Originally Posted by
skinny
BS alarm. With a tensionometer, we now can build wheels that have all spokes withing 1kgf of each other and do it quickly. This is a reasonable and acceptable tolerance. That is just not attainable by plucking spokes to check tension.
Again, with all due respect, get off your high-horse for a second and re-read what I wrote instead of extolling the virtues of the tensionometer and poo-pooing how me (most likely you) and most other older folks who've been building wheels learned the craft while also mastering the skills needed for installing and repairing sew-ups... another lost skill.
As our friend's wheels here demonstrate -- noting that I believe he is a graduate of the Piaw Na wheel building school who likely built this wheel with Jobst Brandt's book by his side along with his trusty tensionometer and conversion tables -- a tensionometer by itself will NOT keep you from screwing up a wheel if you do not have an appreciation for what spoke tension should feel like as you build a wheel. Ignoring what should be obvious signs that a wheel's spokes are getting too tight during or are still too loose after the build and relying too much on the tensionometer readings alone can and usually will get you into trouble.
As for getting wheels tensioned within 1 kgf of uniformity around a wheel, that sounds pretty cool. I've never seen a conventionally spoked wheel -- at least the variety that the average consumer would buy and use on a tandem -- that would come out perfectly true with the tension being that equal but, again, if y'all have been able to do that quickly good-on-ya.