I have the Park tool and used it to build a few pair of wheels now and it really does make a difference in how the wheels perform. It's been 5 years now since the last build and I have never had to re-true a wheel.

Not to start a debate, but don't you think that experience, practice, and skills improvement might also factor into that?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000048763228.html

This digital one from AliExpress. Cheaper and 100 times better than anything else out there. Only $40 dollars.

I doubt that. I had no experience, practice or skill. Maybe by the last pair I did, but not the first two. I don't have a truing stand or dish tool either. My fingers are my feeler gauges.

Please do report back how that tool is performing and how it does versus your calibration check. It would be interesting data and helpful to some.

While I don't doubt that skill can sufficiently replace a tensiometer, this discussion reminds me of the old joke..

"I can tell you how to make a million dollars...first, you start with a million dollars and then you invest it in..."

Actually looks pretty good, I'm tempted.

sure will. was planning go. got my spokes yesterday and installed the new one. pretty true now. will finish up once the gauge gets here. i am very curious myself how well it performs.

I have this meter the digital one and it's excellent I have a home made spoke jig to load up whatever spokes I'm building with to calibrate

Does it not come with tables to translate readings to values? If I have to build a calibration jig I might as well make a tensiometer too, sounds like a fun Arduino project.

Yes comes with a chart but how accurate it is I have no idea, hence the jig, the repeatability is excellent so no issues there

And of course there's the bike shop owner's lament. How do you make a small fortune running a bike shop? Start with a large fortune.

for what it is worth this is what i bought and the following is a demo of the repeatability. i have not had a chance to compare the actual tension measured with a calibrated tool yet.

looks like two spokes need a bit of tightening.

https://www.amazon.com/Bicycle-Measu...7YQQQC8L&psc=1


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e0e96356b5.jpg

Question------

How do you get 4 significant level of precision?

do you mean 2 significant figures after the decimal...? i have very very good eyesight...bugs bunny is jealous.

the gauge only has integer graduations so there is clearly some 1/10 of a unit eyeballing going on. the rest is just because i highlighted the spread sheet and applied 2 decimal places because of the average and standard dev columns. that is all lost in the graph anyway.

Use a digital indicator. It'll give you lots of digits. Not all of them significant...

At what temperature range?
Anytime you have electronics involved that convert a voltage to a reading, one really needs to take the temperature coefficient of the tool if expecting "ultra precise" results.
Some may be fine in a laboratory environment, but may differ significantly in the temperature ranges the tool may actually be used in.

I used to build optical oceanographic instruments that used an LED of a specific wavelength for a light source.
LED's tend to have pretty wonky temperature characteristics and it was supposedly "impossible" to temperature compensate one.
It turns out most of the cheap electronics are not too good in this respect. My "free" Harbor Freight voltmeter reads 8% high. That's about 1 volt difference on a 12V battery. That's at room temp- Who knows.....

Put your tool in a baggie and stick in the fridge for a 1/2 hour and test vs. the same tool laying in the sun.

A simple digital display is +/- 1 digit + a % error that varies by the quality of the display.

Not venting on your specific tool, but just in general to people that assume if its digital, it's spot on perfect.

​​​​​​​So you understand my point!

Yeah I got a really decent one from amazon