I bought the wheelpro book by Roger Musson and built up his home made wheel building stand yesterday from MDF.

Its almost done, and I have to say it is pretty good.

Anyone else here made it and compared it in use against a shop bought one?

pics?

Though about building it but I have nowhere to store so im going to wait until I buy a house with a garage or big shed then do it.

Needs steel clamping jaws machined and bolted on. Very simple but very stable and needs about £5 of MDF to make.

Very neat bit of work, that. You’ve even gone to the trouble of rounding off the corners. Nice touch.

Show more pics please. Speshly close ups.

Very nice. I always found the frame I was putting the wheels into worked well, although I have been caught out by a bent fork this time.

No more pics at the mo – Its a handy design as it allows a multitude of axle lengths to be fitted with ease.

All the parts are drawn out very well in his book

Wheel pro wheel building book

Having read most of it, it seems a great instruction for the task ahead! Just have to finish this and buy the spokes til I get going on my first build

Made lots of wheels with mine its nice bit of kit.
I made the jaws from some off cuts of alloy plate, 20 minutes with the hacksaw and file, job done.
If fact the MDF was off cuts as well, total built cost was less than £1.50.

I built the wheelstand from the wheelpro book and the only time I used it it was very good. However I didnt realise how damp my shed was and after a year the MDF had started to swell making the stand useless. I am going to make a new one but I am going to varnish it with exterior gloss varnish to keep the damp out.

Speshpaul – a mate can supply me with 2.5mm aluminium plates – would they be too thing for the clamping jaws? What about doubling them up?

Steel would be a git to work with, I dont have the tools and would need a metal working shop to do it and rocket the price of the stand up.

Looking good Barry, a superb truing stand for well under a tenner. Is it better than a store-bought stand? Build/true a few wheels with the MDF stand then try a store-bought one and see the difference. I’ve tried quite a few stands (including 3 days with a TS-2) and always went back to the wooden one.

Obtaining steel jaws can be problematic and I’m certain jaws made from hard wood will be suitable since you only require a light pinch of the skewer. I intend to make some to test this theory.

2.5mm Alu will be okay as long as the skewer has sufficient thread because the threaded nut will need to screw down a lot further.

Roger

I made one as per roger’s book and painted it white (excellent tip!), and i used a strip of steel for the jaws (which was well hard to cut but works great). The other thing about mdf is it really does resonate! I built my wheels on a big wooden table on a wooden floor and it makes listening to the spokes far easier.

I won’t post a pic of mine as it is far scruffier than the one already here, but i am very happy with it.

My effort

roger-m – Member

Looking good Barry, a superb truing stand for well under a tenner. Is it better than a store-bought stand? Build/true a few wheels with the MDF stand then try a store-bought one and see the difference. I’ve tried quite a few stands (including 3 days with a TS-2) and always went back to the wooden one.

Obtaining steel jaws can be problematic and I’m certain jaws made from hard wood will be suitable since you only require a light pinch of the skewer. I intend to make some to test this theory.

2.5mm Alu will be okay as long as the skewer has sufficient thread because the threaded nut will need to screw down a lot further.

Roger

Cheers Roger

It was surprisingly easy to knock together. Though I have made a big of a dogs dinner with the 8mm slots at one part of the base.

If there is a 1mm deviation say down there, will it make my wheel end up like a Pringles crisp??!

Hi Barry, 1mm shouldn’t make any difference, it will be fine as long as the jaws match up and if you make them as shown with square cut-outs there’ll be some fore-aft leeway. You’ll need to make the reference gauges as well.

—
Roger
PS. Right now I have an Open Pro, Shimano 105 in my stand. Excellent choice of wheels (which I assume is next on your todo list).

Hi Barry, 1mm shouldn’t make any difference, it will be fine as long as the jaws match up and if you make them as shown with square cut-outs there’ll be some fore-aft leeway. You’ll need to make the reference gauges as well.

—
Roger
PS. Right now I have an Open Pro, Shimano 105 in my stand. Excellent choice of wheels (which I assume is next on your todo list).

Roger – That is the very combination I am about to build. But I haven’t purchased spokes yet or gone through the measurement process. fancy saving me the hassle?!

5600 Shimano 105 front and rear hubs, 32 hole, Mavic Open pro rims.

Barry see you don’t need me when the creator is around;-)

(and yes i’ve used 2.5mm plate, cut two piece’s clamp them together and shape them up.)

um – I made it and lets say I didn’t listen in woodworking.

Yep – I made Rogers stand about 2 years ago and have built 4 wheels on it based on the book. works fine – in fact better than fine, ive never had to tweak any of the wheels ive built on that stand or through the process in the book and one pair of them ive used to learn how to dirt jump on, so they’ve taken a right hammering.

my dad made the metal plates for mine and he made the slots too big, but with careful clamping it still builds a true wheel. most satisfying thing ive ever done with bike bits 🙂

Barry, part of the learning process is going through the hassle! Anyway…

I’ve just built a front Open Pro 32/Shimano 105 and used 296mm. The rear theoretical lengths are 294.7 and 292.9 and first choice would be 295 and 293. Second choice 294 and 292.

A measured the Open Pro ERD at 603mm

—
Roger

Is the DIY stand usable for 20mm-axle wheels?

This is what I made a few years ago and it works a treat (accuracy +-0.005″ without any trouble).

Is the DIY stand usable for 20mm-axle wheels?

Yes. Also 12mm rears.

20mm hubs require a steel stand IIRC – but there is one detailed in the book. Think you can mod the wooden one for 12mm hubs, its been a while since I read those sections.

Hi sv,

In the current book you’ll see that I’ve dropped all reference to the metal stand. I now use the wooden one for everything and no longer use the metal one.