Gerald,
The 1/4" crankshaft and that of the 1/4" big end journals overlap each other which complicates the way a fabricated component.
In the conventional way, the main shaft is left in place until the end of the construction at which time the parts between the webs are removed. However, the main shaft and big ends have already 'broken into' each other. Hope this makes sense. Either way, I had a desire to have go at machining one from solid.
xrad,
No I didn't use balance weights. However, I did reduce the dia. of the main shaft quite considerably, thereby reducing its overall weight which helped any out of balance affects when turning the big ends. It remains a compromise however as if main shaft becomes to slender at an early stage it may flex.
Ian