My home made wheel jig and dishing tool

[FluffyChicken]

Personally I would drop the wing nuts to under neither (on the rim bit) and look at some Quick Release to make it easier in that position.
I would also look at angling the rim bar down as I prefer it lower down.

But looks solid and certainly do an easier job and is more flexible than my Proflex Rear end and Syncros Fork truing stands I've bodged up. I still intended to make something proper some time.

 

[tarloone]

Nice effort!!

Out of interest, have any of you built a wheel without a jig? Reason I ask is I'm thinking of building my front wheel that whilst is easy enough to lace up whilst watching the box, the final truing without a jig is going to be impossible, so was thinking of just putting it on the bike and using brake pads as a guide?

 

[BobToo]

I have done it, on a front wheel. I cable tied something to the forks to use as a guide, but I cant' remember what. Brake pads would do if you were absolutely sure they would be central and they wouldn't move.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Truing in the frame is not so bad, ease depends on the frame and vertical wobble (roundness) is the harder to do as you'll need more than just you brakes.
BUT you'll get near enough.

Just remember to start wide, work to one side, keep turning the around (work to one brake block only). You can then align your blocks using the tension of the brakes to work out where the centre really should be and go from there.
It takes a bit longer.

 

[torqueless]

Out of interest, have any of you built a wheel without a jig? Reason I ask is I'm thinking of building my front wheel that whilst is easy enough to lace up whilst watching the box, the final truing without a jig is going to be impossible, so was thinking of just putting it on the bike and using brake pads as a guide?

I build both front and rear wheels this way. A stand is good if you've got space and build a lot of wheels, especially if you build wheels to fit in a frame you don't actually own/ride, as pro wheelbuilders do. If you lack space and build wheels occasionally, you improvise. Plus if you true the rear wheel in the frame it's going to end up in, you can sort the hub/chainline stuff out, and then just centre the rim in the frame, provided you got the spoke-lengths sorted out more or less beforehand. So you don't really need a dishing tool. Take the bars/stem out if you build a front wheel- you can look down the steerer-tube to centre the rim, and/or reverse the hub in the forks. Obviously if your forks are dead true the rim should still be central after reversing the hub. If your forks are not dead true you can skip reversing the hub in the forks and custom-true the rim to run true to the steerer-tube centre/axis, which is what matters- bearing in mind that reversing such a wheel in the forks will put the rim off-centre, so best avoided.

I usually put a bit of masking tape across the fork-blades/seat-stays, to check for 'roundness', and slacken off the brake-bolt just enough that I can use either brake-block as a truing-guide by pushing it against the rim.