Originally Posted by
FBinNY
As spokes tighten friction in the thread increases. That means that the turning nipple tries to turn the spoke with it. It's a problem with any screw, but the longer and slender it is the more the screw will begin to twist over it's length.
And a little bit of diameter makes a big difference since torsional stiffness is proportional to the 4th power of diameter. A straight 14 gauge (2.0mm) spoke is 1.5X as stiff as a 14/15 (1.8mm) double butted one and 3.2X as stiff a 14/17 (1.5mm)