Another day of wheel building (and so on).
Continuing from yesterday.
I built a rear wheel with an XR331 rim.
The DT240 hub that was redesigned in 2021
with the new Ratchet EXP freebody
28H with half-comp 4-cross lacing pattern.
I'll tension the spokes later.
The customer has three XR331 rims,
and one of them had a spoke hole machining defect.
Finding something like this is valuable because you can infer the manufacturing process.
I have several DT aluminum nipples that made it to market partway through production,
and since they vary by stage,
when I line them up I can get a pretty good sense of how they're made.
For example, what I can tell from this spoke hole is
that they're using a hole saw for drilling.
The customer had already noticed this defect themselves,
so we decided to use up the flawed one first.
Of the two rims we received, we chose this one.
The part blocking the spoke hole wouldn't come out with finger pressure alone
(if it did, the customer probably would've removed it).
I thought about using a punch with a smaller diameter than the spoke hole
and tapping it out with light impacts from a plastic mallet,
but before trying that, I pressed the tip of the punch I was holding
firmly by hand, and surprisingly it came right out.
It was just sitting slightly recessed, so finger pressure wouldn't dislodge it—
honestly, I think even pressing with a ballpoint pen would've gotten it out.
Of course, this might not apply to every case,
and I don't know if I'll ever see the same defect again.
Both rims we received were under 400g, as I mentioned for the front wheel,
but there was a noticeable weight difference between them,
so I'm using the lighter one for the rear wheel again.
The actual weight? I'm not telling you that
↑What is wrong with this guy, incredibly bad attitude
Thank you for waiting! Please take a look at this image!
Here are the two rims from this time!
↑Stop it!
Continuing from yesterday.
I built a rear wheel with an XR331 rim.
The DT240 hub that was redesigned in 2021
with the new Ratchet EXP freebody
28H with half-comp 4-cross lacing pattern.
I'll tension the spokes later.
The customer has three XR331 rims,
and one of them had a spoke hole machining defect.
Finding something like this is valuable because you can infer the manufacturing process.
I have several DT aluminum nipples that made it to market partway through production,
and since they vary by stage,
when I line them up I can get a pretty good sense of how they're made.
For example, what I can tell from this spoke hole is
that they're using a hole saw for drilling.
The customer had already noticed this defect themselves,
so we decided to use up the flawed one first.
Of the two rims we received, we chose this one.
The part blocking the spoke hole wouldn't come out with finger pressure alone
(if it did, the customer probably would've removed it).
I thought about using a punch with a smaller diameter than the spoke hole
and tapping it out with light impacts from a plastic mallet,
but before trying that, I pressed the tip of the punch I was holding
firmly by hand, and surprisingly it came right out.
It was just sitting slightly recessed, so finger pressure wouldn't dislodge it—
honestly, I think even pressing with a ballpoint pen would've gotten it out.
Of course, this might not apply to every case,
and I don't know if I'll ever see the same defect again.
Both rims we received were under 400g, as I mentioned for the front wheel,
but there was a noticeable weight difference between them,
so I'm using the lighter one for the rear wheel again.
The actual weight? I'm not telling you that
↑What is wrong with this guy, incredibly bad attitude
Thank you for waiting! Please take a look at this image!
Here are the two rims from this time!
↑Stop it!