MistaMuShu

I'd like to try my hand at wheelbuilding. I figure a truing stand would be a good investment even if I don't get too obsessed with wheels.

On ebay, I note the bike-shop quality stands cost circa $180 shipped. There are some folding ones and no name stands as well for much less. I checked on Sheldon Brown/ Harris and I would like something a step above the flimsy stands. I want a stand that works well so I don't get discouraged early on.

Any recommendations? PM me if you have an old one that you'd like to sell or have recently upgraded.

capwater

I've got a cheapie minura/spin doctor that works great. Sure, maybe not for everyday shop use, but builds a perfectly acceptable wheel.

Stacey

I vise up an old front fork with a coaster brake reaction arm band on each leg and a long bolt thru each retained by wing nuts. It's cheap/free, and works just as good as the high priced spread.

rm -rf

+1 on the cheap spin doctor stand -- it works good for me. Spend the money on a Park TM-1 spoke tension tool.

Retro Grouch 

The big selling feature for the more expensive stands is the self centering feature that lets you check the dish while you're doing side-to-side trueing. I've found that feature to be unreliable on every stand that I've ever used.

MistaMuShu

wow, not the heaping praise I expected for the high-end stuff. I need to go find myself a big workbench, a vice, and a fork.

urbanknight

I actually had the opposite experience. Someone gave me a Park professional truing stand 10 years ago and it has been a dream to work with. You don't have to flip thye wheel to do the other side like the really cheap models, and every wheel came out dished properly, save for one which I found wasn't in the truing stand's fork all the way when I was truing it. I used to get my wheels so in true you would hear a ping every time the seem went by! That doesn't happen so much now with machined braking surfaces, but it was a source of pride back then.

Al1943

+1 including the TS2

Al1943

Forks are spaced 100mm, rear wheels are wider.

MistaMuShu

What does this mean?

cyccommute 

The fork will work just fine as long as you only want to build front wheels. I'd hate to have to try and muscle a 135mm hub into a 100mm fork Sounds like a 2, or even 3, person job to me.

I've owned something like the Spin Doctor and it gets the job done. It's not fancy and it is cheap. If you are building a few wheels over several years, it's lack of bells and wistles won't do any harm.

If you like tools, however, and like them to be rugged and well made, go for the TS2. I've used mine for several years. It's easier to clamp the wheel in the stand than other truing stands, it adjust for front hubs and the widest rear hub. Like any precision tool, it does need care and occasional alignment. The centering mechanism works just fine if you take the time to align the stand (yet another tool ). I still check all of my wheels with a dishing gauge but they are close enough that I don't have to really worry about them.

And, unlike the cheaper ones, if you happen to drop it from a wall bracket...twice...7 feet to the concrete garage floor, you can pick it up and just go right on making wheels like nothing ever happened

MistaMuShu

I'm assuming the TS-2 does the dishing without having you flip the wheel. The TS-8 looks similar and costs about half what the TS-2 does. Anyone have a TS-8? Does it auto-dish, so to speak?

If I get a nice stand, I could skip out on the extra clutter of having a dish tool.

Stacey

Not at all, just spread those fork legs open and drop the hub right in.

cyccommute 

No, the TS8 doesn't autocenter like the TS-2. As with most stands, you can get close to the proper dish by flipping the wheel in the stand (without moving the gauges). You just go back and forth until you are satisfied.

HillRider

A relatively inexpensive truing stand like the Park lower-line, Minoura or Performance's house brand will work fine for almost any home wheel builder. You will need a dishing tool and, a tension tool is a good investment unless you are sure you can tell "by ear" when the spokes are at the correct tension.

I've built several wheels with the crude truing stand that came with my Ultimate work stand along with a Park dishing tool and they have come out true and round and properly dished. I wouldn't use it for routine wheel building but it's adequate for the few uses it gets.

urbanknight

Sorry I meant seam not seem. Rims have a seam where the two ends are joined to make the complete circle. In older production methods, this created a tiny bump at the seam. When you true one of those wheels so that nothing hits the pegs on the truing stand except the seam, you have it as true as can possibly be. I rarely achieved that in roundness, but always did for side to side. Anyway, modern rims have machined braking surfaces and/or different joining methods, so those seams aren't as noticeable anymore.

urbanknight

True, although there will be a clearance issue if you try to true a wheel with the tire on later (I do this for quick fixes). The dish might also be of a tad since each side might flex differently, but it will be just as accurate as the cheaper models.

