Good to hear information. I sold my combination balancing/truing stand a while back and went back to my homemade balancing method. Long ago I made a set of balancing rollers from rollerblade bearings, mounted to small pieces of angle iron mounted to short lengths of 2x4. Used to set them up on a couple of saw horses, but now set them up on the sides of the dropout panel in my lift table. It works just about perfect as the tire/wheel occupies the space where the dropout panel is removed from and you can lift or lower the table to a comfortable height. I feel I'll be able to "McGyver" something to true the wheel, as you did, I'm patient, as you are, and will take my time. One plus of being retired is I'm not on a schedule and don't have to be in a hurry anymore. Something I haven't thought of or investigated was the offset that you speak of. I'll have to look into that.Knut, I didn't find it too difficult. The Commando front was the first one I attempted. Just take it slow, make sure the correct hub holes are used for the correct rim holes, build it loose and get it true, with the right offset, before the nipples are anywhere near tight.
I don't have a truing stand. I laced the wheel on a flat surface, with the rim resting on 2 pieces of wood, to set an initial offset. With all the spokes in, I used an axle in the soft jaws of my bench vice, with a ruler flat on the work bench. I used the ruler to check and true side to side and up and down trueness.
For me, the key was getting it true and maintaining the offset while the nipples were still not tight, with only small tightening turns each time. Then I did tiny turns of the nipples each rotation, constantly checking trueness / offset. Took me a couple of hours, maybe more, but the radio was on and it was a pleasant afternoon. I've replaced a Honda rear hub and drum since with the same approach.
I'm patient-ish, no mechanic though. If I can do it, most people should be able to, if you want to, of course!
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