Spoke tension meters - calibration

[Remko]

Re:

Yesterday I've used the Hozan. It's working nicely, although I'm not sure if it needs calibration or not. As written earlier in the topic, comparing spoke tension is probably what it is used best for. I also used my fingernails for pinging. It's nice to conclude that the tones are similar once you've brought tension of all spokes up to about 800 Newton. But the Hozan gives you instant information about the effects of tightening or loosening. It's just very nice to see the process of your actions on the meter.

Ernie Frieke, a wheelbuilder located in Veldhoven in The Netherlands has a lot of very usefull information on his website and youtube. With his explanation I'm sure anyone with some technical feeling and the right tools will be able to build a wheelset.

Sorry, only in Dutch: http://bikeboosting.nl/
Or the video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3fwVBuhwS54

 

[jackosbournesnr]

You don't NEED a spoke tensiometer. They can however help.

Lets say you have just built a 32 spoke wheel and are now on to final tensioning...Assuming you have reasonable hearing, you can probably get down to just under 10% variance in spoke tension using the plucking method alone. Getting below that requires lots of experience. 10% variance isn't a bad place to be in terms of the quality of the wheel.

I can get there a la Roger Musson, but to get under 5% variance, I need a tensiometer - I have a basic Park model. All it does is allow me to narrow the relative tension differences around the wheel. I wouldn't use it to actually build the wheel.

I know for example that Pro-Lite build their wheels using tensiometers, but they use the ones that cost £500 and calibrate them each twice a day