tomtomtom123

My spokes varied by 1mm in length so turning the nipple equally didn't help to make the tension equal for me. I still turned them equity just to have a reference point. Then I started to try getting both lateral and radial true. I then had a dial gauge and tension meter to write down on a chart so I could see where I needed to add more tension to equalize things, because changing tension on one end will have an opposite effect on the radial of the opposite end. I repeated and remeasured in many stages while stress relieving in the early stages. It took me 12 hours though.

cpach

A couple things can make for uneven tension on a side when thread engagement is matched, such as nipple angle at the rim, how well bedded in the spoke elbows are against the flange and small variations in spoke length. I tend to set nipple engagement very low and even to start, bring tension up until they are taught and have pitch, then match each side approximately by pitch (if you can't do this, use a meter), then improve true in ways that improve evenness of tension. Basically even nipple engagement should be pretty even in tension, but starting from relatively even tension should be the initial goal, and whenever possible adjustments to true should improve tension. Wherever adjustments to true make tension less even it means the rim has a tolerance issue (common at the joint). I have extremely good relative pitch so I tend to rely really heavily on plucking spokes as a means for improving balance--I'm only human so I absolutely use a tension meter to set absolute tension and to double check evenness in the final stages, though generally my ear is more precise than my rather pedestrial Park tension meter.

stansb

I didnt notice any differences in spoke lenght but i suspect that i'll be in the same situation you were. Luckily i have a tension meter and i'll use the park tension meter app for the job.

Does that mean that i should bring the tension of the overtightened and rattling spokes to the tension of the rest?

tomtomtom123

I don't know how useful the park tools chart is. I made my own circle chart divided by the number of spokes and numbered each of them. I wrote down the tension and amount of radial deflection at each spoke so I would know which spokes I could adjust to get the least deflection while maintaining good tension as evenly as manageable. I still had up to 10 to 20 percent variations between adjacent ones because there were bumps in the rim that I wanted to get rid of. I got it to within 0.4mm radial deflection.

Unca_Sam

*phew! Where to start with this.

Yes, you will try to bring your tension values, using your tension meter, closer to your average tension. Park has an online tool that you can plug the numbers into and it will highlight spokes that are above or below your specified tolerance.
The trick is to build the wheel with sufficient absolute tension as well. I tend to use 110 kg/F as a rule of thumb, since older box section rims seem to rarely have tolerances above that.
Absent a gauge, you can also gauge when the nipples are binding on the spoke threads more and are harder to turn as getting close to exceeding the maximum tension for the build. This means less if you haven't greased your spoke threads and the spoke hole in the rim because the friction between the parts is much higher, and the binding happens with significantly less tension on the spoke.
Binding means the spoke is twisting more and more as you turn the nipple, then skipping along the threads after you exceed the friction threshold. Friction is what keeps the nipples from loosening as the spoke relaxes while riding, and keeps the wheel true. If you hold the spoke between your fingers while turning the nipple, you'll be able to feel the twist. You'll want to reverse that twist as you build, because the spoke will do it itself as you ride it, and you'll likely need to true it again.

LV2TNDM

It is very common to see tension variations in your spokes when the nipples are all located at the same place (top of threads). Yes, increase the tension on the loose spokes, and decrease tension on any that appear too tight. Even tension is the goal. Number of nipple turns is ultimately irrelevant. However, REALLY loose pairs of spokes and really tight pairs indicates spokes have gone into the wrong rim or hub holes.

With even tension, you then want to bring it up while watching radial and lateral true as well as dish. You can build a perfectly-tensioned wheel that is out of round and dish. (In fact, a perfectly tensioned wheel usually has no dish, depending on hub flange configuration.) So you want to bring up tensions while maintaining true. Don't just blindly bring tensions up nice and even and then at the end have to fix true and dish - you throw off all your tensions doing this. Ultimately, a nice round rim will come up to nice, even tension with excellent radial and lateral true. But it takes a lot of practice to do this.

And unfortunately, counter to the post just above, nipple torques are not a good indicator of spoke tension. Nipple torques vary, usually because of varying spoke and nipple angle of entry into the rim. The steeper the angle of some spokes make turning the nipples more difficult. To reduce the incidence of high nipple torque, utilize ample lubrication. Boiled linseed oil on spoke threads and nipple seats is the cheapest and best low-tech spoke prep/lube.

A better way to judge tension without a tension meter is pitch. If you're a musician, then you're golden! Even pitch indicates even tension (but compare spokes on the same side). Good for evaluating relative tension, but not as good determining actual tension values.

Unca_Sam

Oy! LV2TNDM !
How do you determine absolute tension with no gauge and no reference pitch?