building tools

[goldielox]

what all are you using for the building of tools and make of the tools.
you have a dishing tool, a truing stand, and spoke guage. what for spoke gauge are you using anything else you like to use

[bombertodd]

I have:
Park TS2.2 truing stand with dials
Park Tensiometer
Unior spoke wrench (favorite) and various others
Nipple drive made from old screwdriver
Linseed Oil (spoke threads) and Finish Line lube (nipple bed)
Big screwdriver and leather gloves to stress relieve wheels

I don't have a dishing tool, I flip the wheel back and forth in the truing stand.

[WMW]

what all are you using for the building of tools and make of the tools.
you have a dishing tool, a truing stand, and spoke guage. what for spoke gauge are you using anything else you like to use

Unless you are going to build a lot of wheels or like owning tools, you don't need that much.

Good spoke wrench. Most important tool and the only one you really need. Get one that grips 3 corners, and don't skimp. Spend $7 on it
Tensiometer. Correct and even spoke tension is highly important for building strong wheels. You can use tone for evenness, but the actual tension is tough to get right. Best to err on the low side and increase if necessary. The Park model is usually adequate.

The truing stand, dishing gauge, and whatever else are nice and make the process easier, but they won't make your wheels better.

[sugarkane]

Parks stand, dials, and dish tools, blade holders... alchemy and Sapim, wrenches.. Parks masters, pk & lie, Cyrus, parks Tri internal, sapim 5.5mm and the most important tool I own my wheel fanatyk tension meter also have their shuffle box and drivers ( awesome tool). I have a parks meter too but it's a bit of a joke compared to the wheel fanatyk one. Am looking at a bicycle mfg stand in the near future. I do build wheels for money for the record though..

[eric]

I have:

Park truing stand, bolted to a chunk of steel to make a stand.
Park spoke wrenches- the 3 corner one is too tight so I use the 3-side one and care.
Park dish gauge, the crappy "portable" one. Don't get that one.
home made nipple holder
"twist resist" spoke holder
Park tensiometer
*fancy digital tensiometer made by a guy on RBR
*home made tensiometer calibration rig

*- because I'm a weenie

The Park tensiometer works ok, though it reads a little high on 1.8mm spokes at high tensions. It's more accurate with thinner spokes. it is however easier to use than the Jobst Brandt style tensiometers like the Wheel Fanatyk or the RBR one I have.

The most important tool is Jobst's wheel building book.

[goldielox]

can you guys post some pics of the nipple holders and maybe a pic of that tension meter made by that guy on rbr also and your calibration rig

[kavitator]

here is calibration "desk" i made

after more tha one year wheelfanatyk is same as new
http://kavitec.blogspot.com/2015/01/kal ... meter.html

[slashdotdash]

Tools I've used to build two pairs of wheels as follows.

• Rixen Kaul Spokey Pro (has a useful marker to indicate which direction to turn to tighten)
• Spoke Tension Gauge iPhone app for measuring spoke tension (using a credit card to pluck the spokes)
• Turbo trainer as a wheelbuilding stand (using cocktail sticks tapped on for lateral gauge, resistance for radial trueness)
• Home made dishing tool, as spec'd in Roger Musson's wheel building eBook.
• Pair of gardening gloves for stress relieving the spokes

[Derf]

- Some Park 3-sided (not 3 corner) spoke wrenches and a Unior one. Use the former to bring things up close to tension, then switch to the latter (it does have much better grip, but is slower).
- Wheelsmith (uncalibrated) tension meter. It'd be nice to calibrate, but I'm not that motivated, and generally use the same spoke type on my DS side (Sapim Race), so everything falls out from there.
- Borrow my buddy's "Spin Doctor" truing stand. Flip back and forth to do dishing. Works well enough!

Patience is probably the biggest thing--especially lacing deep rims.

[liam7020]

Heavy duty Cyclus spoke key, DT Tensiometer, Park dishing tool, Sapim & DT bladed spoke holders and, I can almost hear the laughter, a little Tacx truing jig that bolts on to my work stand. Mock ye not - I've used that little jig to built wheels that have withstood several sorties onto the Flandrian cobbles without moving a millimetre out of true!

[goldielox]

here is calibration "desk" i made

after more tha one year wheelfanatyk is same as new
http://kavitec.blogspot.com/2015/01/kal ... meter.html

in the second pic what is the colored chart in the background

[kavitator]

It is chart for PARKTOOL tensiometer

[sugarkane]

This is why the wheelfanyatic tension meter is one of the best things you'll ever spend money on.
There is no way a parks meter will give you this kind of resolution

[Marin]

I have a spoke wrench and I use a cable tie on the frame.

Works for me. I'd be faster with a truing strand, but I only build wheels for myself so don't mind taking a few minutes longer. So far, all broken spokes I had were on wheels I didn't build myself.

[HermesSport]

Seconding the recommendation for the Wheel Fanatyk tensiometer - the first time I used one of those (and the FSA before it), it was like night and day compared to the Park gauge. The WF is so much better and more precise.

Anyways, our setup here is:

Park TS2.2 with dial indicators
Park TS3 with dial indicators
Park dishing gauge
EVT Mulfinger
Velocity Spoke Nipple Tray
Wheel Fanatyk tensiometer with USB download cable
Pillar spoke wrenches (these are fantastic, HIGHLY recommended)
Park and Pillar bladed spoke holders
Proprietary wheel QC software
Centrimaster tensiometer calibration stand