I built a wheel using 100% used parts. I've done this before and made a decent wheel for nowt, and as I had the right length spokes I had nothing to loose.

But the damned thing won't stay straight when I stress relieve it by flexing it on the floor against the hub. I trued it up twice but no joy, it goes miles out.
The spokes are cheap OE things, but double butted

Oddly there's no pinging and twanging as the spokes bed in either. The rim wasn't perfect, but I've done it before with another make of rim that was about the same.

So, d'ya reckon it's worth shelling out for new spokes and trying again?

Did you lube the nipples (ooh-er missus!) before threading onto the ends of the spokes?

I stress relieve my wheels by putting a long socket extension through from one side of the wheel to the other above the final cross from each side and push the bar towards the hub a few times, you could try that. Also, after stress relieving, I would expect to need to do a little bit of further fine tuning.

I wouldn't bother with a bent rim.

dunno, I've got a bulb that I'm swapping out for a XC hub, hoping it'll all go OK as the whole idea was to avoid shelling out for a new wheelset.

Yep. Oily nipples as always!

I'd try again with new spokes

That's what I'm thinking Nick. It'll still be a very cheap pair of wheels… I seem to keep falling over very cheap used wheels recently. This pair cost £5. The rear hub is knackered, but I've got a DT Swiss hub from another pair I paid £40 for (With a Pro 2 front hub and Sun SOS rims)
🙂

(Mr MC posting)

i stress relieve by squeezing adjoining parallel pairs together (that is, squeezing each spoke to its parallel neighbour, not squeezing one pair toward the other pair).

Usually noises in stress-relief are the spokes untwisting and moving in the nipples. IIRC stress relief is intended to take the spokes past their elastic limit so that they stretch permanently, releasing the elastic stress. Is your wheel deforming into a smooth saddle/waved shape when it goes out of true?-this is indicative of too-high spoke tension.

I was a little shocked at the price of spokes a couple of days ago (36 x DT Comps = £35) I'm sure the last time I built a wheel (a while ago) they worked out at about 65p each.

Yup, spoke prices are mental. Pretty much written off my home building for fun.

material prices are up for everything.

Is your wheel deforming into a smooth saddle/waved shape when it goes out of true?-this is indicative of too-high spoke tension.

You could be right there. I'll back them all off and start again before I order more.
Thanks for the advice 🙂

PP, I am a bit of a wheel geek and that is courtesy of Jobst Brant's bible The Bicycle Wheel. Could be complete tosh for all I know 😆

I've rebuild using DT spokes. In fact, I'm doing a bit of a transplant right now (wife wants silver hubs not black but doesn't wan the CD rims). Never found reusing cheap spokes very successful in the past but reusing quality spokes is okay if you know the history of them.

I've re-used everything except nipples several times when re-building. It sounds like you're trying to build a wheel from a properly bent rim!

Might also be worth checking for a slighly bent axle, if the hub sticks and the axle rotates in the jig it can throw the rim all shapes.

Simon, the rim has a bit of a bend, but nowt daft, 4mm ish maybe?

Mr MC – I backed all the spokes right off and started again, gently ramping up the tension and keeping it as even as possible, and built it a bit looser. And….. It seems to have worked. I've got a usable wheel I think. I'll bang a tyre on it and give it a go at Bikefest at the weekend!
Thanks for the tip, I'll update next week….
🙂