Use aircraft cable tensiometer for spoke tension measurements?

[robert perkins]

Does anyone know if a cable tensiometer for aircraft cables can be
used to measure spoke tension?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2383372016&category=42291

[MikeYankee]

I doubt it would meet your needs because the aircraft-cable tensions are a lot
lower than anything you'd need for spoking a bicycle wheel..

But, hey, I'm not an aircraft mechanic -- just a pilot who also builds bike
wheels -- so see what others say.

Mike Yankee

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To reply, delete everything after "com".)

[Alex Rodriguez]

In article <46adb963.04022...@posting.google.com>,
robert....@hotpop.com says...

>Does anyone know if a cable tensiometer for aircraft cables can be
>used to measure spoke tension?
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2383372016&category=42291

My guess is that yes you can use it. It seems to work in a similar fashion
to the wheelsmith and park tensiometers.
-------------
Alex

[Michael P. Bassler]

I use one like this where I work. It has Three riser blocks. that allow you
to change, depending on cable diameter. If you can, you would want to kind
of calibrate it for a known tension, say on a set of wheels built by someone
who used a known good tensiometer. When they are calibrated they come back
with a correction table that corresponds to temp and cable size not really
designed for spokes. I believe you could use it.
"robert perkins" <robert....@hotpop.com> wrote in message
news:46adb963.04022...@posting.google.com...

[jobst....@stanfordalumni.org]

Michael P. Bassler writes:

> I use one like this where I work. It has Three riser blocks. that
> allow you to change, depending on cable diameter. If you can, you
> would want to kind of calibrate it for a known tension, say on a set
> of wheels built by someone who used a known good tensiometer. When
> they are calibrated they come back with a correction table that
> corresponds to temp and cable size not really designed for spokes. I
> believe you could use it.

When I first looked for a tensiometer, I came across this kind of
instrument and wondered why they chose to measure across the wire.
The ones I found were too complicated to put on a spoke, the lever
being on the far side of the gauge with respect to the wire (spoke),
sort of inside the wheel.

That's why I designed a one sided tensiometer that measures from the
same side as the spoke support and can be zeroed on the fly. 100 of
these instruments were sold through DT a few years ago but it seems
that the features of the instrument, low test load and high precision
gauge, zero-on-the-spoke, and one sided measurement were not
understood. Today there are only spoke tensiometers that use a high
test load, measuring across the spoke. None can be zeroed.

"I taught him everything I know and he still knows nothing!"

Jobst Brandt
jobst....@stanfordalumni.org