Originally Posted by
Ol Danl
A few are sticking through the nipples, and I've probably tightened them enough to mess up some nipple threads. I checked again, and the wheel is laced 3X -- haven't messed up that badly. I think my measurements are just off that much. When I re-measure, I may check to see if they are actually long enough for 4X, but they're probably somewhere in between.
It's not likely you messed up the nipple threads unless you tightened them down past where the spokes were threaded. As for 3x vs. 4x, you can go back to the spoke calculator and see the difference. Most likely the difference is a few mm, though I may have misremembered it from my last such effort. (I've gotten spokes where the bike shop made a similar mistake, or somehow came up with spokes too short.) In any case, it's no problem if they stick up past the nipple heads a little as long as you have enough thread on the spoke to tighten them enough and the spoke doesn't poke through the rim tape.
Originally Posted by
conspiratemus1
Like a lot of things in life, the most important value is the one that's hardest to measure accurately: the "effective rim diamter"
I recall a thread on this very subject from a year or so ago. If I had to do one because the rim wasn't listed in a database I'd wrap a non-stretching thread about the rim and mark it with a Sharpie where it overlaps itself, unwrap it and measure the distance between marks, then divide by PI. From that value you can compensate for the depth of the spoke well, if any, and the nipple head thickness both easily measured.