Originally Posted by San Rensho
Give it a shot. I was taught the following method by a wheelbuilding guru many years ago and it has never failed me.
First, worry about out of round. Evenly put tension into the wheel and once it starts to firm up, true for roundness first.
Second, dish the wheel. If its a rear, now start to tighten the drive side spokes to put the dish in it. at this point, worry about dish first, but keep an eye on the out of round.
Finally, adjust the lateral trueness. At this point, set the overall wheel near final tension. Check the lateral true as you approach final tension, and keep an eye on the dish too. Don't worry if each spoke isn't exactly at perfect tension if you use a tensiometer. If the majority of spokes are at or near tension, worry more about lateral true.
Exactly the way I do it.
I think a common mistake is to try to work on lateral true first. It's very discouraging to get the lateral true and tension "perfect" only to find out the wheel is out-of-round or that the rim is not centered. Lateral true is the easy part, take care of the difficult stuff early.