Building a wheel is not hard, you just some time and a little sense of spatial geometry. Unicycle wheels are the easiest because there’s no dishing required.
My 14 yo son wanted his KH frame and hub to be powder coated purple, so I told him he had to rebuild the wheel
I worked with him on the build, he did the the lacing following directions downloaded off the internet. I did the final truing, but it was his wheel build 90%.
The only time I have someone else build my wheel is if it comes built from the factory or I have a master builder like Silva lacing up my $2000 G26.
I would go ahead and re-use the spokes. If possible it is best to use the spokes in the same positions as the last wheel build since they slightly bend against each other.
I re-use spokes whenever I can but often replace the nipples.
OK, I built the KH29 guni wheel (re-used the spokes, nipples, and rim from the old wheel). I tightened the spokes with my factory-built 29er wheel nearby for reference. With truing, I got rid of the side-to-side wobble, only to find a slightly flattened spot (the rim wasn’t perfectly round). Referring to Sheldon Brown online advice on the subject, I also managed to fix the non-round bit.
Then I put on rim tape, my Big Apple 2.0, tightened up the hub-bearings, and took the uni of the stand. Last time I built up my wheel, I took it to my trusty LBS for a blessing, but the wheel needed much tightening, and I ended up having Mad Dog (LBS owner) do $25 of finishing work.
This time, I spent a lot more time making sure about spoke tightness. I’m still a bit uneasy, but I took the thing out and rode it for a few miles, a first for me on my very own wheel-build.
I’m still going down to Mad Dog’s LBS to make sure it’s all cool, but I’m thinking I got it nailed this time.
Nice. Building your own wheels is pretty cool; it’s a very Zen experience as you move closer and closer to perfection. The right amount of tension takes a while to get a feel for, but the general rule is, you should put more in. You can build better wheels than most bike shops, because making a wheel straight doesn’t take much time, but putting in more tension and retruing multiple times does, so they skip it.
Well, Mad Dog just blessed it as well-built. He suggested I ride it some, to let the spokes settle in, before working on it again. Still, per your tighter rule, I may give a quarter-turn all the way around, and re-true.
If you do that, make sure to do the every third spoke, three times around technique of brining up tension. If you do every spoke on the say around you can pull the wheel out of round and find the spokes too tight after you get half way around. I think Sheldon Brown mentions it in his tutorial.
I wouldn’t go too tight on a Schlumpf though since it is possible to warp the shell.
