Bicycle wheel building may be full of folklore, pseudo science and anecdotal evidence but one thing that consistently seems to help a bike wheel last longer is to find some method to momentarily increase spoke tensions beyond your target and then to allow them to relax back to your ideal spoke tension.
There are a couple ways to accomplish this, the most common is to grab pairs of parallel spokes and squeeze really hard. This gives great results but for those of us who build a lot of bike wheels, have limited grip strength or joint issues, it can really wear on us after a long day. This is why you see a lot of production builders using wheel presses or stress relief tables. It will give you the momentary increase in spoke tension you are looking for without tearing up your hands.
The downside, until now, most of these stress relief tables are one off/custom builds, mostly used by bigger brands. We wanted to make a more accessible table for shops and builders who would like access to the benefits of a table but do not have the time, desire or cash to go down the custom route.
Our table is built with an aluminum t-slot frame that is easy to modify and built to last decades. The industrial pneumatic piston is rated for 5 million cycles and can be easily rebuilt after you hit that threshold so this machine is built to be used.
The table is built to work with everything from 100mm rim brake hubs all the way up to 197mm wide fat bike hubs with 100mm wide rims without having to adjust anything on the machine making it great for custom builders who see a lot of variety in their builds. Should you have an even more unique spaced hub, let us know and we can easily make a new die to accommodate nearly anything that will be used on a bicycle.
The frame is wide enough to accommodate up to a 700c or 29″ rim.
You can easily adjust the amount of force with the built in air pressure regulator. To give you an idea on forces capable, here is a rough breakdown on how air pressure will change the force applied. For most modern rims we seem to have our best results between 70-100 psi.
Force Supplied:
– @50 psi 246 lbs
– @100 psi 491 lbs
– @150 psi 736 lbs
If you are interested in picking up your own, you can order them directly through our website but if you prefer to discuss things before purchasing feel free to send us an email through our contact page or just give the shop a call and I would be happy to talk in more detail.
