flanso 

While repacking wheel bearings, I noticed some rotational wobble. I was able to get out all but .012" using the set up shown. The wheel is held by a Park axle vise and the magnetic stand is holding onto a heavy steel block. The arrangement was quite solid. Do you think I am wasting time trying to true a wheel without support on both sides of the axle?

blamp28

I use an Ultimate one armed stand and it works fine. The issue would be dishing or centering I would think. You could certainly true a wheel that way but how would you know what plane you are truing to?

dsbrantjr

Flanso: Storing propane tanks indoors is bad juju.

fietsbob

there were some pictures of a DIY truing stand made of plywood,
and some hardware store metal bits, elsewhere on this forum.

looked good.

I'm used to having the wheel vertical ..

Maybe the axle in the vise wheel vertically will work,?

dial indicator upgrades the kludge a bit..


a dead fork out of something would work
even one out of a roof rack kit have one in some Yakima parts ..

bending a U out of flat-bar perhaps?

Mr. Embrey

Why bother asking? If feel that your results would have been better by using a proper (store bought) stand, then there is an issue with your setup. If you feel your results were the same as what you would expect from a proper stand, then it's fine.

BCRider

That works for me! But then I also have all the same tools and steel spacer blocks. I just never used them this way...

Ditto on the inability to dish the wheel properley though.

Joshua A.C. New

You just need to flip it over periodically while truing.

Fish_man

How does that work then?
unless you use a spirit level to check the wheel goes back into the same position

rogerstg

With either method you need a dishing stick. Flipping the wheel in the Ultimate stand only works in theory. In reality it's always off a few mm.

woodpusherghd

At least it's (not?) near the baseboard heater and flammable solvents.

triathloner

I'm a cheapskate! I make my own bike trays for on top of my car! I did however buy the park ts2.2 stand. And I'm glad I did. There are enough variables in truing a wheel, having a some slop in your setup is only going to add a lot of time to your jobs. In my world time isn't money, time is ride time, more spent fixing, less spent riding. good luck, I've seen some off brands Minoura and such go for like 50 bucks sometime and add that to a good nashbar coupon code and your golden.

canopus 

Thats fine for truing. And dishing, well just get a dish tool. You don't need a (insert make here) self centering truing stand. Now I'm not found of flipping the wheel in the stand for dishing either but others use it here all the time.

The best looking homemade stand I've seen is this attached one. I was going to make one but I happened to find a good cast iron one for cheap so that's what I use.

blamp28

I own a dishing tool but don't even use it much due to the accuracy of flipping the wheel. It works just fine. Never had a wheel off center yet.

blamp28

Oops - double post

3alarmer 

Flanso:

I do a few wheels every so often, and show people
how to do it two or three times a month at the local
learn it/do it yourself bike coop.

I would have trouble using your setup effectively,
probably because I am used to looking at the things
vertically and eyeballing the out of round/side offset
spots. More importantly, i would have some difficulty
manipulating the spoke wrench on and off the nipples
with your setup(especially if building a wheel from scratch.)

The dial indicator is a nice touch,, but I've honestly never
used one, so what do i know. My wheels are pretty much
as good as I can eyeball them from an end on vertical
perspective.

if you do do enough of this to blow 50 or 60 bucks on a
stand, look at this:

https://www.amazon.com/Sunlite-Deluxe...=3IGKG90D4ORLJ

I've built and/or trued probably three or four
hundred wheels on its duplicate by a different
manufacturer and it has worked well for me.

Also it folds for storage, which is important to me.

Mike Larmer

furballi

Use the frame. The bearings are properly loaded and you can center the tire to the frame/fork. The Mitutoyo dial indicator can yield very precise result in the hands of a wheelsmith (+/-0.001"). I will never waste time building a wheel without a good dial indicator.

Tunnelrat81

You're funny.

-Jeremy

LarDasse74

Your 'makeshift' truing stand will allow better accuracy than I have ever bothered to try to acheive.

To check dish you can flip the wheel over and compare itself to... ummm... to itself before you flipped it over. Got it? You need to make sure the wheel is the same distance from the axle locknut on both sides. To do this reliably over and over would require a careful setup to make sure the axle and dial gage are in the same position each time it is put it in place.

Retro Grouch 

The only thing that a trueing stand does is to provide a stable place to measure from. It looks to me like your set up does that. It looks to me like it would be pretty cumbersome and time consuming to use.

electrik

It's ok.... get the job done, right? IF you're going to make a habit of truing wheels i would improve it some more, it looks inefficient to use.