Home made wheel truing stand

[z0mb13e]

Following a couple of snapped spokes on my Wisper, I thought it would be pretty straight forward to replace the spokes and give the wheel a quick tweak to true it up. Not as easy on big wheels as it is BMX wheels and while I can true it on the bike with the dial test indicator, the resulting dishing and radial truing was way out, so I gave up on that idea and built myself a truing stand out of scrap.

I was quite chuffed with the result and as soon as I get a few nipples to replace the ones I mangled while it was on the bike I will have another go at setting it up.

 

[Fecn]

Nice work Zombie - Can't beat a bit of DIY. How long did that take to make?

Here's my truing jig from last year when I laced my first wheel. Nothing but clamps really

 

[daniel.weck]

Nice and simple. Beautiful.

 

[z0mb13e]

Thanks!

It took me about 3 and a half hours but that included clearing a space in the garage in which to work and finding the right drills and taps

Fecn, I did see your setup in the Bromton wheel build thread - that is ingenuity at it's best! Infact that whole thread was the catalyst for me building my own wheel truing stand and persevering rather than taking the wheel to a local bike shop.

 

[Fecn]

..Infact that whole thread was the catalyst for me building my own wheel truing stand and persevering rather than taking the wheel to a local bike shop.

I bet you had a lot more fun making it yourself than you would have had taking it to the bike shop. - Can't beat a good bit of shed/garage time

 

[Dynamic Position]

Guidance to the art of wheel truing.

In the past I have always relied on my Raleigh bike shop for wheel truing, however I no longer have an expert at hand because the bike shop closed down.

How does one learn the art of wheel truing?

Practice is an obvious answer, but where/what is the best way to start & what should be avoided?

 

[z0mb13e]

Definatley more fun making this than taking it to a bike shop.

As for learning - I used to mess around fixing buckled wheels on BMXs as a kid and that was all trial and error - guess I had more time and wasn't so worried about the cost of things - but now I am learing the fine art on large wheels - its a different ball game.

The Brompton wheel build thread I mentioned earlier is a good place to start.

Park tool seem to have a few decent tutorials.

Youtube is a great place to look. I found this series particularly helpful even though it is about building a wheel from scratch.

What I can offer from personal experience is take your time, be prepared to not make much progress. Make small 1/4 turn adjustments. It often helps to push and pull the rim from side to side to settle spokes as you make adjustments. You can true a wheel on the bike as long as it isn't too out of wack.

Don't loosen all the spokes unless you have a wheel truing stand.

Avoid mangling the spoke nipples. Make sure the spoke tool is well seated especially if the spokes are tight. It helps to oil the nipples.

And try to keep the spokes at an even tension (so they all make a simmilar pitch ping when plucked) as the wheel will stay in true for longer.

 

[Dynamic Position]

And try to keep the spokes at an even tension (so they all make a simmilar pitch ping when plucked) as the wheel will stay in true for longer.

I have seen an electronic device for tuning guitars for under £20 in ASDA, would such an instrument provide an ideal way to keep the spokes in tune and thus keep a wheel true?

 

[z0mb13e]

I'm not sure - they probably wouldn't have the range and the spokes wouldn't have the sustain to allow it to find the note.

In my experience the pitch can vary a fair bit as some spokes will be tighter than others - I am just listening out for loose spokes (dull sound) or massive differences in sounds.

You can also just pull adjacent spokes together and estimate the tension or buy a spoke tension gauge.

 

[flecc]

I have seen an electronic device for tuning guitars for under £20 in ASDA, would such an instrument provide an ideal way to keep the spokes in tune and thus keep a wheel true?

There would be too much sonic variation due to spokes coming off the inside or outside of the hub flange and also nipple hole placement variations. Also some standard wheel three-cross builds have the spokes changing sides and crossing against each other at the third cross and that would damp the sound and make it impossible to consistently pluck the spokes.

Interesting idea though.
.

 

[z0mb13e]

I was assuming again - as Flecc mentions, when spokes cross over I just pull the touching spoke away and pluck the then free spoke to get a clean sound.

 

[z0mb13e]

Update

I thought I would post an update on how I got on with fixing my Wisper 905 back wheel. Hopefully useful for anyone thinking of trying it themselves.

Thanks to Norman at Wisper I got a few spokes and nipples and set about truing the wheel.

It took several goes to get the wheel true, as the radial true (Where the rim is an equal distance from the hub all the way round) was particularly unbalanced. There was always a slight bounce in the wheel which I had put down to the tyre, but it wasn't enough to cause any problems.

I started by setting the adjustable arms on the truing stand. I worked this out by measuring the axle from hub nut to hub nut, dividing by two (to get the centre distance) and then adding the rim width (actually half of the rim width as the rim is in the centre). This gave me a reference point for lateral true (side to side) and also the dishing (setting the rim in the right place side to side i.e. in the middle of the forks).

With that done I oiled the nipples to make it easier to turn them and then started taking up the slack in the spokes all the way round, 1/4 of a turn at a time until the rim was held (i.e. Not flopping from side to side) between the arms. Then I rotated the wheel to identify the top (where the rim stuck out the most) and the bottom (where the rim was sunken). I put arrow stickers (in and out) on these points so I could find them easily without having to check and recheck. I was then able to pull the side that stuck out, in and loosen off the sunken side until the wheel was as good as it was going to get (which is back to how it was before).

