Originally Posted by
jtarver
Hate to be the devils advocate, but you can get a Park TS-2 that will last forever for $175. Building any homemade version is going to have a material cost of $30-$50 plus labor. I really think the frustration of making and using a homemade model is not worth it in the long run. Plus, no need for a dish stick, just flip the wheel around. None of the homemade ones are much different than just using your brake pads as a guide, nor do they work that well if you're doing different size wheels.
One of my woodworker friends made his own salad serving fork set. He said, why buy them from Wal Mart for $2.50 when you can build them yourself from $10 in lumber in less than 15 hours?
Sometimes, it's about the journey, not the destination
Note that I'm building my own kitchen cabinets now... but this is going to save me about $15,000...