I was a bicycle mechanic for years and I have laced hundreds of wheels (I used to wrench for a road racing team). I only just start the nipples when lacing a wheel. Once all the spokes are in pop the wheel in a truing stand and tighten all the nipples equally. Usually one full turn at a time until the wheel tension comes up. After that I start truing and never tighten more than 1/4 turn at a time. Keep in mind you have 4 goals. You wan the wheel straight, dished evenly left to right, concentric with the hub and round. This all happens simultaneously as you true the wheel. It sounds harder than it really is. The key is to go SLOW!
DO NOT TRY to get the wheel to full tension right away! The whole process of truing goes smoother if the wheel is lightly tensioned and all your threads and nipples are oiled or greased.
If you don't have a truing stand you can do it in your fork or frame just fine. Assemble it with all the normal spacers and parts but no tire. Zip tie a ruler across the top of the fork or swingarm so you can find the high spots and measure the distance from each side of the rim to center the rim. when you are round and centered, zip tie a screwdriver to on side of the fork/arm and use it as a feeler to true out the last wobbles.
After the wheel is round, straight and centered then you can tension the wheel by tightening up all nipples a1/4 turn at a time until you are where you want it to be. I like to strike each spoke with a screwdriver to hear its tone. If you did this right they should all sound very close to the same....ding, ding, ding, ding,....etc. If you hear a dong or ting tighten or loosen that spoke until the is close in tension to its neighbors and recheck the true-ness of the wheel.
This take some time (this is why techs and Buchannan's charge $$ for this service).
Hope this helps!
