Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
Eric- I wish you better experience then I have had with dials. I find their jumping about to distracting. I don't tend to spin the rim slowly (as many starting mechanics do).
Back when I was working as a mechanic, I built a wheel for a shop I didn't work for. I forget what stand they had, but the only pointer was a dial indicator. It just about drove me nuts. Wheel came out okay and they offered to hire me, so I did get it to work. I never really understood the need for that much accuracy. I'm pretty sure the wheel would have been just as close on a stock TS-2. Park didn't sell indicators back then
The PK Lie indicators are scaled so that they don't jump around too much. One of their youtube videos implies that an unskilled worker can true a wheel with their stand. It's an interesting approach.
Nowadays I build to equal tension and then do a final touch up with the stand pointers. That's why my stand design relies on indicators. I don't true wheels very often, but I use tension for that too. Of course, for a lot of wheels that would never work, but fortunately I don't have to work on those wheels