Originally Posted by
hybridbkrdr
With a rear wheel, do you only put bee's wax for spokes on one side?
If you didn't have a hair dryer, what would be your second choice? Would you use anything out of the ordinary like Crisco or butter?
I bee's wax on every spoke. Male and female threads never fit perfectly. The idea of using a thread prep is to fill in the voids and keep the parts from wiggling around. Bee's wax is good because it stays plastic.
If you could see me you'd realize that I don't own a hair dryer. I use my wife's. If I didn't have one I'd probably preheat the spokes in the oven @ about 175 degrees but then I'd have to wear gloves to handle them. I roll the heated threads on a block of bee's wax to just fill the valleys between threads.
I can't imagine anything good coming from using Crisco or butter. Wheel building is a fairly labor intensive project. Commercially built wheels have become so cheap that the only reason for building your own is to do it as well as you can. Cheaping out on the details doesn't appeal to me.