Wheel building trauma
- Thread starter kaiser
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development_cycle
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just been through the same, will also try these methods again tomorrow.
Tips so far are:
Use a spoke to insert the nipple in the rim if need be. its a bugger if it disappears.
Use tea instead of beer
Don't do it in the dark
If your copying a wheel make sure it has the same number of spokes.
Use a spoke to insert the nipple in the rim if need be. its a bugger if it disappears.
Use tea instead of beer
Don't do it in the dark
If your copying a wheel make sure it has the same number of spokes.
South Bound
Senior Retro Guru
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K, lol, just spilt my coffee reading your last - say it isn't so???
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at the next meet im gonna bring my tools a hub a rim and spokes and show you lot how its done (including the working out of spoke lenghts the old none dt online way) that way no one can make any more mistakes its harder than people think regardles to what anyone say's. it takes a lot of practice to perfect im on wheelset number thousand and one by now and i good but im no gerd strainer (yet) if not im gonna get the web cam out and do a video link up for ya 
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ow yeah the cheapet tool and the best tool you can use when wheel building is a box of match's i sh1t you not iv'e alwys got a supply yet i dont smoke
gibbleking
Old School Grand Master
try doing a radial non drive side and snowflake drive side.that was fun.did it spot on first time.only wheel i had trubbs with was one i built with the hub still in the frame ..after 2 hoursof screaming trying to do the wheel i discover the frame was bent ...oh well. :shock:
utahdog2003
Senior Retro Guru
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kaiser":kfz9h7tt said:Woohoo I am the master.
Combination of utahdogs and monsterfats posts seen me through. Well its laced anyway
Here's a general tip-list for tensioning the wheel...obviously I'm 3000 miles away from you so there is a grain of salt factor here!
If your spokes are good stuff like DTs, Wheelsmiths, or Sapims, the threads will be cut by machine and they will be pretty much the same depth, so you can use the threads as an initial guage. If a local shop, or you personally, had to cut and thread the spokes, then you will have to tension by feel and that is a trick in itself. If they are factory cut, tighten the spokes such that the same amount of thread is visible from the nipple on the first go round (say three or four threads), then half turns of the spoke wrench for two go rounds, check the dish. Then 1/4 turns for the remaining go rounds until your in the ballpark tension-wise. Check the dish. At this point I like to 'set' the spokes at the outer cross by putting a spoke spoon (or a screw driver) in the cross and pressing from the rim toward the hub, pushing the cross toward the hub. Check the dish one more time, and check for round. You are there, true the wheel as you normally would. If at any point in the process you have a wheel that is more than an inch or so out of true or a quarter inch out of round, you have a spoke somewhere that is too loose or too tight, or you missed a cross (common mistake). Rear wheels seem to tension up with the dish being a bit off, but the front should dish evenly naturally. The rear can be brought into line in your final steps in the build.If its a Mavic rim, it will be round. If its a Velocity rim it will be square. If it is a Campy rim it should be on the wall!
Good job on the lace-up, that is always the most daunting task for a first time build. People seem to take a deep dreath once it looks like a wheel! I always thought Sheldon Brown and Jobst Brandt and others over complicate the process. Not to say they are wrong, because they aren't, but it's not the rocket science it's portrayed to be.
Cheers utah, all good stuff. Second wheel laced up today, DT spokes and salsa rims, so hopefully good stuff, the spokes were also bought within 1mm of the dt spoke calculator. Will try to post a sneek peek of the beast some time today as I've stuck the tyres on to see how it looks.
utahdog2003
Senior Retro Guru
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jango":2y7qq2na said:
Speak english boy!!!
seriously, I will try and build a set of wheels myself one day.......in the mean time, CK where are you!!!!
"Off by 2 on a set of 8" is a common booboo when folks lace wheels. Speaking on a 32 spoke 3x build, off by 2 on a set of 8 means that 32 divided by 4 is eight, there are 4 'sets' of 8 spokes on a wheel, left inner and outer and right inner and outer. If you follow some of the more popular and complicated methods of lacing you don't install the spokes in complete sets of eight, but rather some crazy concoction of 4, and there are grease pencils and yarn and all sorts of nutty ways perscribed to help you 'not lose your place'. If you build one side at a time, 'off by 2 on a set of 8' is a hard mistake to make because you lace one 'set' at a time, 8 spokes at a time. Drop 8 outer left, every 4th hole at the rim then twist for the 3cross, drop 8 inner left and alternate holes at the rim. Flip the wheel over and repeat.
The only trick to this method is the first spoke on the flipped side. Remember that the spoke holes on either side of the hub do not lign up with one another, but rather they alternate. With the wheel in your lap, look down the empty flange to the laced flange and feed the first spoke on the side so that the head faces the same way as the alternate spoke on the opposite flange. Those two spokes should be direct neighbors at the rim. Once that first spoke on the second side is in, the rest is cake.
Reading my post I sound like I'm telling somebody how to build a nuclear reactor out of plastic cups and diapers, but if you have the parts on your lap the post makes much more sense, really!
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