Originally Posted by Cynikal
I built my first set about 2 years ago. I asked for advise from the shops I bought the parts from and they were happy to give it. Then I sat down with a stand and a printout from sheldon's site and 30 min later viola. My first was a radial laced front (really easy) next was a 3x track rear (a little tougher). Both are still true to this day. Now I tend to build my friends wheels, I kinda find it relaxing after staring at a computer all day.
I don't mean to be an argumentative defeatist, but there's a reason you build wheels for your friends. Simply put, not everyone aspires to be a wheelsmith. And it's not that we're all just lazy. Ultimately, not everyone will recoupe the investment in tools and time it takes to master the task. If that were the case truing stands and dishing tools would sell in the same numbers as pumps and patch kits.
I have been to Sheldon Brown's site and the instructions do seem straight forward enough. And it will be fabulous to one day include wheel building under the heading of 'jobs I no longer have to wait on the LBS for'. But at this point I cannot justify the $160 Performance wants for their CHEAPEST truing stand, dishing tool, spoke wrenches, tensiometer and spoke prep (plus the cost of spokes) in order to lace the hub and rim I have together.
As encouraging as it is to hear that you were successful building your first wheel set without enrolling in a class, I may or may not posess your aptitude. There's only one way to find out, and like I said, I just don't have the cash to throw down in order to find out. At this point I would rather pay a craftsman $50 plus materials (I think that's being generous) for a well built wheel, than to end up shelling out over three times that and maybe ending up with something I need to walk into a service department for dishing, tensioning and truing anyway. At which point the guy may or may not gonna look across the counter at me and say "Gee, usually we just order you a new wheel.
I now realize that this was probably not the forum in which to post my querry. And for that I appologize. I guess I'll have to let my fingers do the walking.
DanO