Lacing Spokes Without scratching fresh paint?

[TheFlyingDingo]

Well, I recently learned the way of the lacer...And learned how to lace a wheel...From youtube.

Well, I want to rebuild a set of worksman wheels. but i want to paint them. Is there any way to avoid scratching the paint on the rim as I put the spokes through the holes? Especially thick spokes like those...it would be hard to bend them In....

 

[Beau]

If you're using 12 gauge spokes, it will be tough to bend them a bit.

When I have painted rims or high end rims, we just run a couple strips of 3/4" painters tape on the rim.

 

[scrumblero]

the purple tape works good as its less likely to screw up the paint, :roll:

if you drop em all at once and get em to lay right before you start, you should only have to bend a couple.

 

[cashman]

You might could leave all the spokes extremely loose as you lace them in so that you could rotate the hub/spoke hole away from the rim as much as possible as you put each spoke in place. This might allow some extra clearance without having to bend the spokes as much? Some of those rubber vacume line seal caps from the auto parts store placed over the ends of the spokes, might help prevent some scratching of the paint on the rim.

 

[CCR]

i do what cashman says, leave them really loose, thread the nipple on somewhere between 1-2 full turns, your gonna hafta bend them either way, but there should be less bend youll have to make to move the spoke around.