So we tangent to wheel stands. After using, maybe a dozen+, Park TS-2. stands, VARs and Treks and a bunch of others over the decades I can comfortably say that any stand's dishing capability is completely dependent on the operator and not on the stand's design. Sure many stands seem to have axle support arms that move in concert with each other as well as rim indicators that do also. But the slop in the bushings, the flex in the arms, the inprecision in axle placement, the drift from actual centering as wheels go through the stand, the over tightening that most wrenched do to secure the wheel, side forces due to spoke tensioning attempts all contribute to shifting stand centerlines and wheel placements. To those who do this stuff daily you know that you can install a wheel, true it, remove it and reinstall it and have the rim indicator be a different distance from the rim, only a few moments later.

So when I say "I wouldn't trust a frame to be a dishing tool." it comes from watching the unexperienced or those who don't really think about what they do with each effort. A dishing tool is just another possibility of a gage. But in comparison to a stand, the lack of many moving and flexing parts reduces the chance of shifting contact points. I have found that even the most basic dishing tools (like the Park folding or the table top stack of quarters) can be far more reliable in repetitive checks. And this is one of the hallmarks of a gage.

Having said that, and to return to a statement I started but with broader range- poor tools used by skilled people get better results then good tools used by hacks. (and not saying any one here is a hack) Andy.

I'm hurt!

I have no experience with expensive titanium frames, but on every bike I've seen, rear wheel installation required eyeballing the distance of the wheel between the chain stays and, to a lesser degree, between the seat stays before tightening the axle fasteners.

Does this frame have adjustment screws in the dropouts that may have been damaged or disturbed? A millimeter off in the dropouts translates into several millimeters at the stays.

The OP says that he flipped the wheel in the frame and thinks that the problem appeared in reverse, but he doesn't sound certain - the difference was that small (2mm closer to one stay is only 1mm off center). If I flipped any of my wheels, I'd assume that I would still need to visually inspect and manually correct the distances to the stays. If I ended up 1mm off center (as the OP experienced), I'd simply re-adjust - I wouldn't agonize about either the wheel or the frame.

Don't be. I skimmed and missed the comment, sorry.

OK, lets try this. Was the wheel clamped in place in both cases when the wheel was flipped in the frame? Small variations do show as [MENTION=406276]habilis[/MENTION] states.

Haven't you ever used vertical dropouts? It's like mounting a wheel in a fork. You jam it into the dropouts by putting weight on the bike, and tighten the wheel there, giving you exact and perfect placement every time.

Horizontal dropouts, of course, require eyeballing it or using dropout adjustment screws.

The problem can probably be simply and quickly fixed by placing or switching spacing washers on the hub.

An indication that the wheel cassette may be miss placed is if the high low limit screws on the RD are not adjusted somewhat equal. Is one screw nearly clear in and the other nearly clear out?

I've never seen true vertical. Semi-vertical, yes, and I've had to manually adjust wheel placement. With forks, where you'd think placement would be automatic, I've still had to adjust wheel position between the blades to avoid brakes rubbing. I honestly thought everyone did these adjustments all the time, on both wheels.

Not yet...

All this frame and truing stand discussion is silly in reference to the OP's problem. All that is needed is a simple check of the dish with a gauge or by the "quarter method" in order to eliminate dish as the problem.

Well that could be the "rub" If your wheel can't be reliably put in the fork DO without checking clearance, something could be wrong, caliper alignment, bent fork legs, off set rim from hub, debris in the DO, loose bearings....

I don't blindly drop a wheel in the forks. I hold the wheel in the DO with a finger around the rim by the brakes. I can feel if the axle is touching both DO bottoms or not when I center the tire in the fork based on the center of the tire and the brake mounting bolt/nut or hole in the fork as a reference. I then use the QR to close while looking at the centered tire in the fork.

Brakes are always the last adjustment in my approach. Wheels not centered to the frame reference points causes ride problems. Once I went for a 30 mile ride on the Colnago with a new set of used wheels. I decided to try hands free coasting. That is when I found out that both wheels were not centered. I had to cant my body slightly to ride hands free. I think it required two or three turns on the spoke nipples to get centered.

This pretty much describes what I do, too. Mainly, I use the brake center-bolt as a reference, aligning the middle of the tire tread with it. Then, I clamp the QR or axle nut, as the case may be. I should probably worry more about dead-accurate dishing, etc., but my bikes usually seem close enough for government work.