Originally Posted by
Psimet2001
...careful with that. That's not 100% true. Also - many people other than Sheldon (RIP) and Jobst build wheels...well... I tend to find that stress relieving fully is one of the factors that has always set my wheel builds apart from every single other build we have ever come across. It's more than just the spoke.
You'd be amazed at how much windup is stored in some spokes in wheels that were machine built and never fully stress relieved...and yes stress relieving fully will release spoke windup.
You're more than welcome to send a wheel you've built to me at any time. I won't touch it other than to stress relieve it fully and return it to you. You'll think FedEx dropped it off a cliff.
Here is the problem. I don't doubt that you have procedures which produce a superior wheel, and that they may be other manipulations besides squeezing pairs of spokes and compressing the rim. I don't doubt they accomplish stress relieving (of the micro stresses in the spokes) as well as allowing or forcing the spokes to unwind. Maybe you relieve other kinds of stresses as well. And seat the nipples and spoke bends in a better way. You are choosing to call a wheel treated with the compendium of procedures you use as "fully stress relieved". But I think you have hijacked the term "stress relieved" and applied to all of the things you do which are actually true stress relieving as well as other things. No doubt they are beneficial, even necessary, but you can't just properly call something what it isn't.
My statement that you say isn't 100% true (what IS 100% true) adheres to the terminology used by the referenced authorities on the subject. And I think it helps the inexperienced builders to understand the several different manipulations which will be required to produce a good wheel so that they are not thinking they are doing one thing when they are really doing another. That is all I am trying to accomplish.