Organising the workshop; so... many... spokes...

[Andy in Germany]

I'm working on workshop organisation today, and I've found a very large box full of boxes of spokes, anything from 72 spokes to 500 in a box.

And then I found a bigger one behind it.

I know next to nothing about spokes, save that they all come in different shapes and sizes. Whoever bought these seems to have sourced them mostly from DT Swiss, who I understand generally make double butted spokes. Some of the boxes show the sizes as 1.8/2.0 which I take to mean they are 2.0mm at the ends and 1.8mm in the centre. So far so good, but what about boxes just saying "2.0" or "1.8"? are these the same diameter throughout?

 

[Big John]

At the bike charity where I work as a volunteer we've only got a handful of spokes taken from bikes that have been broken up for the parts. I'm envious! Have you got anyone that builds wheels? If you're going to make good use of them you need to measure them and batch them up by length. To do it properly you'll need a spoke measure although you can use a decent ruler but it won't be as accurate as a spoke measure. It sounds like you have a mountain of them. I wish that was the case with our place but sadly it isn't.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Put it this way, I had two big boxes and I had to half empty them before I could move them.

I've got a lot of 1,8mm, 1.8/2.0mm and 2.0mm diameter spokes, and a few of different sizes. Now I'm sorting them by length.

Once that's done I can worry about wheel building. I've built a couple of front wheels, but I'll have to learn a lot now...

 

[Big John]

You can pick stuff up on the net (YouTube, etc) but if you get the chance to do a wheel building course then go for it. It's a useful skill to have and I find it very rewarding. You'll never get rich building wheels but it's not all about money, eh? 👍

 

[All uphill]

You can pick stuff up on the net (YouTube, etc) but if you get the chance to do a wheel building course then go for it. It's a useful skill to have and I find it very rewarding. You'll never get rich building wheels but it's not all about money, eh? 👍

I agree about wheel-building; I love it.

Given the size of the task you have, Andy, and your limited time I'd delay getting into building wheels; I find time just disappears in a pleasant almost hypnotic state and a pair of wheels can take me four or five hours to get just so.

If any of your clients have a perfectionist streak it could be a future career for them.

 

[DaveReading]

Very true

 

[Nibor]

The Roger Musson book on wheel building is excellent

 

[Andy in Germany]

I agree about wheel-building; I love it.

Given the size of the task you have, Andy, and your limited time I'd delay getting into building wheels; I find time just disappears in a pleasant almost hypnotic state and a pair of wheels can take me four or five hours to get just so.

If any of your clients have a perfectionist streak it could be a future career for them.

Sadly I think you are correct there. Wheel building will have to wait until I can diagnose and repair bikes a lot faster, and also when I have a properly organised workshop so I don't have to search for twenty minutes for a set of matching brake blocks.

However I made a step towards that today:

Heavy box...

Sorting... sorting... Stage 2, by length.

Stacked and organised. R-L 1.8mm, 1.8/2.0mm, and 2.0mm 240-300mm long bottom to top. I may need to move them, and those boxes on top have the oddball spokes, which apart from the DT Swiss triple butted spokes may well end up in the recycling alongside the hundreds of loose unlabelled spokes in the boxes.

I'm realising that unsorted parts are worse than no parts because you waste time searching and they take up space for no benefit, so I'm getting ruthless...

 

[classic33]

Sadly I think you are correct there. Wheel building will have to wait until I can diagnose and repair bikes a lot faster, and also when I have a properly organised workshop so I don't have to search for twenty minutes for a set of matching brake blocks.

However I made a step towards that today:

View attachment 651715

Heavy box...

View attachment 651716

Sorting... sorting... Stage 2, by length.


View attachment 651717

Stacked and organised. R-L 1.8mm, 1.8/2.0mm, and 2.0mm 240-300mm long bottom to top. I may need to move them, and those boxes on top have the oddball spokes, which apart from the DT Swiss triple butted spokes may well end up in the recycling alongside the hundreds of loose unlabelled spokes in the boxes.

I'm realising that unsorted parts are worse than no parts because you waste time searching and they take up space for no benefit, so I'm getting ruthless...

Rather than recycling, can you not advertise them for sale. In batches that would be enough to make a wheel. No further splitting than that.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Rather than recycling, can you not advertise them for sale. In batches that would be enough to make a wheel. No further splitting than that.

Several boxes had price tags on them, so I'm guessing that was tried.

 

[classic33]

Several boxes had price tags on them, so I'm guessing that was tried.

Your price tags or suppliers. As much chance of them being suppliers on the boxes.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

1.8/2.0 which I take to mean they are 2.0mm at the ends and 1.8mm in the centre.

That’s double butted if they show that. Single butted / plain gauge are the same diameter along their length.

 

[chriswoody]

Reminds me of a local bike shop here in town, I broke a spoke on my Tern, which has 20 inch wheels. I took it out and measured it and popped into this old fashioned bike shop, more out of hope he could order a replacement one. Instead he turned to an old oak shelving unit with countless dusty boxes of neatly labelled spokes. A few minutes of chin scratching he selected one box from the pile which was full of spokes and asked how many I wanted. Turns out he'd had to order a full box a few years back when another customer wanted a single spoke and the rest had sat unloved on the shelves since. I decided to buy five spokes in order to help him make a minute dent in his pile!

 

[midlife]

BITD I could recognise the spoke manufacturer by the pattern on the button that held the spoke in the hub

 

[Velochris]

Buy a spoke ruler if you do plan on building as it is best not to assume the spokes lengths match what is on the box.

I use old spoke boxes to keep left over spokes in. The old box may have said 296mm, but inside may have been leftover 293mm etc. Alternatively the odd rogue length may end up in the wrong box.

Particularly for a new builder you do not want to be trying to build a wheel with one or more wrong length spokes. You will give up and never try again.

Highly envious of that find as well!