To avoid repetitve-strain injury when doing a whole wheel's worth, take the crank off and chuck it in a variable-speed-reversible drill. The current breed of battery-powered drills with an adjustable-torque clutch are perfect for this. You can run it all the way in until the drill chuck hits a hard stop, whereupon the clutch slips. Set the clutch as soft as you can while still providing enough torque for threading.

Then also make yourself a way to clamp each spoke in the same position lengthwise. A closed-end cup of some sort like a thimble is one way to set the stick-out. That way every spoke is threaded to the same point, helpful while building the wheel. (In the first round of tightening, before any tension starts to be applied, I tighten each nipple to the same point on the thread, visually, which only works if they're all threaded the same amount.)

With this method, doing a wheel's worth or more is actually do-able, not a slog through hell.



Been a while since I did it, but I think I was able to click the drill's speed to the High range, then threading it on and back off is about as fast as you can say "zip-zip".

Hozan is Japanese made, high quality, still made I believe, spares are available.

Mark B