Originally Posted by
Ghrumpy
That's the kind of machine that is really only useful for repetitive wheelbuilding in a production environment. (But I'd still love to have one just because it's so dang kewl.)
Not that tools of all kinds aren't cool, but I really don't understand the need for dial gauges. Your eyeball on a regular stand can get you to within .010" (0.25mm) without trying that hard, which on close to 100% of rims is less than the factory's runout spec. How much more precision do you need? It's far more important to get the tension right and even than to have .005" runout. If you can do both, bully for you. Just get first things first.
I've always trued in the past with a homebuilt stand, and using a pen or something held by one hand as a single point reference point.
Anyway, I tend to have troubles paying attention to both hop and wobble at the same time. One nice thing about the gauges is that one can choose a few spokes to adjust, say for right/left wobble, then quickly look at the other gauge to see if one should tighten/loosen, or just tighten, or just loosen. And thus adjusting both wobble and hop at the same time. At least I find it to be convenient. I need to add pinging into my routine too.
I haven't tried one of the Park stands to compare.
The VAR stand is easy to adjust for different wheels, but is not automatically self-centering, although I presume it could be marked and calibrated if one had certain wheels to true. But, yes, if one was doing say a dozen identical wheels, one could adjust it and center it, then blow through the wheels without checking dishing, or only doing a wheel flip at the end to double-check.