My first attempt at lacing a wheel tore the hub in half. I've not seen or heard of such a thing happening to anyone else, and the hub must have been in pretty bad shape to begin with, but it still REALLY made me nervous. Next attempt took me probably 2-3 hours and gave me a functional wheel I rode for a few months until it was destroyed by a car. I've built probably 60-80+ in the three years or so since that fine summer day, and now I can reliably knock a functional, true, round, etc. wheel out in about an hour. My record I think was 37 min.