It's fun, but put plenty of time aside!
I read alot, printed St: Sheldons stuff, left the print-out on the printer, thought sod and got another wheel as a template to study and just went ahead.
For the wheel building jig I used a pair of forks with a metal ruler attached across them held with springed plastic clamps. This was used for the roundness and centering. I then got a plastic clothes peg and attached it to the metal ruler for left - right trueness.
4 hrs later, odd swearing, 2 pints of lager, a stiff back and voila a front wheel.
Same principal, 3 hrs later a back wheel. Supplemented with cronic back ache and two large whiskeys I was satisfied I made a set of wheels by my own hands using sight and sounds! No CNC robot rubbish from Tiawan or $4000 DT Swiss computer stress guage spoke tensioners. Real artistic old skool satisfaction stuff. Admittidly, I have not been contacted by Mavic to service the TdF.
Cracking set of stiff wheels with a very bling look down the valve hole and see the XT logo. They are holding up very very very well. Since that day I've noticed some very poorly built wheels with rims, hubs the wrong way, leading spokes wrong, etc. I'll definitely do it again, highly recommended.