Wheelbuilding / Wheel Building / Wheel build help

??? no

The moral of a story, talk to someone experienced before you order your bits.

@broken_777 so much this, absolutely.

Yes. Use thin spokes in the calculated length and buy the time i am finished with they will be too long which is more of an annoyance that an actual problem.

Yes true : )

Maillard 700 X4 Mavic Piste

X4 X3

X4 ! X2

Cheapest place for decent silver spokes at the moment? Used to order from Rose bikes but euro prices means theyre not quite cheapest anymore. Spa or something? Doesnt need to be fancy, just not plain gauge

Cyclebasket for ACI Alpina spokes. They're my default budget option.

+1 for Cyclebasket. Excellent customer service also.

Can't see any advantage of Sapim or DT over ACI if you don't need fancy alloy nips, anyone think otherwise?

Always been happy with ACI. Only went with DT for a recent build as the rims came with Squorx nipples for 2.0 spokes.

Cyclebasket it is. Although they only come in even lengths. Rounding up 0.1 of a mm after spoke stretch wont kill me right?

Also, anyone ever stripped anodising from hubs? Got some grey low flange macks but would rather them be silver to match the spokes and nipples. Any tips?

Got some grey low flange macks but would rather them be silver to match the spokes and nipples. Any tips?

Don't lace them radially for a start.

And based on that experience I wouldn't try anything that would remove material from the hubs.

Yeah I remembered you posting that...

Was planning on lacing 2x anyway. Prefer it aesthetically and don't really see the point of radial? Unless youre really chasing aero gains

Prefer it aesthetically and don't really see the point of radial?
Unless youre really chasing aero gains

Most importantly hipster points

I'm coming up against the same problem. Just noticed they do 100 16mm nipples for £3.50, so figure I'll round down and should still have enough thread engagement with those.

Edit: no I'd have to use 4mm shorter spokes then, duh.

Do you guys think I'll get away with 294/292mm spokes or should I find a shop that does 1mm increments?

I had this hub broken I made a circle to drill new holes and I will remove the superfux ; )

I'd risk it with 294/292.

Oven Pride, plastic takeaway box or large glass jar, long rubber gloves and a mildly abrasive pad like a kitchen scourer...
Disassemble, clean, degrease & rinse the part you're working on, pour the OP over the hub shell (doesn't need to be submerged, just coated), leave a couple of mins, give hub a rub with the pad to help etch the surface and accelerate remaining removal, put it back and repeat as necessary until the surface of the part is a dull grey (the OP coating the surface of the hub will uniformly turn a soapy white colour). Then rinse clean and maybe submerge in a weak acidic solution (water + white vinegar) to neutralise any leftover OP. Should take 5-10 mins depending on how good the ano was.
Then, fine steel wool or a Scotchbrite pad, some metal polish and a rag to polish. A cordless drill also makes DIY 'hand' polishing much faster/easier, if you're able to lock the hub shell to the drill chuck with a dummy axle.
Once polished, some hubs tarnish or corrode more readily than others (depends on alloy), but as Mack offered a factory polished option, yours will prob be fine.
EDIT: If you're stingy like me, you can pour the OP back into the bottle for later re-use. It loses some viscosity but still works well enough for stripping ano.

Thought this might be the right thread to ask in - I bought some wheels off Retrobike and the nipples sit quite proud of the bottom of the rim. There's rim tape on there, but you can clearly feel the nipples. They must protrude by at least a mm. Is this OK? I'm guessing the sender used them like that because they're quite old (90s I guess).

I'd worry more about protruding spokes than nipples if that's any comfort?

Yeah - a little bit of Googling suggested that would be the case. Intuitively, nothing feels sharp enough to really bother an inner tube.

Had been wondering about adding a bit of shine to an anodised hub too. As mine is a dynamo hub and so can't really be disassembled, is there any point of polishing without removing the anodising, or is that not going to get very far?

is there any point of polishing without removing the anodising

No. You can polish to remove anodising, but your basic surface finish is fixed at the anodising stage and you won't get shinier until you've abraded the oxide layer off and are back to bare metal. Bare aluminium alloy doesn't look pretty for long when exposed to cycling anyway.

As I suspected, thanks. I'll just have to deal with my aesthetic foibles.

With sapim longer nipples don't mean shorter spokes as the nipple is not fully threaded. Are you sure this is the case with alpina. The spoke should still reach the top of the thread of any nipple. I keep 1mm increments from 288mm to 298mm in silver sapim race and from 280mm to 294mm in black Sapim force.