It depends on your personality, I think. If necessary, I suppose I could build an adequate wheel with a trainer and a beer can, but it drives me nuts to do something without the proper tool. That's why I own a cotter press and all sorts of other shop-quality tools that I use pretty rarely. The Minoura stand works well enough for me, but if I built more than a few wheels a year I'd probably upgrade to a Park. I much prefer using a dishing gauge to flipping the wheel over in the stand.