Originally Posted by
Dan Burkhart
Most of the wheels I've been building lately are deep section carbon rims. I tried long toothpicks and kabob skewers for inserting and starting the nipples, and then I tried a Wheels Mfg nipple starter. It locks onto the nipple so you can put it down into a deep rim and get it started.
It worked well in theory, but it did not really hold the nipple securely, and I'd often find myself shaking a loose nipple out of a rim.
Then one day, a friend of mine was here visiting while I was building a wheelset. He saw the tool I was using, and said," hey, that looks just like the screw starter tools I have."
He is a retired industrial instrument installer, and has all kinds of cool tools he no longer uses. He went to his car and came back with one of these.
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I've been using it ever since and never lost grip on the nipple, even in rims as deep as 80mm.
I use my awl. It holds the nipple just tightly enough to insert it into the rim and twist it a turn or so onto the spoke. And I don't have to align it with the slot in the nipple. I HATE it when a nipple gets lost in the rim extrusion.
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