Re-dishing

I have a rear wheel that i need to re space and re dish so i can put a ss freewheel on
the wheel hasn’t been used since it came back from the bike shop, where the made it true.
my question is how hard is it to re-dishing, last time i went to true it i got so pissed of so i just sent it of to the shop, can i just loosen one side by a quarter turn and tighten the other side by a quarter turn till i get it right
can you see any problem happening? if im only re-dishing, will it come out of true?
i wont fuk up the true ness will i ?
thanks

It will probably go slightly out of true.
Once you've redished it you will be full of confidence and at one with your spoke key - the truing will be easy.

in my experience I've always had to re-true after any operation like re-dishing. But yeah, it aint oo hard if you have a truing stand, or blu-tack and some cardboard pinters if on a budget!

I've got a copy of Roger Musson's (Mr WheelPro) wheelbuilding guide which is great and I'd recommend his cardboard dishing tool - see attachment for what it looks like (once you've cut it out of an old packing box).

You slide a steel rule against the middle portion until it's touching the locknut on one side, hold it with your thumb and then flip the wheel over to check it against the other side.

Also, you'll probably find that you need the wheel in reasonable true before you can really check the dish otherwise any wobbly bits will tend to give you a false reading.

Final thought - how much of an adjustment to the dish do you need to make? Much more than a few mm and you may find the drive side spokes start poking through the nipples...

Hope that all actually makes sense :-)

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If you don't have a truing stand then I would do it in the frame. Once you've re-spaced it put the tyre back on but deflated and set the wheel in place. Tighten the nuts to a bit more than finger tight and you'll see how far you'll need to dish it. If it's more than a couple of mm then you may run out of thread on one side. Loosening the other side means reducing the overall tension on that side which you'd rather not do if you can help it.

Anyway, once you have the wheel in place loosen off all the nipples by a half turn and put a half drop of oil (chain lube will do) between each nipple and rim hole. Wipe off any excess. Then tighten by a quarter turn in the direction you want the rim to move on one side. Hopefully this will be the drive side of your wheel. If you need to move it further go round again by another quarter turn. You can go a third time and you'll still be fine.

Next check the overall tension of the spokes. Grab adjacent pairs with your hands and give them a squeeze. If they give easily then you can take the overall tension up a notch. Perhaps a half turn per spoke. If they start creaking a bit when you are about there.

Check for lateral truing by sellotaping a pencil to frame so it almost touches the rim. You know what to do here. You can work with one eighth turns if you want to get it to less than half a mm. If you get stressed either stop or have a beer. But only one mind. It'll calm you down and keep you focused. You have to true your mind as well as the wheel.

cheers people I just took the wheel apart cleaned, re-grease, respaced and put it back together
ive done it, and I feel great for doing it, satisfaction
it was easier than i thought, but i have a short attention span so i did it for 10mins then went away and came back every so often. in all it took about 1hour on the wheel but 3-4 were i went and did something else
got to go over it today to make some final adjustments maybe 2mm wobble but that will be sorted today, roundness is nearly sport on as well
and thanks for the cardboard idea but i used a ruler and measured from the seat stay