patbateman

I found an instructional video for building a 36 spoke wheel, and I was wondering if I could use this as a decent reference for building a 32 spoke wheel?

I am going to do the actual work at my university bike center, where I can pay $2 to use their tools and get advice, so I'm not worried too much about it..

but is the method the same, or is the spacing and pattern different enough that it won't apply?

Panthers007

Yes - it's the same. Wherever it says '36' - just think/write '32' instead. here is our Guru - Sheldon Brown - on the subject of wheelbuilding:

https://sheldonbrown.com/wheelbuild.html

He explains this and all-things wheel building.

Jeff Wills

I've built wheels from 18 to 36 spokes. Same techniques apply.

mcoomer

I followed Sheldon's write-up when I did my first wheel build. It's very good and he was kind enough to reply to an email I sent thanking him for this and all the other great info that he put together. Do yourself a favor and check out his site.

Mike

DannoXYZ 

In addition to the lacing pattern, be careful about the heads-in versus heads-out orientation of the spokes.