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Trueing tolerance
#1
I searched Wheels & Hubs, and the video; and must have missed it.

What sort of radial and axial tolerance is considered good enough for a commuter bike (27 x 1¼ tires if that makes any difference)?

I set up a trueing stand with some angle aluminum, and a dial indicator for reading the runouts. I have got the wheel to with a .006" (0.15mm) range [±.003"(±0.08mm)] both radially and axially, and visually it looks really good too.

Is that good enough?

Thank you
Nigel
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#2
Id say thats more than good enough in my book
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#3
Nah , thats terrible you got to redo your wheels so you got 1/8" wabble like normal folks.

Man my motorcycle valves have a bigger clearance than that.

You must be an engineer. :-))) Make sure to relief spoke tension by pinching together two at a time or flexing the wheel by 1/4 turn.

I just used my forks and brake pads as a truing stand. Just turned the bike upside down.

Guess you got the wheelmaster spokes done.
Never Give Up!!!
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#4
Hi George;

Yes, Wheelsmith dh13 on the drive side only, original 2.0mm on the non drive side. The arguments on Sheldon Brown's website made sense and dollars & cents to me - to have weaker spokes on the non drive side.

My next two planned, wheels will have Wheelsmith 2.0mm spokes on the non-drive side and dh13's on the drive side.

Yes, I am mechanical design engineer. Smile

Stress relief is the next step. I thought that I should get them as good as practical before stress relief, then afterwards, re-true to the same tolerance.

Thank you
Nigel
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#5
Ye 10-4 to that.

I had a set of wheels on my 85 Fuji road bike that were in good shape but had rusty spokes . I looked into replacing them with SS spokes, but too costly($60 per wheel by lbd) and too much work for me. So I threw a hail Mary pass cleaned them with crocus cloth (like scouring pad) than wiped them with mineral spirits and painted with black oil enamel paint (Rustoleum). Oil paint is very durable. All without taking the wheel apart. Redid the cones while was at it.
Came out great.
Happy Halloween,,,,,,,,,,,, Boo
Never Give Up!!!
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#6
Hey Nigel,

I was thinking of making my own truing stand too. Do you have pics of yours you could share?

I was thinking of making mine from steel and using this dial indicator.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Magnetic-Base-Dial-Indicator-Combo-President-s-Special/G9849

Steve
Junkyard Tools rescued from the junkyard!
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#7
Couple of things to watch out for
never have your eye in line with the spoke when tensioning, a breaking spoke can fly like an arrow.
I de-stress by placing the wheel on the ground on the end of the axle, gear side down, and press down around the rim, repeat on the other side, you will hear the spoke tension release. retrue.
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#8
(11-01-2010, 08:09 AM)KC-Steve Wrote:  I was thinking of making my own truing stand too. Do you have pics of yours you could share?

Hi Steve;

I will try to get some taken and posted - am in a bit of a rush this week because on Thursday, I go to China for three weeks.

I used two pieces of 3/4" aluminum angle, 1/8" thick, 14" long. One end of each needs to be cut as square as you can, the other end doesn't matter. 14" is long enough for a 27" wheel without tire, or a 26" wheel with tire. I don't know about 700c; as I don't have any.

Clamp the two pieces together, to form a 'T'; with the good ends matched as perfectly as you can.

Drill a hole thru the leg of the 'T' - going thru both pieces of angle. The hole should be centered approximately 5/16" from the end, and 5/16" from the bottom of the 'T' - AWAY from the "good" end. This hole needs to be enlarged to a bit over 10mm - 13/32" drill if you have one - I ended up using 1/2". It is easiest to drill use a center punch, drill a smaller hole like 1/8"; then separate the pieces to enlarge the hole.

On the front edge of the table, I screwed down a 36" x 2" x 1/8" piece of steel, for my dial indicator's magnetic base to grab on to. 2" width is about the minimum for the magnetic base. 18" would have been plenty long, but I was too lazy to cut the steel.

I used 3" angle brackets to attach the aluminum angle to the work table. #10-32 flat head screws were used to attach the brackets to the aluminum, and 1 5/8" construction screws for the brackets to the table. The first upright is screwed to the table, butted up against the steel bar. I used a blank axle with nuts jammed at the OLD for the wheel to be trued to set the spacing of the uprights before screwing the second one to the table.

The dial indicator in the link is very similar to what I have.
Nigel
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#9
I did my first wheels on an upside down bike.
You can use the brake blocks as a truing guide.
Get them within 1mm (or better if you have the patience!) and all will be well.
Remove the wheel and replace the other way round to check for "offset".

Now I use the rear triangle off an old frame and an old pair of front forks.Smile
Ride hard or ride home alone!
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#10
There are detailed plans for a very nice truing stand in this e-book: http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

You can see a picture of a finished one here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/questionmarke/4190843350/
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#11
(11-01-2010, 03:21 PM)xerxes Wrote:  ......You can see a picture of a finished one here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/questionmarke/4190843350/
Much nicer than mine. Smile
Nigel
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#12
Wow, nice stand. Old world craftsmanship and nice wood.

I just turned the bike upside down and used the front forks for both wheels. The wider rear wheel rolled on the axle with the cones sitting on top of the cutouts.

I was going to use the fork from my MB in vise (it was replaced with suspension fork)
but this worked out fine. You can clip a marker with a large spring clip kind of like a large clothes pin. If anyone remembers clothes pins. :-))) Or use brake pads. Ye I am a minimalist.
Never Give Up!!!
  Reply
#13
(11-01-2010, 08:09 AM)KC-Steve Wrote:  ......Do you have pics of yours you could share?......

Steve; here they are:
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb8/dianemisso/Personal/Stand002.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb8/dianemisso/Personal/Stand001.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb8/dianemisso/Personal/Stand003.jpg
http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb8/dianemisso/Personal/Stand004.jpg
Nigel
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