Really love your story KingLudd. When I was a soph in high school my brother and I took out a book from the school library titled The Complete Book of Bicycling by Eugene Sloane. Between the two of us we had the book checked out for most of the school year 1973-74.
Both of us used the instructions in the book to lace up our own wheels, mine were Mavic tubular rims with Campy high flange hubs. All I have now from that build is the front wheel campy hubs, I think the rear wheel (as well as my fishing pole) was stolen from our barn when I was away at college. I only used those wheels on a limited basis because as you know fixing tubular flats was/is a pain.
I have this real desire to build and really learn how to make quality wheel sets. I also would like to restore a mid 70s era steel road bike, 531 double butted, all campy machine.
Haven’t repaired a sew-up since 1983! Thank you for your story. I hope you build your dream bike.