Wheelbuilding
- Thread starter winjim
- Start date
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OP
OP
winjim
Smash the cistern
Cost is about £25, less if like me you already have some of the bits lying around. Compare that to a Park TS2.2 at £200. The arms detach so it can be stored flat so takes up very little space. Time will depend on your woodworking expertise and the tools you have at your disposal, but it doesn't need to look pretty to work.
its on my list to do this month,was looking on the bay for secondhand truing stands but with some manual labour this looks the ticket. To be fair I`ve just been truing my wheels up in my bike frame and using the brake blocks as my guides, cable ties work as well.
S.Giles
Guest
-
BTW, I used to have space in a workshop that produced offcuts of marine-ply that would have been just right for a wheel-truing stand, and it also gave me access to a table-saw. I could have made one for nothing in a couple of hours but that was several years ago and I no longer have that facility, unfortunately.
Yes, £25 is not a fortune, but I can't spend on anything but essentials at the moment, and the storage and distraction really would be an issue for me.
BTW, I used to have space in a workshop that produced offcuts of marine-ply that would have been just right for a wheel-truing stand, and it also gave me access to a table-saw. I could have made one for nothing in a couple of hours but that was several years ago and I no longer have that facility, unfortunately.
PpPete
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chandler's Ford
Or we've both got it horribly wrong!I'm going to paint it up while I wait for the spokes to arrive, and I've got an idea for a dishing gauge I want to try. It's reassuring to know that you managed to build a good wheel with it
Well mine's just the same and I've built many good wheels on it.
The one thing I did different to RM was to take his cardboard dishing gauge pattern and transfer into plywood. 3 layers of 6mm with the middle bit of the middle layer missing... then a 'pointer' out of another piece going through it. A hole in the outer parts and a slot in the pointer - with a wing-nut fixing them together.. A bit 'chunky' but works a treat. 4mm plywood would be perhaps better.
OP
OP
winjim
Smash the cistern
Shame, that would've been a useful facility to have access to. At the moment my unborn child even has a better workbench than me
Yes, I've also got an idea for a bit of a better dishing gauge. If it turns out to be a crummy idea then I'll just do the cardboard one.
andytheflyer
Guru
- Location
- South Cheshire
Yes - I also beefed up the dishing gauge a bit (6mm MDF with some stiffener battens) - I build model 'planes so I applied a bit of specialist woodworking skill. Works a treat.
What I find more concerning is the debate going on here: https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/spoke-lengths-round-up-or-round-down.175442/
I used the manufacturer's data for the hub, measured the ERD a couple of times with a couple of old spokes and averaged, rounded up or down to the nearest mm to get the spoke lengths, and built the wheel to the RM instructions. Maybe I ended up with a good wheel by accident. Didn't seem to me that it was that complicated! Must have missed something....
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I've just built a wheel onto an existing hub. I measured the hub PCD & width and took the rim ERD off the manufacturer's website. I ordered the rim (Ambrosio Excellence) from David at DCR. I asked him to check my spoke lengths. He actually measured the ERD (which turned out to be different from the quoted figure) so I went with his recommended spoke length.
The personal touch, from Someone Who Knows, is worth a lot.
(I used a Park stand and dishing tool that I borrowed from a friend. No carpentry needed.)
Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
I have one that @Cuchilo built for me. I love mine but it's not a replacement for the TS2.2 there are tasks that I like to carry out on my wooden jig but for others the TS2.2 is just so much easier / quicker to do.
I think it is a really good jig to have, the problem is that I started building wheels on the TS2.2 and it's going to be very difficult to give it up.
BTW the TS2.2 can also be stored flat but who would pay £200 for a truing stand to have it stored
OP
OP
winjim
Smash the cistern
Yes, that was a bit of a cheeky comparison on my part, for the sake of emphasis. It might be fairer to compare it to something like a TS8, at £100.I have one that @Cuchilo built for me. I love mine but it's not a replacement for the TS2.2 there are tasks that I like to carry out on my wooden jig but for others the TS2.2 is just so much easier / quicker to do.
I think it is a really good jig to have, the problem is that I started building wheels on the TS2.2 and it's going to be very difficult to give it up.
BTW the TS2.2 can also be stored flat but who would pay £200 for a truing stand to have it stored
OP
OP
winjim
Smash the cistern
Just got back from the LBS, spokes in hand (DT competition I believe). Interestingly, I was going to go for black, but the wheelbuilder there said he finds black spokes too brittle and much prefers to build with the regular silver ones so that's what I've got. Does anybody have experience with this? @Spoked Wheels and @Yellow Saddle I'd be interested to hear your opinions.
Just got to sort out the cheapo nasty gloss paint I've used on the truing stand and I can get to work.
Just got to sort out the cheapo nasty gloss paint I've used on the truing stand and I can get to work.
Great project! I've built one pair of wheels, just in the frame without a stand or dishing tool. I did buy a tension meter, not because it's necessary but just out of curiosity. I used '80s Dura Ace hubs, Sapim butted spokes and Open Pro CDs. Very pleased with the results. Used them for heavy touring and it gave me a satisfying feeling of self reliance, which was new to me because I'm not skilled mechanically. It's amazing what you can do if you read up on things and ask around and are happy to spend most of a day on something a professional would do in 20 minutes.
Next I want to build some deep aero wheels with Gigantex carbon rims, CX Ray spokes and Extralite hubs.
Next I want to build some deep aero wheels with Gigantex carbon rims, CX Ray spokes and Extralite hubs.
Spoked Wheels
Legendary Member
- Location
- Bournemouth
I also prefer silver spokes. I find that black spokes don't aged very well and on the othe other hand silver spokes with a bit of cleaning they look like new every time
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
This is utter nonsense. The coating on black spokes is an oxide coating and the process only affects the surface layer of molecules. it does not affect the spokes at all. The reason your bike shop only stocks silver spokes is because of the high cost of black spokes. They are up to 40% more expensive and wheelbuilders without their own spoke threading machines have a stockholding problem. In order to be competitive, you have to keep about sixty lengths in four styles and in two colours. Do the math. The easy answer to the problem is to only stock silver, in even (or odd) number lengths in straight gauge only. The with a little BS and some cheating (selling customers rubbish straight gauge spokes), you run your business slightly more profitably.
As for spokes that don't age well. That's also not true. Steel cannot detect age. 5000 year old stainless steel is exactly the same as 5 minute old stainless steel. What is important is steel's fatigue life. various spokes, depending on the butting, will have different fatigue life but within the same style, the two colours have exactly the same fatigue life.
Fatigue life is not measured in units of time but in cycles. Approximately the same as wheel revolutions. This life is typically in the tens of millions of revolutions.
