As someone new to wheel building, I have been keeping out of this, but Kurt Sperry's comment prompts me to say that the Webb's in Lincolnshire who showed me what is what were insistent that building the wheels up dry worked best. So far, that is what I have done. I am not too sure about castor oil as a lubricant. Its ability to lubricate under difficult conditions is barely exceeded by modern lubricants but exposed to the atmosphere, it does go hard. As an aside and strictly off topic, its ability to keep a thin film of oil intact is why Castrol R is still popular and explains why, in the days of castor oil's use as a laxative, children were firmly instructed to let nursie pop the spoon right in and to swallow the gloop down in one. If it got on your teeth, it was there for hours ensuring that your lips did not seize on to your gnashers however much you chattered. I once had to siphon R out of an oil tank. Enough said. Stuart Tallack in West Sussex where we now apparently have an oil field. Eat your heart out, Gulf states; the British are coming.