Bicycle Mechanics - Building your own wheel dish checker

I am starting to build my first road wheels after years of considering myself expert at truing wheels, I thought I needed to jump in. I was able to locate a Park TS-6 truing stand for almost nothing. I think I should have the wheel dish checker too, but if I have to pay $25 plus $6 shipping that will ruin much of the fun of building these wheels on the cheap. Even an Ebay Park disher that obviously had a couple of parts missing just went for $17 plus $8 shipping today. I would like to fabricate my own and it seems that it would be easy to just cut one out of 1/2 inch plywood and a nut embedded at the top with epoxy for the adjuster bolt. Has anyone done this or a similar plan that they would like to share?

Garth

Just flip the wheel around in the stand to check the dish. How's that for cheap? :)

Sure, I made one out of a piece of 1 inch oak and two fine-thread drywall screws. Used a pair of levels to "calibrate" it.

What's nice about the real tool is that it folds in half and fits in your toolbox.

Roger Musson's book "Wheel Building" has instructions on how to make a number of wheel building related tools such as a dish checker, chain whip, truing stand and a dish checker. He shows how to make a dishing tool out of cardboard ! I'm sure you could make a more "expensive" one by making it out of wood :)

I also have Gerd Schraner's "The Art of Wheelbulding", and I've found Roger's book is a better guide to wheelbuilding, as there is a lot more information in it. I don't regret owning both of them though, I'm still a newbie at building wheels, and find it useful to be able to compare the different techniques and thoughts of two different experts.

http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

Look for a dishing tool on ebay. I have been building wheels for years for my own use and I used a fork in a vise and a machinist's ruler screwed to the forkblade. I finally bought a Park TS-2 and a Wag 4 for dishing...why I struggled for so long (I never knew I was struggling because I had some purist fantasy that I was having fun) I know not. I have always built a good wheel but my quality went up when I got the proper tools. Save yourself a lot of time and frustration and get the tools. Offer to build some wheels for friends for parts plus $30 per wheel. It won't take many wheels to pay for the whole thing. You might even splurge and get a Tensiometer to check spoke tension instead of playing the circular harp.
When I started to build my own wheels there were NO GOOD tools available everything had to be homemade. Good luck.

Just flip the wheel around in the stand to check the dish. How's that for cheap? :)
That's cheap, but it's not very accuarate unless you have a very rigid (expensive) stand.
I put a couple of blocks on the edge of a table, rest the wheel horizontally on the blocks, measure the height of the locknut from the table, flip it over and measure again. It takes a little patience, but it's still esier than flipping the wheel in the stand, and it's as accurate as you can measure. If I were to get a dish stick, it would have to be one that did not require the wheel to be removed from the stand.

em

Yeah, just flip the wheel around on the stand. With a little patience and some horse sense you can get within a fraction of a MM accuracy, no need for a dishing tool.

Al

Look for a dishing tool on ebay. I have been building wheels for years for my own use and I used a fork in a vise and a machinist's ruler screwed to the forkblade. I finally bought a Park TS-2 and a Wag 4 for dishing...why I struggled for so long (I never knew I was struggling because I had some purist fantasy that I was having fun) I know not. I have always built a good wheel but my quality went up when I got the proper tools. Save yourself a lot of time and frustration and get the tools. Offer to build some wheels for friends for parts plus $30 per wheel. It won't take many wheels to pay for the whole thing. You might even splurge and get a Tensiometer to check spoke tension instead of playing the circular harp.
When I started to build my own wheels there were NO GOOD tools available everything had to be homemade. Good luck.
+1

Tim

If you're frame is straight and you've got vertical dropouts, you can use a vernier caliper and measure the distance of the sides of the rims from their respective chainstays. I've also used different wood types of gauges. Although, if I had the coin, I'd go for the good tools, but as you said, wheelbuilding stuff is a hot item on ebay.

I have a dishing tool but I don't use it. I flip the wheel in the stand while truing also...