Sixty Fiver

Tuned up my stand yesterday... and cleaned up my desk too.

Must be a sign of a sick mind.





I build wheels like a machinist...





Needed to fab a little bushing to attach the arm.

5shot

What do you use for rear wheels? What I mean is... that looks like a front fork and thus, 100mm front wheels fit. Do, for example, 130mm rear road wheels also fit on the stand? Do the fork blades spread out enough?

By the way, nice job building that stand.

Thanks.

groovestew

There was a desk there?

Roll-Monroe-Co

Thank you for making unicrown forks relevant again.

eddy m

I use a stand like that. I have a second fork that I spread for rear wheels. I have dial indicators, but I also use straight edges like the ones in Roger Musson's book, which are easier for me than calipers.

em

Re-Cycle

Extra points for the brake post dial mount.

But ya, what about 135mm hubs?

Sixty Fiver

I knew someone would ask that...



I also use the stand to dish wheels as I can use the upper dial (which is fixed to the fork) to measure how much it is out by flipping the wheel... was working on an mtb wheel and it was 50/1000 out so by taking that and dividing it I know how to adjust the wheel by 25/1000 to center it.

Shot a little video... gauge is so sensitive that the weight of my hand turning the wheel will cause a few extra thousanths of deflection but the wheel is < 4/1000 after dishing and truing it back up.

https://www.ravingbikefiend.com/bikep...truestand1.MOV

Sixty Fiver

I was sure there was...

eddy m

I prefer using 2 forks to the one-sided method. Clamping the wheel in from both sides lets meet de-tension the spokes by pushing the rim sideways. That's something I couldn't do with most commercial stands, so my homemade rig is better than anything I could buy at a reasonable price. I also measure tension by hanging a weight off the spoke, but that requires that I hold the wheel horizontally. I do that by tipping the whole stand over on it's side. That's another reason I need to hold the wheel by both sides. A dish bridge is easier and more accurate than flipping the wheel. I think that if you have a stand that's rigid enough to set the dish by the flipping method, it's rigid enough that you could just set it by measuring, but that would still be harder than using a dish gauge.

em

Hydraulic

That design is pretty slick.

davidad

Except for the millwright's dial indicators a nice way to poor-boy it.

jccaclimber

This is pretty similar to the setups that I've used. If you're doing a couple wheels a year the crappy $20 dial/stand sets work fine. If you're doing more than that, bloody well invest in some decent tools for your trade.

jccaclimber

65er, I don't like balancing the tip of the indicator on the rim, particularly if the rim has any dings in it. My solution was to drill a hole in the side of a coin, and use the thread on tip to hold it on. That way I have a wide flat surface for the sidewall to rub against. They also make flat tips for indicators, but I'm too cheap to buy one.

Sixty Fiver

Some folks can't read a dial... for those folks we have digital and the millwright's creed is that if you can't fix it, you probably need a bigger hammer.

One can make a simple set up like this with a bicycle fork inserted into a block of wood and use zip ties as indicators and still produce high quality wheels... have also built wheels using the frame and brakes as indicators.

Funny... when I started working in the machine shop was setting up a lathe (with very little experience) and the machinist I was working with was amazed I was able to dial in the piece so accurately and asked how I knew how to do this... was sure I had done this alot. I told him it stemmed from building bicycle wheels and he was amazed that these were built to such close tolerances.

I built my base plate at the machine shop from some scrap steel... wanted something a little tougher than a block of wood and the plate allows me to attach the magnetic base of the dial indicator. The frame shop I work at has a nice lathe so turning out little things like simple bushings is pretty easy.

Sixty Fiver

I work on wheels nearly every day and with the cycling season upon us have been building half a dozen wheels a week and tuning up many many more.

A Park stand would be a waste of money... but it might impress the plebes.

Sixty Fiver

Have pondered adding a different tip... might be another little fabrication job to do when I replace the old dial with a shiny new one.

Or I might just buy a different tip when I pick up a new dial.

jccaclimber

You've taken me wrong. I totally agree about you stand, annoyances with the Park stands, etc. When I mentioned buying decent tools for your trade I was referring to the dials. In my experience the $15 Harbor Freight dials aren't all that smooth and get notchy over time, whereas decent dial indicators do not.

RunningPirate

Very elegant. I like the channel iron base. Better still, I like the thought of using a block of wood for a base, as I have an old fork that I just bought and have been wondering "how the bloody &%$# am I going to mount this!".

Sixty Fiver

We are on the same page... even my battered old dial is extremely smooth and is probably a better unit than my shiny upper dial.

You really don't need any high end tools to build wheels but if you prefer to use dials over scrapers it is nice to have good ones and when you do something for a living it is worth it to invest in better quality tools as they pay for themselves over time whereas cheap tools just cost you money as they need to be replaced.

Pirate - A wooden base would be more than adequate, before I drilled out the channel iron I used a wood block and also had a hole drilled in my old bench so I could drop a fork in there.

Having the dials attached to the stand works really well as they maintain their position relative to the rim so when you flip it to check dish the reading is accurate and I still use a zip tie as a quick guide.

w98seeng

I found these pics of a truing stand (@ https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/) that looks well built and not to difficult to build.

Ian

Sixty Fiver

Nice.

eddy m

I really like that stand, and if I had better woodworking skills I would make one. The best part is the straight edge it has for a radial reference. I managed to cobble together a similar one for my stand. That's easier for me than either dials or a Park style caliper, but I'm not completely giving up my dials.

em

Tunnelrat81

I really like mine. I of course used Roger's design, but I think it would have been a bit better to use laminated material (as he did) to allow the RH tower to slide more easily. Otherwise, it's been a great tool, and didn't cost me nearly as much as even a cheap truing stand.

-Jeremy