Ed-

I pretty much agree with andymac's spin on this. I've built most of my wheels (and my son's) for the last 14 years or so and have never had an issue or a failure other than actually trashing a wheel. I grease the nipples and spoke heads and use Triflow when touching up over the life of the wheel. I learned to back off nipples to take out spoke windup, stress-relieve during buildup, and came to learn what proper tension felt like (no tensiometer).

Just my experience. Hope this helps perspective-wise.