Limits in redishing a wheel to set chainline?

Randybaker99

I find myself in an interesting situation:

I am converting an almost new alum road frame (with vert dropouts) to a fixer, and I am finding the chainline on the inner chainring to be a large 47.5 mm. Because I would like to not use spacers between the ring and the spider, I find that I have to redish the wheel pretty far to the left. The bike was a triple, but I checked the BB and it appears to be a pretty standard 110 mm width.

Specifically, in order to achieve correct chainline, the wheel is now dished to the point where the non-drive side on my wheel is dished to the same degree as the dish would be on the drive side of a 9 speed wheel!

My first question is, will a wheel that is dished backwards (non-drive side spokes are approaching vertical) be sufficiently strong, or would this "reverse dish" create a weakened wheel? Another question is should I be looking to reduce the front chainline measurement to a smaller value? I know that I can solve the problem with a White ENO hub (which provides for a 47.5 mm chainline - coincidence? I think not.), but I would like to save some money for now (1 hub $160 + 1 rim $80 + 32 spokes $20 + labor $40 = $300) and use an old 6-speed wheel instead (3 spokes = $2.40).

The reason to eliminate the chainring spacers are 1) cosmetic and 2) I had a few stack bolts come loose when I was using the spacers so I have concerns about the long term viability of spacers.

I am particularly interested in hearing from someone who has some wheelbuilding experience and can speak to issues of wheel strength. Any thoughts/ideas?

Thanks, in advance!