, flywheel or flexplate etc etc, even includes fasteners
Not worth doing in my opinion, new cams and lifters are very cheap