Working the spoke nipples a quarter turn at a time
Okay. You've got your zip-tie reference point on the fork, or your stand if you sprung for one, and you know which side the wobble's on and about where it happens in the rotation. Now we actually touch the spokes.
Here's the thing… this is the part that scares people off, and it shouldn't. You're not doing anything violent. You're making tiny adjustments and checking your work constantly. That's the whole method.
What the spoke nipple actually does
The nipple is the little nut at the rim end of each spoke. Turn it one way, it pulls the rim toward that side of the wheel. Turn it the other way, it lets go a little. Your wheel is basically forty-some spokes all pulling against each other in balance, and a wobble just means one section of the rim is out of that balance. Too loose on one side, or too tight on the other, usually both a little.
You fix it by finding the spokes near the worst part of the wobble and adjusting them. Not all forty. Just the handful right where the problem is.
Finding your starting point
Spin the wheel slow and watch it pass your zip-tie or your stand's reference arm. Find the spot where the rim is farthest off to one side. That's your worst point. The two or three spokes nearest that spot are the ones you're going to touch first.
Figure out which side of the hub each spoke comes from. Spokes alternate, one from the left flange, one from the right, all the way around. If your wobble is toward the left, you want to tighten the spokes coming from the left in that section, and maybe loosen the ones coming from the right just slightly. That pulls the rim back where it belongs.
The actual turning
Grab your spoke wrench. Get it fully seated on the nipple, flat sides matching flat sides, because if it slips off half-engaged you'll round the nipple and then you've got a real problem on your hands.
Turn it a quarter turn. That's it. Not half a turn, not until it feels different. A quarter turn.
Spin the wheel again. Check against your reference point. See if the wobble moved, got smaller, or didn't change at all.
This is low key the part people mess up, they get impatient and start cranking a full turn or more because a quarter turn doesn't feel like it's doing anything. It is doing something. Wheels are more sensitive to this stuff than people expect. A quarter turn on the right spoke can visibly shift a wobble. Give it a full turn and you'll overshoot, and now you're chasing the wobble the other direction and making new problems in spokes you hadn't even touched yet.
Quarter turn. Spin. Check. Repeat. That's the rhythm. It's slow on purpose.
My honest process, for what it's worth
I trued my very first wobbly wheel with zero equipment except zip-ties on the fork, no stand, and it took me a solid hour. Wasn't perfect when I was done, either, if you looked close you could still see a little flutter in one spot. But it stopped the brake rub, which was the actual problem I was trying to solve, and the wheel rode fine for years after that.
I still true wheels that way about half the time, honestly, even though I've got a stand now. Sometimes it's just faster to zip-tie something to the fork and get going than to haul the stand out and set it up. My opinion, and shops will push back on this, is you don't need a truing stand to start. You need a reference point and patience. The stand is a nice-to-have you can pick up later if you catch the bug.
When to stop
You're not chasing a perfect wheel here. You're chasing "good enough to ride without rubbing the brake or feeling weird under you." Get the wobble down to where it's barely noticeable and call it done. That'll get you most of the way there. Chasing it down to zero on a home setup with a spoke wrench and a zip-tie is a good way to spend three more hours for very little payoff.
If you're turning nipples and the wobble's getting worse instead of better, stop. You've probably got the direction backwards, or you're working on the wrong section of the wheel. Back off, re-check your reference point, and start again slower. Don't force it. Forcing a spoke nipple that's stuck is exactly how you strip one, and then you're pulling the tire and tube back off just to replace a two-dollar part.
Before next time
Spin your wheel one more time before you put the tire back on and just live with the sound and feel of it a minute. Next time we'll talk about what a wheel wobble that won't true out is actually telling you, because sometimes it's not the spokes, it's the rim itself.