Granted, I'm only on my sixth or seventh wheel, so this is just beginner to beginner. I shoot for roughly a half millimeter of truth. Once it's there, then I figure that I'll probably have to re-true it at some point in the future, even if a pro could have made the same wheel stay true forever. I've also re-trued factory built wheels. What I've learned since I built my first wheel, is the importance of getting the spokes up to a good tension. That, and washers on the spokes for my old Sturmey Archer hubs, have eliminated spoke breakage for me.