My DIY wheel true stand fell apart after 3 builds

So I thought I'd save $150 and build my own truing stand out of some old forks and a piece of angle iron I had laying around. Looked solid when I bolted it to my bench last month, but today while tensioning a rear wheel for a customer's gravel bike, the whole pivot just sheared clean off. The wheel dropped and bent the derailleur hanger on the frame it was in, so now I'm eating a $60 repair on top of the wasted afternoon. I learned that cheaping out on alignment tools is a false economy, especially when you do this for actual cash. The forks I used were from a 90s mountain bike and definitely not rigid enough for side loads. Gonna bite the bullet and grab a Park Tool stand this weekend. Has anyone else had a homemade tool fail at the worst possible moment?

1 comments

1 Comment

tara_jones9419d ago

False economy" is exactly right, man. I learned that one the hard way too. Homemade stuff is fine for messing around, but the second you're getting paid for the work, it's gotta be solid. That pivot shearing sounds like the exact kinda failure I had with a clamped-on jig, it gave out right when I had tension on a disc rotor. Cheap forks just aren't built for that constant side load, they flex and twist way more than you think. You're making the right call with the Park Tool, I run an old TS-2 that's seen thousands of wheels and it's still dead on. That $60 repair stings now, but it's cheaper than rebuilding a customer's whole wheel later.