Wheel building jig

[rmwesley]

Luxury
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Yeah, that’s the gold standard if you are buying one. I may or may not have borrowed a couple of ideas from them They look the absolute dog’s dangly bits & the dials have a non-linear scale which makes them very user friendly. I’ve had a few goes on one and, hand-on-heart, I can say I prefer mine though.

 

[Nob]

Yeah, that’s the gold standard if you are buying one. I may or may not have borrowed a couple of ideas from them They look the absolute dog’s dangly bits & the dials have a non-linear scale which makes them very user friendly. I’ve had a few goes one and, hand-on-heart, I can say I prefer mine though.

Was going to get one but they wouldn’t take AmX or ship to Saudi when I was based over there so lost a customer…they are the Rolls Royce of wheel jigs but I d just ended up with a Park Tool one with a couple of DTI’s

 

[Woz]

My biggest gripe with most commercial truing stands is flex and repeatability. Always wanted to find a Hozan No. 330.

 

[rmwesley]

My biggest gripe with most commercial truing stands is flex and repeatability. Always wanted to find a Hozan No. 330.

This one might be up your street… Lake and Elliot

 

[Tootyred]

Flex is the problem on cheap jigs. Just for balance this is mine.....no wobble, free, nice to look at.

Built, roughly, out of roger mussons book. Great read...very cheap to download.

https://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

 

[w.llh]

The "cleverest" bit is the adjustable clamping system for the wheel hub. The aluminium back plates provide the vertical movement. They are bolted onto the vertical posts using more of the "Roll-in T-Nut I-Type slot 8" fasteners.

The vertical posts can also be moved wider on the base itself if you are into building fat bike wheels, but I've not needed to do this yet.

The shafts provide the horizontal movement. Very quick and easy to adjust if you are starting a different sized rim. The LHS shafts are shorter and remain semi-fixed. The RHS shafts are longer and are the ones I use to adjust for hub size. The shafts are 16mm precision shafts which can be picked online from various web sites, including motedis. Each shaft has got H8 (I think) holes machined in each end so the brass plates can be bolted onto them.

The brass plates have got "U" shaped slots in one end and and "V" slots in the other end just in case you need to accommodate a variety of weird hub axles.

The shafts are bolted onto the back plate with the black 16mm diameter mounts and wing nuts etc.

I can't remember the exact list of parts but the you should be able to see what is required from the pics.

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Hi! Following up here, wondered if you remembered whether the aluminium plates and precision shaft diameter brackets were also from Motedis?

 

[rmwesley]

Hi! Following up here, wondered if you remembered whether the aluminium plates and precision shaft diameter brackets were also from Motedis?

Hi,

The aluminium plates were just purchased from eBay or metals4u or somewhere similar. Just search for "custom size aluminium plate" and you should get plenty of options. Some places will even drill the holes for you if you don't have a drill press.

I'm fairly sure the brackets for the precision shafts were also eBay. Again just search for "16mm diameter pipe clamp black" and its then a case of trawling through the links till you find something suitable. I found the same item on aliexpress but haven't bought anything from there before, so up to you if you want to try it. Here is the link... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007464218020.html

Good luck with the build. Happy to help further if you want any more pics / info etc.

Cheers, Richard

 

[w.llh]

Hi,

The aluminium plates were just purchased from eBay or metals4u or somewhere similar. Just search for "custom size aluminium plate" and you should get plenty of options. Some places will even drill the holes for you if you don't have a drill press.

I'm fairly sure the brackets for the precision shafts were also eBay. Again just search for "16mm diameter pipe clamp black" and its then a case of trawling through the links till you find something suitable. I found the same item on aliexpress but haven't bought anything from there before, so up to you if you want to try it. Here is the link... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007464218020.html

Good luck with the build. Happy to help further if you want any more pics / info etc.

Cheers, Richard

Hi Richard,

Thanks for the reply, for resurrecting this thread and for the extra info. Thats absolutely brilliant. Following on a few other points I wondered about….
-Were the clamp screws recessed (flush) into the rear of the plate?
-Do you remember where the brass pointer tips were sourced?
-I presume you machined the brass plates yourself? Do you had any thoughts on the V vs U and how you manage building with thru axles

Many thanks again,
W

 

[rmwesley]

No problem at all. Would be great if someone else built one.

1) Yes, the clamp bolts are recessed, but I think I also used brass (maybe delrin?) washers between the aluminium plates and the vertical arms to hold the plate slightly proud.

2) The brass tips are just speaker spikes, e.g. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Speaker-Spikes-speakes-stands-Britain/dp/B078SHZC6X

3) A friend machined the brass plates for me, but easy enough to find someone who would do it for the cost of parts + labour. I imagine if you start a thread on here you would find someone. Another good forum for that sort of stuff is https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/. I've built a fair few wheels on the jig now & I've only only ever used the U recess. It is nice knowing the V is there as a backup though. Thru axles are easy to accommodate using axle converters on the hub. I've got both 15mm >> QR and 12mm >> QR converters, e.g. https://www.bike-discount.de/en/fulcrum-adapter-thru-axle-to-quick-release-front-wheel. The vertical arms can be moved laterally to accommodate wider hubs if required. I've built a 142x15 wheel on it which just fits without having to widen the arms. Shifting them along is possible, but a bit of a faff. The QR converters add extra width to the hub, so it ends up requiring an approx. 152mm gap between the brass plates.

The only thing which immediately comes to mind as an improvement would be to stand the brass plates away from the vertical arms a bit more. Tried to explain this in a pic below.