anyone had any experience in building wheels where the hub drillings don’t match the rim drilling? have a 40 hole hub and 36 hole rim. yes,i know spokes cost just as much as a (cheap) rim but it seems straightfoward enough.i have lots of spokes. i think i have only ever seen this done w/ fronts and possibly only radial pattern. anyone know otherwise. looking to build 2x/3x.
It’s possible, but would look a bit silly and you’d probably need to use a couple of spoke lengths (particularly if using a high flange hub).
Looking at previous posts, if the hub is the Airlite you could probably sell it for more than you could buy a new 36h hub, and if you wanted to space the Airlite out to 135mm it would put a lot of load on the axle and bearing cups because the hub is very narrow.
Sheldon hosted an article on this:
So any one wanna buy an airlite? the sheldon article was what piqued my interest, but i do reckon it would look a little kookie too. was planning on cold setting the frame to 120mm. back to the drawing board.
quit so soon? 
Why not opt for a 40 hole rim? They are around if you keep your eyes peeled.
Velocity do 40 - shouldn’t be hard to get.
whole point of theoretical exercise was to try and make a new wheel outta what was in the shed. got spokes 180 to 240ish for the 26inch build, so odd ball (i make it 5 different length spokes to build the 36/40 wheel- 3x drive and radial nondrive!!!) not a prob’. a local has some 36h hubs cheap so plan b there. cheers,G