Wheel-Holding Work Stand
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Wheel-Holding Work Stand
I've been working on a series of shop tools that will make certain bike maintenance tasks easier and somewhat more pleasurable. Mostly what I'm doing is exercising my brain, and allowing me to work with my hands. It feels good!
What I've done here is fabricate a stand that will clamp to a bench and hold a wheel. I will then be able to work on the wheel - polishing the rim, scrubbing and cleaning the spokes and the hub. This is NOT a truing stand, but I suppose it probably wouldn't take a lot of re-engineering to convert it for truing duty.
Basically what I've done is to adapt a few pieces of scraps and weldments that I had laying around.
I wanted the stand to be able to hold a 27" wheel. Here's a Maillard-hubbed specimen I just pulled off a 1978 Motobecane Grand Touring in for restoration. When I do a resto, I'll brush, and rub, and massage, and apply love to every square millimeter of the bike. Holding wheels becomes difficult if I want to get a good buff job, its always good to have an extra hand to hold the work.
After building the arms to hold the wheel, I need something to hold them at the right height while I sit on my stool. I had this old knifemaking jig I made 20 years ago kicking around so I decided to use it.
These are the wheel-holding arms. Made from scraps I had lying around. Not the best welding job, but I manage to get by. Damn the torpedos!
This is the jig that I used to use to rub out knife blades. The clamp does a great job of holding an unmounted blade while I rub it with varying grits of sandpaper. I still have a lot of work and testing to do in this, but it is a work in progress, and I'll post more pics as I go along. The beauty of this stand is that it is flexible and will hold any rim diameter and any hub width. Admittedly, I will only need to use this for vintage wheels, because anything modern wont require polishing or the type of care that vintage wheels require.
What I've done here is fabricate a stand that will clamp to a bench and hold a wheel. I will then be able to work on the wheel - polishing the rim, scrubbing and cleaning the spokes and the hub. This is NOT a truing stand, but I suppose it probably wouldn't take a lot of re-engineering to convert it for truing duty.
Basically what I've done is to adapt a few pieces of scraps and weldments that I had laying around.
I wanted the stand to be able to hold a 27" wheel. Here's a Maillard-hubbed specimen I just pulled off a 1978 Motobecane Grand Touring in for restoration. When I do a resto, I'll brush, and rub, and massage, and apply love to every square millimeter of the bike. Holding wheels becomes difficult if I want to get a good buff job, its always good to have an extra hand to hold the work.
After building the arms to hold the wheel, I need something to hold them at the right height while I sit on my stool. I had this old knifemaking jig I made 20 years ago kicking around so I decided to use it.
These are the wheel-holding arms. Made from scraps I had lying around. Not the best welding job, but I manage to get by. Damn the torpedos!
This is the jig that I used to use to rub out knife blades. The clamp does a great job of holding an unmounted blade while I rub it with varying grits of sandpaper. I still have a lot of work and testing to do in this, but it is a work in progress, and I'll post more pics as I go along. The beauty of this stand is that it is flexible and will hold any rim diameter and any hub width. Admittedly, I will only need to use this for vintage wheels, because anything modern wont require polishing or the type of care that vintage wheels require.
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I am not sure how much rubbing and polishing you are going to be able to do with the wheel held into those notches by gravity alone. Not certain whether quick releases will work to hold the wheel in place. I am also concerned about flexure of the support arms letting the axle pop out of the support notches.
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I like making tools too. Since I got a small vertical miller my home made tools look better My only suggestion is to see if having the wheel holder arms run vertically, off the base placed directly on the bench top, will work for you height and reach wise. If so then any addition of rim indicators for truing will be FAR easier to see and track. Basically the way most every bench top truing stand is designed. Andy
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I am not sure how much rubbing and polishing you are going to be able to do with the wheel held into those notches by gravity alone. Not certain whether quick releases will work to hold the wheel in place. I am also concerned about flexure of the support arms letting the axle pop out of the support notches.
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I like making tools too. Since I got a small vertical miller my home made tools look better My only suggestion is to see if having the wheel holder arms run vertically, off the base placed directly on the bench top, will work for you height and reach wise. If so then any addition of rim indicators for truing will be FAR easier to see and track. Basically the way most every bench top truing stand is designed. Andy
About your milling machine: I'm a retired machinist by trade. You have no idea how much I miss not having a milling machine and a lathe in my shop. My mind creates things that simply shouldn't be done by hand, hence the cobbed-together look of what you see here. I used to have a full compliment of machinery here in my shop, but I sold my knifemaking business and the machines where included in the deal. I can't bring myself to lay out that kind of cheddar for machines and tooling anymore, and I'm rather enjoying the simplicity of my life without all of that stuff. Having more bikes than I need is enough to keep me occupied.
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I am not sure how much rubbing and polishing you are going to be able to do with the wheel held into those notches by gravity alone. Not certain whether quick releases will work to hold the wheel in place. I am also concerned about flexure of the support arms letting the axle pop out of the support notches.
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And that is exactly what I did not want this project to be - a mutated truing stand, Andy! I already have two Park truing stands, and I dont like to do anything other than true wheels with them. With the arms in the horizontal position, and at that height, the wheel is held in such a way that i can sit on my shop stool and work on them with much less discomfort than if I was standing or sitting in a chair with the wheel in my lap. Make no mistake: This is a proprietary device, designed to hold wheels for cleaning and polishing, and suited to my body ergonomics - nothing more.
About your milling machine: I'm a retired machinist by trade. You have no idea how much I miss not having a milling machine and a lathe in my shop. My mind creates things that simply shouldn't be done by hand, hence the cobbed-together look of what you see here. I used to have a full compliment of machinery here in my shop, but I sold my knifemaking business and the machines where included in the deal. I can't bring myself to lay out that kind of cheddar for machines and tooling anymore, and I'm rather enjoying the simplicity of my life without all of that stuff. Having more bikes than I need is enough to keep me occupied.
About your milling machine: I'm a retired machinist by trade. You have no idea how much I miss not having a milling machine and a lathe in my shop. My mind creates things that simply shouldn't be done by hand, hence the cobbed-together look of what you see here. I used to have a full compliment of machinery here in my shop, but I sold my knifemaking business and the machines where included in the deal. I can't bring myself to lay out that kind of cheddar for machines and tooling anymore, and I'm rather enjoying the simplicity of my life without all of that stuff. Having more bikes than I need is enough to keep me occupied.
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Back in my 20s I took a year of night school in tool and die. The first hands on shop project was a Vee block which started as a cube made square with a hand file. Andy
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I'm a second generation machinist. I grew up in my dad's shop. He was chief engineer, owner, and machine operator when it was needed. I remember him standing there late at night, night after night, running a machine just to get an order done by the deadline, He'd always be smoking Luckys and drinking Canadian Club chased with a Schlitz. Unless The Monkees were on television, Mom usually made me help him. He would work on producing parts, and I would stack them into wooden trays, and stand around fidgeting and driving him mad until he handed me another part. He always had a lesson for me. He was always there to show me what speed to run a certain size drill bit or end mill or yell at me for not sweeping up the swarf. Miss him.