Having set the radial true I was then able to work on the lateral true (side to side), the rim had at this point two quite pronounced wobbles - most likely due to me continuing to ride the bike after the second spoke snapped (I was in the middle lane of a busy 3 lane gyratory system and couldn't stop without being run over). With the side arms in place (the ones set earlier), by rotating the wheel I was able to see where the rim was close to or far away from one side or the other, again adding in and out stickers for reference on the worst parts of the rim. Then I started tensioning the spokes a 1/4 turn at a time all the way round, checking how this affected the side to side movement as I went, with a decent amount of tension on the spokes I was able to concentrate on the worst side to side movement adjusting the spokes on one side or the other to pull the rim in the required direction.

Once the lateral true was good I checked the radial true again and went back and forth until the wheel was as good as it was going to get (which was pretty close to being spot on).

I did find that I got to a point where I started making things worse as I adjusted things.

I also started again after a trial fit showed the dishing was still quite a way out. Reset and started again.

After a few goes I was able to get the wheel pretty close to true in 10 minutes with the fine adjustment taking 20mins or so.

I probably spent about 6 hours tinkering until I was happy and started over 3 times until I figured out when adjusting things further just made it worse - knowing when to stop seemed to be key to getting this one right.

It's been 3 and a bit weeks since I did all that and touch wood I haven't seen any problems and no pinking sounds from the rear wheel (yet!).

 

[Lloyd]

A great tip for wheel buidling is to re-tension the wheel by removing it from the jig, placing it at a 45 degree angle against a wall or similar (taking care not to damage the rim surface) and push the two sides furthest from the contact with the wall. When I say push I mean really hoof the thing with all your might. Turn the wheel an 8th of a turn and repeat. do this all the way round , both sides, then re-jig and re-tension your nipples (the brass variety, not the pink ones). If done correctly you should here the spokes 'ting', this sounds bad but is actually good. It means they are stretching and tensioning. It makes spotting a rogue spoke tension easier, and the spokes are less likely to adjust themselves as you ride along. You should do this in between each cycle of spoke tensioning during the build process.

Another one all good wheelbuilders do is to back-turn off the nipple (oh matron). Basically as you crank the nipples up the spoke will ever so slightly turn with it. For example every 1/4 turn clockwise, you then back off 1/8th turn.If you watch the spoke closely you will see it psyically straighten (this is easiest seen with blade spokes). It takes a while to perfect, but once you mastered it you'll find your wheels are stronger, last longer, and wont shake themselves loose.

Also steer well clear of ali nipples. Yes they save weight and look cool, but brass is the way to go. Ali nips just round off.

 

[z0mb13e]

A great tip for wheel buidling is to re-tension the wheel by removing it from the jig, placing it at a 45 degree angle against a wall or similar (taking care not to damage the rim surface) and push the two sides furthest from the contact with the wall. When I say push I mean really hoof the thing with all your might. Turn the wheel an 8th of a turn and repeat. do this all the way round , both sides, then re-jig and re-tension your nipples (the brass variety, not the pink ones). If done correctly you should here the spokes 'ting', this sounds bad but is actually good. It means they are stretching and tensioning. It makes spotting a rogue spoke tension easier, and the spokes are less likely to adjust themselves as you ride along. You should do this in between each cycle of spoke tensioning during the build process.

I was doing something similar with the wheel in the stand. Pulling on the rim in one place and pushing in another, then swapping sides and doing it again, and as you said, you could hear the spokes ping as they settled down. I expect your method is easier on the hands and allows you to apply a bit more force.

The backing off of spokes isn't something I thought to do - but makes perfect sense.

 

[catsnapper]

A great tip for wheel buidling is to re-tension the wheel by removing it from the jig, placing it at a 45 degree angle against a wall or similar (taking care not to damage the rim surface) and push the two sides furthest from the contact with the wall. When I say push I mean really hoof the thing with all your might. Turn the wheel an 8th of a turn and repeat. do this all the way round , both sides, then re-jig and re-tension your nipples (the brass variety, not the pink ones). If done correctly you should here the spokes 'ting', this sounds bad but is actually good. It means they are stretching and tensioning. It makes spotting a rogue spoke tension easier, and the spokes are less likely to adjust themselves as you ride along. You should do this in between each cycle of spoke tensioning during the build process.

The 'tinging' noise is really the spoke detensioning and unwinding the windup that hasn't been removed by backing off the spoke key.
As mentioned, de-stressing the wheel should be done regularly, either with the wheel still on the stand by squeezing near parallel pairs of spokes together. Do both sides at the same time, and use a pair of leather faced garden gloves or similar, otherwise you won't want to do it again
Or a variation on the method already suggested - put the wheel horizontal, support the lower axle end on a block of wood and press down quite hard on two diametrically opposed points on the rim. Repeat this around the rim, then invert and repeat. This stresses the upper spokes and relieves the lower ones, allowing any windup to release.

As other posters have mentioned, the book by Roger Musson is a good place to start. It explains the essentials clearly and simply. Jobst Brandt has more theory, Gerd Schraner is informative and entertaining.

Alan

 

[z0mb13e]

Not sure where the photos went so I figured I would put them back here for reference.

 

[flecc]

Thanks z0mb13e, I think the site upgrade made the photos disappear.