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@thecycleclinic
Grasping pairs of spokes does permantly stretch the spokes contary to what sheldon suggests. I can show this as when i build a wheel and fully stress relive i see a tension drop which is quite significant. With laser I see a 200 to 300 newton tension drop when I really go at it. If the rim is faulty which annoying and I rebuild or worse I built with he wrong colour rim then I find further grasping of spokes does not cause a tension drop. So spokes do stretch when building. Sheldon is wrong for once unless some one has another explanation for what I see.
I now stress relieve throughout the build as I find it easier as the tension drop each time is jot big and more easily corrected. Also you can ensure that each spoke has been uniformly stressed.
Never damaged a rim when loading it while the hub axle is on the bench. It only works however with stiff wheels. If the wheel is not stiff like a rigid a chain a build then all that happens is the nds spoke unload and the wheel goes out of true every time and you get nowhere. If find side loading is the best way to deal with wind up and grasping pairs of spokes ensures there is no tension drop once the wheel is ridden.