# My DIY Wheel Dishing Tool That Cost Nothing



## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

I've been wanting a wheel dishing tool for awhile now, but didn't feel the need to spend $30 on something that I'll only use a few times a year. I still needed to come up with something because trying to dish a wheel accurately isn't always easy on my TS-8 truing stand. It's doable, but I decided to come up with a solution to this problem. I had some square steel tubing around the garage and some 1/4" carriage bolts and wing nuts. After about 15 minutes of drilling I had a 10mm hole in the center of the tube that the axle rests in and four 1/4" holes that match up to 26" and 29"/700c wheels. Wing nuts allow easy adjustment to bring the carriage bolt heads out to the brake track of the rim. It's a little more work than Park's design, but leads to the same results in the end. When the lock nuts rest against the square tube and brake tracks rest against the carriage bolts on each side of the wheel, the wheel is centered!

Final product. Not too bad looking, but I will probably paint it and spend a couple bucks on shiny new hardware 










Here you can see the two hole on each side. The inner holes line up to 26" wheels and the outer holes line up to 29"/700c wheels.


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## gmats (Apr 15, 2005)

Another good one. One suggestion, I would have threaded the box section so that you could thread the bolt directly into it. That would make making a measurement easier. Still, great job on the imagination.


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

I thought about threading it, but I didn't have the tools or the will power  I have some more pieces of steel, so that may be a future project! Thanks for the tip.


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

Just so everyone's aware, the heads of the carriage bolts are what I use on the rim. The larger diameter is a little bit more stable than the other end of the bolt.


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## gmats (Apr 15, 2005)

sasquatch rides a SS said:


> Just so everyone's aware, the heads of the carriage bolts are what I use on the rim. The larger diameter is a little bit more stable than the other end of the bolt.


I agree, the head of the carrier bolt would indicate much better than the threaded end. Again, great job.


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## nov0798 (Nov 27, 2005)

Just leave the bolts fixed (make it level), and add a sliding vertical center so you adjust the height over the nuts, and itll work just like the parks or any others. Simply drill a hole horizontally in the aluminum bar in the center, then use an L shaped bracket and a small carriage bolt and wing nut to adjust its height to the locknuts.


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

Brilliant!  Besides having to change the carriage bolts when going from different size wheels, that would work very well. I've got some spare rear rack brackets like the picture below that would work perfectly, I'd just have to cut it down to size.


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## customfab (Jun 8, 2008)

nov0798 said:


> Just leave the bolts fixed (make it level), and add a sliding vertical center so you adjust the height over the nuts, and itll work just like the parks or any others. Simply drill a hole horizontally in the aluminum bar in the center, then use an L shaped bracket and a small carriage bolt and wing nut to adjust its height to the locknuts.


Or you could just use a ruler.


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## Lars_D (May 24, 2011)

I just use cable tires.

--Lars


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

*Update*

Went ahead and used nov's idea. I've got the bolts fixed now (not using the bolt head anymore, unfortunately) and drilled a horizontal hole for a slider. I have to pick up a rack bracket tomorrow while I'm at work. After adding the bracket and a washer it should be complete  Thanks for the ideas guys! Even though it won't be a tool that's used frequently, it's nice to have a dishing tool for when I do build wheels.

Still using wing nuts so I can change the bolts from the 29" holes to the 26" holes.










Had to use the same steel tube, but you can see now that I've cut a carriage bolt down the size to use for the slider.










Do you guys think I should leave the rack bracket straight like the Park tool? Or put a 90 degree bend on it to contact the end of the axle better (like the Park tool has at the top of the slider)?










I'm also probably going to eventually cut the carriage bolts shorter, as they're pretty long and don't need to be that long.

I'll make sure to post up pictures after work tomorrow.


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

Definitely going to prime and paint it when the weather warms up too :thumbsup: Maybe powdercoat...maybe.


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## nov0798 (Nov 27, 2005)

You dont need to move the bolts, if you add a sliding thing somewhat like the Parks.


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

Works perfectly


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## veganman (Jul 9, 2013)

Sasquatch your tool you made is very nice. I am making the same tool, only instead of using bolts I am using a 3" peice of the same tube and welding it to the bottom of my tube on each end. You could use either a longer or shorter peice of tube. The slide part will make up the difference, no need to adjust anything but slider. Just my $.02 worth.

Anyway, nice idea. 
Jerry


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## veganman (Jul 9, 2013)

I forgot something, I'll add picture after I get it welded and painted.

Jerry


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

veganman said:


> Sasquatch your tool you made is very nice. I am making the same tool, only instead of using bolts I am using a 3" peice of the same tube and welding it to the bottom of my tube on each end. You could use either a longer or shorter peice of tube. The slide part will make up the difference, no need to adjust anything but slider. Just my $.02 worth.
> 
> Anyway, nice idea.
> Jerry


I've got mine set up so that the only part to adjust is the slider while building a wheel. I do have mine set up so I can change the bolts to work with 26" vs. 29"/700c wheels. I used it a few days ago to build some other wheels and found it very useful from what I used to do.


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## sasquatch rides a SS (Dec 27, 2010)

Just thought I'd give an update for this. It has worked great for the 5 wheels I've built with it! I was given some money as a gift so I've got a Park WAG-5 on order :thumbsup: and I needed a couple wingnuts for another project, so this one was disassembled.


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## dwyooaj (Dec 14, 2006)

I use a piece of gatorboard cut to the right shape with a long drywall screw stuck sideways into the center of it that I can screw by hand in and out easily to but up against the hub to make sure both sides are the same. Works perfect.


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## stubs (Aug 20, 2007)

I use a piece of corrugated cardboard cut from the side of a box and then use an old spoke pushed through the corrugations. Cost £00.00 and its as accurate as needed for when I build a wheel which is about once a year.


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