Donnie, yeah, that makes sense. I tried to stagger the holes on my 20 hole hub but that's not a lot of stagger on a 1/2" hub! I think the real problem was that I started with the wrong hole on the other side. I'm definitely going to take your 10-hole approach on the next set and maybe even use a slightly smaller washer for the hub -- although the 1/2" hub on a 5" size wheels looks pretty good.

It looks like the spokes on your wheel also ended up woven over and under each other.