Please add any comments you have on what I've done or how you do it. Hopefully this will become a good resource for anyone undertaking the same. (Maybe even good enough for the 'to good to lose'

Parts used are:
Rigida Chrina 36h rims in silver
Shimano HB-M530 36H hubs front and rear
ACI 14/16g double butted spokes all front
ACI 14/16g double butted non drive side rear
ACI 14g spokes drive side rear
note: SB means Sheldon Brown and refers to his instructions for wheel building, linked above, for which I owe all my knowledge.
The pictures are of the front wheel build.


All the parts for both wheels. The key spoke installed.

Looking down through the valve hole to see if the label will align. Remember that the hub will be rotated clockwise once all the trailing spokes are installed.
My rim is drilled opposite of the one Sheldon uses as his example. The eyelet for the key spoke is not next to the valve hole, but two away.

Originally I had the key spoke further along one hole. In order to get the label to line up with the valve hole I actually needed to move the spoke one hole back towards the label to where it currently is. If your key spoke goes in next to the valve hole then I would insert it so that it's level or nearly level with the top of the label on the hub.

All the trailing spokes on the right hand side installed.


The first trailing spoke installed on the left side. Notice that it enters both the rim and the hub on the left side (as viewed from the right) of the key spoke.
Then all the trailing spokes installed.


Some of the leading spokes installed on the right side. (I forgot to take a pic with just one installed.) This part caused some confusion when reading SB's instructions. I'm using a 3 cross pattern and wasn't sure I was crossing over two spokes.
If you look at the close up you'll notice the first cross is actually happening over the flange. Then it crosses over the top of the next just a little farther from the flange and finally goes under the third. Keep in mind that you're only counting the spokes from the same side of the hub you are working from.
You'll then have two options of which rim eyelet to use. Use the one that is angled towards the side of the hub you are working from. This means the trailing spoke next to leading spoke just installed should be going to the opposite flange of the hub.


Finally all the spokes installed on both sides and a close up of the hub with all the spokes laced.
I then did as SB suggested and tightened all the nipples until just a small amount of thread was showing on all the spokes. That's the easy part done! Time for a cup of tea!




So here are some pictures of my truing stand. Yep, a surplus set of forks. I've blue tacked a ruler on the bottom for vertical truing and a pencil on the side for lateral truing. In the third picture you'll see that I taped a piece of copper wire onto the end of another pencil. This actually worked better and it was easier to see if the rim moved from side to side.
For dishing I just flipped the wheel around to see how close or far it was from the pencil when set against the other side.
I don't want to restate SB's article so I'll just give some highlight some things I think may be helpful. These are just some things I figured out as I went along that made the rear wheel easier to do.


If you've never trued a wheel before then it's important to keep in mind that small adjustments do make large changes. In the second picture I've tightened the spokes on the left about a quarter turn and you can see how much it's moved.


Some times when I was turning the spoke nipples I would forget how far I turned it. Then I realized it was better to watch the spoke key.
From picture one to picture two the spoke has been moved a quarter turn. If I wanted a half turn I would be looking at the other side of the spoke key. This is really handy when you're over tightening and then backing off to relieve torsion.
The only other 'problem' of sorts that I had was with the rim seam. I found that when adjusting vertical trueness. It seemed to dip slightly more than the rest of the rim. I don't know if anyone else has had a similar experience. It could just be bad quality control on that rim.
I just based my spoke tension on feel. I used another front wheel to gauge the tension and how hard it was to squeeze the spokes.
Good luck and just take it slow and have plenty of tea! It took me about 3 evenings to do the front wheel. I just took it slow and left it when I started to get frustrated.
Happy Building!!