Old hub,spoke drillings not round

Hello

I got given an old 120mm screw-on rear hub. Quite a few of the spoke holes are not round any longer and in some cases are literally pear-shaped - very little pears, but still the right shape.

I've supposed this means it's unusable as the spokes would move around and snap - is that right?

Thanks

Yeah, I would just forget it, if it's pear shaped that sounds like the spoke heads may have deformed the spoke holes in hub flanges - never seen it but it may have been through excessive tension I would guess and possibly a soft alloy??? I'm guessing these are quite old hubs? Are they even alloy?

I would guess if the spoke holes can be deformed by the spokes, the most likely method of failure would be the hub flange breaking or something similar...

Actually a degree of deformation is a good thing. The hub flange material is much softer than the spoke material so "pull lines" are inevitable. However, this does enable to spoke around the elbow area to bed in a little and this helps stop flexing in this critical area - flexing leads to fatigue which leads to breakage.

The most common area for spokes to break is at the elbow and the most common reason is not enough tension.

Provided that the pull lines are not excessive - and that's a judgment call for you, respoking so as to use the same spoke lines should be fine. If the spoke heads still feel a bit loose, you could try spoke washers.

agreed, a little bit of an imprint on the flanges is normal with old hubs. But the actual spoke holes should still be round and circular. perhaps the OP can post some pics?

I've heard it said many times that the most common place for a spoke to break is at the elbow, but I've broken many spokes in my life and can only ever remember them breaking at the end of the threads. Is there any quantifying evidence that spokes really do break at the elbow?

We get plenty of wheels with spokes broken at the elbow through the workshop.
We get a lot of spokes broken at the nipple too but I'd say more at the elbow.

Hello,
thank you very much for the advice. Here, as suggested, are a couple of pictures - I thought the distortion was very bad but I hope I'm wrong!

I've built worse and they've been OK.

yeah looks fine

I would try to put the spokes in the same way again

Hello

thanks very much for that advice.