Never to young to learn. Being a C&V bike forum, I'm reminiscing to when I was 11 or 12 y.o. and riding clunker single speeds. Spoilt neighbor twins down the road had brand new Schwinns. One day we're all riding together and the next thing, the twins are in a smash-up derby contest. Of course the mudguards and spokes were trashed. No matter my plea of innocence to our parents, the lil' bastards lied and I got the blame for damaging their bikes. Paid the penny's for new spokes and I learned by myself how to dismantle and replace the spokes. Incident now laughable but also quite sure they had a helluva wobble in them. :)

[MENTION=350383]crank_addict[/MENTION] - Payback with wobble wheels! LOL.

You learn the most from mistakes. It is worth the reward! Looks easy, requires concentration! Check and double check.

At the very least, every cycling enthusiast should know truing. Even if you buy a new or used set, highly suggest to examine or to loosen and retension them yourself. Though for many, wheelbuilding passed onto a shop or expert might be wise. Especially for older rare rims, different metallurgy, strength and design, etc.. It all depends on what your time is worth and the sum of wheel components.

I've had some built for me yet also built myself some crazy exotic stuff. (Fiber Flite's CF spokes, Marwi titanium's, odd-ball hubs, etc., various lacing, etc., single wall vintage ally rims, etc. Experiment and give it a go!)

Always a learning and something different comes into play. I listen and observe others and seems not one does exactly as the other.

My latest fun- Recently built a set using NOS vintage tubular rims, WANTED and DID use vintage butted spokes and nipples. First problem, one rim was mildly egg-shaped. Wasn't disclosed when I purchased them by online auction and I just left them in the box until the time of the wheelbuild. Secondly, the old spokes I acquired, had to cut them down to use with the hub and rim. I knew that going in as the length was rather difficult to find in vintage these days. However, no problem with that but was getting weird seeing the oblong situation with the faulty rim and a few spokes appearing way long.

Anyways, it was a PITA attempting to evenly tension plus now had to shorten a few spokes by Dremel grinding them while deep into the dish. End result for that troublesome rim was to accept it out of round by quite a few mm. An evenly done tension is important to me, so I gambled leaving as is and took it for a ride. Had a VERY annoying hop at speed.

Decided to start over with that wheel, loosen all and then re-tension, getting aggressive with the high side yet stay with tension specs on the remaining. Snapped two of the old spokes in the center portion. So then replaced those plus additional one with a straight gauge and pulled it all together. Its now bearable to ride at high speed but not perfect. I'll live with it and also believe if someday it gets a higher quality tubular, probably would be nil.

Wheel building is tricky. I'm no expert (don't do it often enough) but I do enjoy it. My advice is that once you ensure it's laced properly and that you have the right length spokes in the right places, don't think of it as "truing." Work the tension up one turn at a time on each nipple, starting at the valve hole and go around the wheel several times until the threads disappear. At this point it will still be loose but you can start alternating the three actions: side to side truing, hops, and dish. Don't work on any one aspect for too long, but keep alternating. Eventually you'll have a wheel.

If the spokes are the same length and the threads are the same length spoke to spoke, you can tighten the nipple until the nipple starts to hide the last thread. You will have loose wheel but each spoke will be engaged the same distance and is a great place to start counting your rotations to tighten the spokes. Once the rim is tight enough with the spokes so it doesn't "fall" when you rotate it, you can start the dishing process which will tighten the spokes more while getting the rim centered. Once it is close, then the process of round (should be good already due to uniform spoke length and thread count), axial, and runnout alignment starts, unless you have a rim that is not round.

The reference material covers all this anyway. Just do it and become part of the club!

[MENTION=350383]crank_addict[/MENTION], you can improve that wheel. Draw a circle on the floor the size of the perimeter of the rim. Disassemble the wheel and place the bare rim in the circle to find the high and low spots. Shape it with a mallet. You may want to place the high or low spots between two well-secured two-by-fours so you can direct your mallet force to the proper areas. Keep checking for roundness with your circle on the floor. Once it is round, rebuild the wheel. I've done things similar to this, and I've seen this done. It works.

^Tom- Cringing here but that could be the answer.

Have enough other tools to maybe try. First thought of the precise use but miniscule amount of pressure with a 20 ton press, but I'd have to towel wrap to protect, anchor it out with 2 x 4, etc.. Then it crossed my mind of just using an arbor press, anchor and protect, etc. but less precise. Trial and error.

The way the wheel is now, it works but if it becomes a nuisance, I'll be on the hunt for another batch of vintage butted spokes, galvi like / 305mm, correct hoop per above and get it right. BTW: Kinda of interesting rim - makes a different howl under brake and pretty sure it eats KoolStop salmon for lunch ;) NO JOKE!

Michael Doleman @ Flickr has a nice step-by-step pictorial with text on how to build up a wheelset.