Originally Posted by
Andrew R Stewart
Next up is my VAR #485 Preciray. A legend of the 1970s, to speak of.
I got this stand as vacation pay way long ago. What i like is the rock solid wheel/axle clamping ability and the rim followers multiplying the amount of deviation. Note the different radial roller follower which is the mod. The white lateral roller follower is OEM. At some time the radial one became "broken", I just used its stub held in place by that home made C clamp (off to the upper LH in the shot, this was one of my first school shop projects back in 1972 or so) until I came across available roller followers. Note the extra holes for the radial lever pivot, spring and limit mounts. This shift to the right increased the "wiggle" of the pointer from the OEM amount.
I think you came up with a similar solution, but slightly different implementation on the VARS truing stand to what I did.
Stock Stand:
Modified Stand:
Most of the rims I true are narrow rims. But, in theory I could make this adjustable.
The bar on the right is for side to side wobble. It doesn't significantly impact the accuracy of that indicator as it pushes straight right & left.
However, What it does is push the wheel all the way to the left. So the bar connecting to the radial true/hop indicator is extremely short. That maximizes the sensitivity of that indicator.
And I still have everything in the original spot, so spot on with the reference lines on the gauge.
It gives the gauge extreme sensitivity, and I can view oscillation between a tight spoke, and the area between the spokes.