Fast505

Yeah, I know the obvious answer is to build an 18-spoke wheel...

I mistakenly bought a 18-hole Ultegra front hub from Nashbar (I thought it was labeled 36 hole). It's a nice hub, but obvioulsy made for a factory Shimano wheel. I only build 28, 32, and 36 hole wheels. I'm wondering if it would be safe to drill out 18 more holes and use as 32?

Retro Grouch 

Do the flanges look the same as a conventional 36 spoke hub?

Honestly, I think this might be time to cut your losses. What's the point of building a 36 spoke front wheel that you're afraid of?

Al1943

Can you not return it?

Al

Homebrew01

Sell it on Ebay

FlatFender

build an 18spoke wheel?

why not?

urbanknight

I doubt you'd get anything but terribly unevenly spaced holes if you drilled it. Are the holes evenly spaced? If so, buy a decent 18 hole rim (Velocity Deep V, Kinlin Niobium 30, Zip 404, whatever) and build it. Radially laced or crow's foot just for kicks.

cbchess

sell it

jsmithepa

just PM u.

HillRider

At the risk of asking the obvious, are you sure it's 18 spoke. Any possibility it's 18 spokes on each flange for a total of 36? I've never seen an 18 spoke Shimano hub, even their complete wheels have 16 or 20 spokes.

Tabor

Sell it.

saturnhr

I tend disagree with all the above responses. Just drill and extra set of holes in between and you are ready to go for 36. It should be fairly easy to center the new holes on a marked circle line in between the preexisting holes. Even if you will not do precisely (and if hypothetically the new holes would be several mm off) it will not matter since the wheel will be trued after lacing and the difference in angles of the spokes approaching rim or hub are miniscule (from imprecise drilled holes), in particular with such an abundant number of 36 spokes.
I have not done the exact as considered by the initiator of that thread; however I have build wheels with 28 rim holes on 32 hole hubs with no problems.
Don't get discouraged by the critics above, just do it!

Joshua A.C. New

Sell it to *me*.

n4zou

+1 with a caveat.
I worked as a machinist in my youth and maintain a small machine shop in my garage so I would not flinch at drilling extra holes in the hub flanges. I have a mill and an indexing head so it would be a simple matter for me to do it. If you don't have the proper tooling chances are good you would screw it up. You also can't use a standard twist drill on the aluminum flanges. You will never get a perfectly round hole and this will lead to a cracked and/or broken flange due to uneven pressure distribution. Unless you have the tooling and knowledge to do it (I know you don't as you would have already drilled it) just build a wheel around it or sell the hub and make the best of a mistake.

Diggidy_Dylan

Buy a 36h rim and lace it up. You'll have a bunch of gaps in the rim.

Sheldon Brown did something similar. https://www.fixedgeargallery.com/2005/aug/sb.htm
Scroll down to the pic of the front wheel.

My $.02

Fast505

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll sell it. Not interested in drilling holes.

urbanknight

You do know that this will cause the holes on one side to line up with the other, instead of being staggered like they should be, right? That could cause the trailing spokes on one side and leading spokes on the other to require higher tension than their counterparts.

saturnhr

Again I disagree; You drill a slightly smaller hole after centering it, and than enlarge it with a small round file and then debur the edges


Again disagree, since the original hole were staggert on both sides, if you drill holes in between on both sides the new holes will also be staggert.

operator

Seriously, why bother wasting time drilling holes. And in the end you still have a hub of unknown quality that can't be trusted.

A new hub is like what $40?

StanSeven

Unless you're an extremely heavy person, an 18 hole fromt wheel is fine. The thinking about needing 32 and 36 spoke wheels, especially with the front, isn't true. A radial laced 18 spoke wheel, especially if it's built with a deep rim, is very strong.

A friend of mine who weights over 250 rides a similar wheel using Velocity rims and hasn't even had to true it in 10,000 miles.

n4zou

[QUOTE=saturnhr;6828034]That will not work. Take a careful look at the holes in the flange. There not a simple straight drilled hole. A precision cut radius is machined on the inside edges of the holes. That requires a special tool which your not going to find in a hardware store. A machinist would simply make that tool, which would be very difficult for anyone not trained in the art of tool making. I spent 6 long and hard months in school hand grinding tools of all sorts to learn that skill. Bicycle hubs are subjected to high levels of stress and if you have even the slightest defect the hub will fail at some point.

You are correct about the staggered holes.

saturnhr

I think there is always a complicated way of doing things and more simple, easy way which fulfills the same. I would do the deburing and chamfering of the holes with a bigger drill, which I would role between my fingers; in aluminum this works quite well, the spokes will do the rest with some substantial cold forming (look at any used aluminum hub).

Since some of the "experts" seem to enjoy a higher level of sophistication, the following site might be of interest.
(in German, however nice pictures)
https://www.downhillschrott.com/dhs/bastel/nabe_d.html

urbanknight

Incorrect. The holes start off staggered by 50%. If you drill in between each existing hole (that's 50% of the distance) they will line up perfectly with the existing holes on the opposite side. You really should think these things through before you post incorrect and ignorant information.

btw you can delete the messed up post by clicking edit, then choosing the delete option.

saturnhr

You are right, thanks for correcting me on the staggering point of view.


I don't think this is a valid argument, since it would only do so, if it changed the angle of spoke pulling, which it does not significantly in any crossing patterns. It would vary spoke length requirements in a 3 cross minimally (of about +/- 1/2 of the new spoke hole distance, which on a 36 rear is about 2mm, on a front hub about 1mm), in any other than 3 cross patterns lengths variations would be less (and all can be done with 1 set of spoke length).
I acknowledge that you might be the sharper theoretical thinker, so correct me if I am wrong.

Related to the above scenario, I have laced rims to hubs with surplus hubholes (when there was no other choice), which resulted in similar minimal variations of theoretical required spoke lengths. All went well, was done with 1 spoke length and was super stable.
I think it somehow comes down to whether you want to do something or rather not. I for sure agree that buying (if available) is always the quickest and easiest way.

urbanknight

Makes sense. So the tension still came out fairly even on the wheels with extra holes?

dabac

I've laced a 28H rim in 3X to a 36H high flange hub. It did require several different spoke lengths as it is a 14 mm length difference between shortest and longest spoke.
High flange and 3X was a bit OTT, but it trued and tensioned up just like any other wheel. Only difference is that with a fully matched build one can count no. of threads/turns as a crude first indicator, with a misatched build one has to start monitoring trueness and tension earlier.