Wheelbuilding questions tips and ponderations

Tootyred said:
Also, the spokes you ordered did come back exactly the same length as those you took out? And...the measurement was correct from the old spoke?

Do you still have the old spokes? And any photo of the bike with the wheel in you can zoom in on?

Got to ask.
Click to expand...
I don't have the old spokes, I eventually threw them away. If I have to reveal the truth, I built up this wheel 3 or 4 years ago after the rim had been repainted. My son asked me if I could build the wheel. He had already taken it apart without taking photos, measured and ordered the spokes. I came in at the wrong end of the project. I had help of a YTvideo then but I didn't find it this time. I don't think I dished the wheel that time either, they had to add a number of washers to the hub to stop it rubbing in the frame.
I don't have a photo of the wheel before the refurb. They were actually able to ride the bike with the wheel i built right up untill this past autumn when the hub developed a crack and one of the flanges sheared off. The nightmare had returned😱.
 
The cross pattern can be any thing really, but in reality its dictated by the physical wheel.....is can you get the spokes round the hub etc. I've built 4 cross on big hubs, but it gets harder and you start to have issue on many with rubbing spokes as the fross the flange.

I would try flipping the spokes to the other side....possibly use the "all in one side" first method here as your trying to establish a fit. If 3x doesn't work try 4x.

I think the lesson here is take notes and pictures....but that's easy said and sadly you have been left holding the baby!
 
Tootyred said:
The cross pattern can be any thing really, but in reality its dictated by the physical wheel.....is can you get the spokes round the hub etc. I've built 4 cross on big hubs, but it gets harder and you start to have issue on many with rubbing spokes as the fross the flange.

I would try flipping the spokes to the other side....possibly use the "all in one side" first method here as your trying to establish a fit. If 3x doesn't work try 4x.

I think the lesson here is take notes and pictures....but that's easy said and sadly you have been left holding the baby!
Click to expand...
I don't understand what you mean by "flipping the spokes to the other side. Believe me i always advocate the method of taking photos first and then rip it apart. It's a pity my son didn't hear that before he got his grubby hands on it. I think I have a headache coming on the more i think about it 😵‍💫.
 
put the drive side spokes in the non drive side....it just looks like the drive side might be a bit short ...and obvious the non drive side is too long.

Assuming the drive side is the small flange?
 
The other thing is to use the spoke calculator in reverse. Try out scenarios of cross pattern till you get the length of the spokes you have come out the calculator! Saves a lot of fitting.

If you can't get close, something must be wrong with your spoke lengths.
 
Project Update.
All the spokes are in place with the only difference being that the valve cannot be accessed from NDS. To achieve this i had to enter the spokes in the wrong angled spoke hole to get the spokes to be "the right length." This may be interpretade as a variation of the truth? I'm afraid i am not exactly much wiser but I do feel there may be light at the end of this rather long and dark tunnel. If you happen to be wondering if it could be much worse, I can tell you yes it could be. My worst case scenario was when I experienced replacing and inställning the PAS pipes on a Saab 9-5 that I had. It nearly sent me to the asylum. Everything is relative.
Keep your eyes peeled for the next installment of this thriller 😀.
 
I can’t see in your photos if the spoke angle on the rim is right or not. Here is one that’s wrong. IMG_1098.jpeg IMG_0091.jpeg IMG_0091.jpeg IMG_0089.jpeg IMG_0046.jpeg I recently built a wheel with different sized hub flanges. I had problems. My research indicated that it most likely had 2x on the large flange with 12 gauge spokes. 14 gauge spokes on the small side with 3 cross. The spoke calculators ended in .1 mm units with normally isn’t a problem, I usually round down. I ended out ordering three sets of spokes before I got it to work. In this case you really needed the .1 extra or under length to make it work. I did 3x on each side using 14 gauge spokes. Where there were 12 gauge I used spoke bend washers. On the other side I used nipple washers to reduce the length slightly. It worked but took a few months to figure out how to jurry rig it. IMG_0047.jpeg IMG_0048.jpeg
 
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