Originally Posted by 79pmooney

That doesn't sound to me like good advice - spokes that do not come up to the head of the nipple have plenty of threads engaged, yes. They just pop the heads off. Spokes that are so long the thread bottoms out and you cannot get sufficient tension are obviously bad but spokes that are long enough that a screwdriver doesn't tighten them all the way just means you have to spend a few more minutes with a spoke wrench. Unless your time is worth huge amounts of money, so what? (And if it is,what are you doing building wheels?)

I consider the perfect build to have spokes that come to between the screwdriver slot bottom and the top of the nipple. A mm or so over is just fine. (Yes, if these are not box rims, you will have to file off the spokes to the tops of the nipples to protect the rim strip and tube as noglider pointed out.)

I use that guy's trick to starting nipples; not because the spokes are too short but because many of the rims I use are box section without the ferrules for the nipples. (Velocity Aeros) Losing a nipple in those rims , especially after the wheel is almost all laced, is a PITA. Only I make my nipple starter by screwing on a nipple backwards all the way. That leaves the perfect starter amount of threads. Much more durable than tape. I cut the spoke in the middle and bend a nice handle. Have one for each gauge nipple I use.

Ben