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Why does nobody talk about spoke prep when building wheels?
I built my first set of wheels 3 years ago in my garage in Portland. Followed all the videos, got the tension right, even stress relieved them. Last month I took them apart to swap hubs and every single spoke nipple was seized up. I spent 4 hours drilling out four of them. Nobody ever mentioned using spoke prep or anti-seize on brass nipples. Does anyone else bother with this or just run them dry?
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laura_white9910d agoTop Commenter
Did you use brass or aluminum nipples? Brass usually doesn't seize like that unless you cross threaded them.
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davis.gavin10d ago
Wait, you ran them dry? Yeah that's your problem right there. Brass on brass will weld itself together over time, especially if you live anywhere with moisture. A little dab of anti-seize or even just some light grease on the threads makes a huge difference. I always do it now after learning the hard way on my first build.
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