Thanks for starting this new thread just now, jtrops. For me it’s perfect timing!
My spokes just kept snapping, so I finally bought a full set of new ones on Ebay, which is a better way to insure uniformity of length than buying replacement spokes one at a time.
I knew my wheel needed to be re-tensioned, but I hesitated because it has some damage to the eyelets, as we discussed here. This time, just to be consistent, I think I will use washers on every spoke nipple, rather than just where the eyelets show more damage. Hopefully this change won’t affect ERD too much.
The washers, by the way, are standard washers for a #6 screw, available at almost any hardware store (at least in the US). I mention this because bike mechanics who have heard of rim washers are unbelievably rare, at least in my experience.
One possible reason my spokes have been breaking is that I rebuilt my wheel and reused the old spokes without paying any attention to which ones had been outside spokes and which ones had been inside spokes in their previous lives. Now I have read this post by the late Jobst Brandt. (I also ordered his famous book 8 days ago, so it should arrive soon). When I removed all my old spokes just now, about a third of them were not straight because they were replacement spokes, which I had had to bend to fit them into the weave.
Oh- I also followed your other advice, laying my unlaced rim on a very flat surface. Nothing wrong there!