| Item | Rating ***** | Quick Quote |
|---|
| Quality | ***** | The Best |
| Features | *** | Average |
| Operation | ***** | Very Smooth |
| Truing Ability | ***** | Excellent Finish |
| Price | **** | Quality Costs |
| Recommend | ***** | Must Have |
| Supplier | Phone | Web Site |
|---|
| Ted Longshaw | 01689-862536 | www.tedlongshaw.co.uk |
I have just received my first set of foam wheels to true, these are 'Arrows' made by GRP Products in Italy. The
factory finish was not the best on a couple of the wheels, looking as if the cutter was possibly blunt. Having
offered the wheels up to the car first, I found that the 26mm front rims were fouling on the steering levers so
at the same time as truing the diameter I decided to trim the width to 24mm using a Stanley knife on the truer.
The rear wheels are 30mm width and both the fronts and rears were approximately 65mm in diameter, although this
varied slightly according to my trusty Vernier Caliper.
The first job with the truer is to install the accessory wheel adapter that is suitable for truing Touring Car
wheels which use the 12mm hex drives which is the standard fitting. This adapter is precision machined and
balanced and clamped to the main truer shaft using an allen bolt, an aluminium knurled thumb screw is used
to secure the wheel to the adapter which makes for quick and easy wheel installation and removal.As the truer
uses a 12Vdc supply it's a case of setting it up using the car battery until I purchase a portable
12Vdc power source, this is where I can find the only fault with the truer because the supplied power lead with
crocodile clips is too short, this means you need a work bench or table next the battery in the car; However, as
you need a reasonably sturdy work surface for the truer this is not too much of a problem.
With the standard cutting tool positioned all the way to the left and clear of the mounted wheel, the 0-2° camber
adjustment was set to 0° to true the wheel parallel on the diameter. The truer was switched on, immediately it
is apparent that the overall set-up is very well balanced because there is no vibration from the machine at all.
I was aiming to true the wheels to 62mm diameter and for the first wheel this was completed in a series of smaller
cuts to check the accuracy of the two graduated scales on the tool holder. The first scale is the main one on the
tool holder which ranges from 60-80mm, This scale although accurate will not show you a true diameter of the wheel
because it does not allow for cutting tool wear, so it is used for a guide only. The second scale is a micrometer
wheel that is used for setting the depth of cut, this scale is very accurate and is a direct scale which means that
if you dial in 1mm from the zero point it will cut 1mm from the overall diameter, even when cutting a fraction of
a millimeter from the diameter the graduations on this scale proved to be very accurate. The cut was completed from
left to right and then back again to the start point in a series of smaller cuts until the required size was reached,
the edges of the wheel were then radiused using a file. The overall finish of the wheel was far better than how they
were originally supplied. The subsequent wheels were all trued in one cut and although the finish was not as good as
the first, they were still far better than the original factory finish. As mentioned the front wheels were trimmed
to 24mm width while on the truer using a sharp Stanley knife, this gave a perfectly square cut and excellent finish.
