Originally Posted by
3alarmer
...without being there in the room with you, I cannot speculate. A lot of this depends on the rim in question, and your overall technique (approach) in the initial stages. Also, if you are using used or in service rims to practice, many of them have some built in imbalances from years of abuse already. If a rim has significant deformation from some previous incident, it will never be a candidate for an evenly tensioned wheel build.
No i'm building with a new aluminum rim that has recessed spoke holes and eyelets. I have been following the methods described in the books i've mentioned with some tips found here on the forum and videos on youtube. I can achiev a fairly radially and laterally true wheel with evenly tensioned spokes by pitch.. the only worry i still have is that the wheel will be over-tensioned.