Friday, April 03rd, 2009 | Author:

A dishing tool is used to check that the rim is centered between the hub ends during wheel building or truing. In the mid-1980’s, being a poor high-school kid, I built a wheel dishing tool out of a 2×4 with a bite cut out of the center, and a screw assembly from a cheap stamped c-clamp. Over the years the tool took a beating from multiple moves and not enough care in storing it.

I have the cheapest truing stand known to man, which does not automatically center the feelers so if I’m not careful, I can walk the rim out of dish while truing.

I was going to buy a dishing tool, but the ones available today aren’t too impressive and cost more than one I could build out of 80-20 aluminum extrusions. I used my little machine tools and put one together for about $30. The main components are 10 series single slot 80-20; the main beam is 30″ long, and the arms are 3 inches long. The center feeler is a piece of 1/4-20 all thread with some hardware store knobs on the outside, and a simple turned feeler on the inside. The pictures are below:

Category: Bicycling
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One Response

  1. 1
    Kent 

    I’ve been considering using the 80/20 stuff to build a wheel truing stand. My thoughts are a tool that I can chuck up in my bike stand and true wheels while standing up just like when working on a bike. I have a stick of 1010, which would clamp up nice in a stand, and I’m thinking of using that as a starting point. Thoughts?