To the OP, the TS-2 is indeed very nice to have, but had I not been given it for free I might have gone with something less expensive. It depends on how many wheels you want to build. I ended up building and truing tons of wheels for family and teammates, so it was nice to have. I also became Team Redlands' best friend after the poor pavement in stage 3 of the Tour of the Future

Al1943

[QUOTE=MistaMuShu]I'm assuming the TS-2 does the dishing without having you flip the wheel. QUOTE]

Not really. If you center the caliper arm for a 130mm rear wheel it will do a pretty good job of centering other 130mm spaced wheel. Where it has issues is when you adjust the span to fit a front wheel. It will probably not be centered. I keep my TS2 centered for rear wheels. For front wheels I set all spokes at the same tension and then confirm dish by flipping the wheel on the stand.

Al

fsor

In my experience, the TS2 did not have the self-centering feature adequately aligned as received. After alignment with a home made tool, it seems to stay aligned. Haven't got a decade of use out of it, but so far, it works fine. You would think that Park would assemble it and align it but naaahhhh

Speedub.Nate

One that hasn't been mentioned in this thread is Ultimate's one-armed bandit, which I favor because of its simplicity, portability and inconspicuousness.

I owned the Minoura (Performance Spin Doctor) for a number of years. Despite its flex, I turned out a number of solid wheels on it, proving that it's all about the builder, not the stand.

I "upgraded" for a very short time to the Park TS-2. I was disappointed that the self centering was, in fact, not. Despite its incredible heavy duty build, I felt my dollar would be better spent elsewhere.

I then picked up the Ultimate. I find the one-armed design very freeing, providing open access to one entire side of the wheel. Yes, I have to use the flip flop method (or a dishing guage), and the QR skewer must be tensioned each time the wheel is repositioned.

But for that minor inconvenience, I get a stand that accepts my big 29" wheels with the tires still mounted, I get a portable design that comes with a weighted base, and it's pretty compact to store unobtrusively on a shelf since I don't have a dedicated workshop in which to keep it.

531Aussie

i have a cheap, foldable stand, and while it definitely does the job, it's bit annoying that it flexes, and lets the wheel flex, just when I don't want it to. I can't barely touch the wheel without the whole thing flexing just enough to be a nuisance.

Mothra

Yeah, I've had a Park TS-2 for 12-years now and it's allowed me to build 100s of wheels quickly and perfeclty true. There's an adjustment that centers the swingarm between the axle-holder. It's critical that the swingarm is perfectly centered between the axle-ends. Then the pincher claws needs to have their pivots well-oiled for easy centering. It's not hard to have old lubricant combined with dust and metal shavings cause extra friction and have one of the fingers not move the same amont as the other. Also make sure you keep the threads on the adjustment knobs well-cleaned and oiled. And don't drop the truing-stand, it weighs a hefty amount. You end up dropping it onto one of the adjustment knobs and bending it, leading to non-linear movements.

urbanknight

Although I never dropped it, I did unscrew the fork adjustment all the way once! It has to be threaded just right to be lined up, and it took me a few tries to get it back to the right position. Not sure why I did it, but it seems that you can't use it to true a 150mm axle spacing if they ever go that wide.

Anders K

+1 for the TS-2, but you could do with a much cheaper stand if you're not planning on building many wheels or if you're not a tool fetichist You will need a dishing tool though.

cavernmech

I build about 200 wheels a year using an older Park TS-6 truing stand. I personally don't like any of the "self-centering" stands. They are o.k. for front wheels...again as long as the centering adjustment is spot on...but for rears it can be benificial to be able to separate dishing and lateral adjustment. When building a rear wheel I always start with a slightly tensioned, perfectly true lateral and radial rim. Once you have everything straight and round you can add tension. I have for years (and Gerd recommends it in his book) done all the drive side tension first and then used non-drive tension to bring the wheel into dish. With the self centering stands this is not really possible as the truing probe will always be far closer on one side. I will take my 12 year old adjustable Park stand over any of the self centering ones. My next stand will be the nuclear bomb proof Hozan model.