Here is my fancy truing stand and wheel building tools:
I
Not shown is my 15 dollar Harbor Freight digital calipers. I actually prefer the park triangle spoke wrench over dedicated wrenches. I dunno why, I just do.
I keep meaning to upgrade my stand with a pair of clothespins for caliper sensors but I forget to. So I just use my thumb as a guide. I made it from a crashed Nishiki hi-ten frame.
It does both front and rear wheels.
I can get a wheel trued to under near perfect. I just get bored and call it good instead of going for absolute perfection.
I have built about 11 wheels on it so far. The last few wheels I built on it from scratch, I brought into my coop to do final touch-ups on and they need nearly nothing. I can even get dish pretty danged close, I just flip the wheel around in my stand and try to get both sides equidistant from the sides of the tubes.
I check spoke tension with my fingers and feel. I can get that pretty close.
Building wheels is all about feel and knowing that when you move a nipple in one spot, the rim will move in a wave fashion near it.
I'm still a big newbie but enjoy building wheels.