I won't be building enough wheels to need a formal dishing tool.
Flipping the wheel in the truing stand, and the rudimentary method below, works for now.

So did the little Red Wings dude and/or the troll help you finish off the ice cream?

Flipping the wheel works so well for me that I've never bothered with a dishing tool. I've built/rebuilt 7 sets of wheels so far this year alone and use the flip method. Wheels have been everything from tandem wheels with basic shimano hubs and rhino lite rims to King and White Industries hubs and 140.00 rims. I worked in a shop for several years building dozens of wheels each year and a light touch with a truing stand really does work. Key is to loosen the wheel lightly drop it back into the stand and only slightly snug it, loosen, pull out the wheel without touching and again lightly drop in and only slightly snug. Movement too or from the feelers is the measure as I'm sure you know but it can get incredibly accurate with a very light touch and if you happen to be off by less then .5mm no one will ever be able to tell or know. I've seen factory builds off my 4-5mm that people had no clue of when doing tune ups and riding for years. Its an appalling amount to be off by but the flipping method can get you as close as any dishing tool.

Dishing tools are cheap enough, easy to make, and a time saver. I'm a firm believer in having the tools to make a job faster and easier.

I used to go to the Olympia nearly every Sunday for the matinee games back in the early 1960's. I saw some great games and a whole lot of blood.

Two things are equally true: You don't need to have fancy tools to build a good wheel. Good tools make building a good wheel faster and easier.

Back in my LBS days I built a few hundred wheelsets. After getting married and having kids, I didn't make or have time for riding. When they got older I started having time to get back into cycling. Before I bought a truing stand I had a set of wheels to build, so I improvised.


10 cent truing stand

I only saw one game at Olympia, also saw Emerson Lake & Palmer there. Never saw a game at the Joe, and now even it's closed. Throwaway architecture.

Sorry, /hijack.

I've been thinking of buying a wheel dishing tool for some years now...... but cheapey cheapskate me just could not get myself to spend for even the cheapest I've found! So, I've been flipping wheels since I built my first one. Personally, I don't really see the sense in ever getting one at this point....
Fry cooks can flip burgers while C&V wheel builders can flip wheels....

If you're going to measure, measure from the locknut face.

I made a dishing tool in about half an hour from a piece of scrap wood and a 3 inch bolt.

https://www.amazon.com/Park-Tool-Por.../dp/B079YW26GQ

For $35 for the park tool it is hard to argue with having the proper tool. There may be other ones available. As [MENTION=381793]gugie[/MENTION] mentioned you can do a lot without buying the tool but they make doing things easier. I see there are also some copycat tension meters on Amazon these days for dirt cheap. Not sure about accuracy but makes things easier.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B088Q...TF8&psc=1&th=1

Yes indeed. This was the first thing I noticed.

I went decades without using a spoke tensioner gauge, I don't think they were around in my LBS days yet. When I finally bought one, I found that my usual wheel build was 5-10% low on recommended tension, which isn't too terribly bad, but I had muscle memory from building a few hundred sets of wheels. A gauge is the one thing I'd buy if you were getting into more than a few wheel builds.

Yup.

I've always found flipping a wheel in the stand to be pretty useless for determining dish. This goes for both shop grade Park stands, and any kind of home economy stand. They are too wiggly. At most you get a rough notion of dish. Using the bike itself and zip ties or the like works better.

An actual tool is nice to have, but if you're not working in a shop, you can work around it. In my LBS days, I most often used the campy dishing tool. VAR made a nice tool. These days I have the cheap Minoura tool. Good enough for me and my own bikes. A DIY dishing tool would be pretty easy to fabricate if you build a lot of wheels.

Where did you take garden ornament identification classes? 😜.... That's no troll, that's a gnome.

$0 - Crap on hand -- 2 pieces of scrap wood, an old socket, a nut, a piece of threaded rod, a drawer pull and a tent pole section from a defunct tent.

Also made with scraps on hand.

Uh-oh, better home my gnome-dar.....

I thought of this too, but, after measuring, the axle protrudes from the outside of the lock nut exactly the same on each side.

Olympia operated from 1927 until 1979, and you're right...that is unheard of nowadays.
The Joe was a great venue, and I saw many Wings games there as well as a kick-ass Kid Rock concert.

Early on I, too, went to weekend matinees at Olympia. I was pretty young, but remember the early Red Wings fondly. Ted Lindsay, Alex Delvecchio, Roger Crozier, Doug Gadsby, Norm Ullman, Doug Harvey, Pete Mahovlich, and of course the incomparable Mr. Hockey...Gordie Howe.

Born and raised in the Motor City cemented my allegiance, and I've been lucky to witness many memorable Red Wing moments, including their lean years, and the resurgence after naming Steve Yzerman a young captain. Since then we've seen the Russian Five, a President's Trophy record year, Sergie Federov, Vladimer Konstintinov, Nick Lidstrom, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterburg. My all-time favorite live event was Steve Yzerman's game 7 overtime goal against the Blues. I was right in the corner where they gathered to celebrate...epic!

This is very cool, and I also have most materials on hand.
Thanks for sharing the pic...

I use a TS 2.2 with this. I can hold and adjust it one handed while flipping the wheel with the other hand. The saw blade bites into the Luann to hold its position.

^^^^^ And you'll never lose it.....

Another diy. One set of screws for 26” wheels; the other for 700c. A t-nut for the feeler bolt. A scrap of 1 x 4.

That's what I was visualizing. But why do you even need the screws (on the ends)?