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I'm sure your tires are fine and safe enough if you're watching expenditure. However, if you want to treat yourself...:

I switched a bike from moderately chunky Kenda Komfort tires to Schwalbe Kojak 2.0" tires for road commuting, and it makes a glorious difference, especially if they're pumped up fairly hard. The bike just rolls and rolls and handles potholes with ease... Though of course they're not cheap at $32/each.

Slicks will give you good road grip even in the wet. It's only on loose and soft surfaces that you'll suffer.

I f'ing love the old steel rigid MTBs for commuters... You can often pick up a ~1990 vintage quality MTB for a song and it could hardly be a more practical bike, yet with slicks it's also a fast bike.

I have this Bikehand truing stand which is pretty much a TS-2.2 clone from what I gather, so I think that will work.

Thanks for the tips, I'll do some more micro-adjusting to try and get it right... or I might just de-tension re-tension completely because the rim has a bit of a hop as well. Good learning experience I suppose!

Go with the Sun Rims CR-18 in 27" and you won't have to mess around with brake reach for the 700s. I've got them on a few of my bikes and I'm very pleased with them. Nice, classic look.

There's nothing wrong with an internal hub, as long as you don't have a major mismatch in dropout spacing vs hub width that can't be corrected with spacers or moderate frame cold setting. I assume you've got horizontal dropouts on that '84 so you can easily adjust chain tension.

That attachment looks pretty similar to the Feedback Sports stand which I used recently to build my first set of wheels. It worked really well. I just flipped the wheel over every once in awhile while truing in order to dish the wheel.

> served me well for the last 18 months as I was introduced to the world of riding. I’ve broken a handful of spokes

I think you might have pretty low expectations if you can break multiple spokes in 18 months and still say they "served you well".

Spokes with 1.5mm center sections like the Sapim Laser and DT Swiss Revolution are definitely strong enough for you in a 32 spoke wheel, but as a first-time builder, definitely avoid them. The reason is their very small diameter makes them wind up very badly which takes definitely technique and feel to prevent, as well as specific techniques to relieve.

Sapim Race or DT Competition are MUCH easier to build with since they develop far less wind-up while turning nipples. Hell, I personally find spokes like the Sapim CX-Ray, DT Aerolite, and DT Aero Comp to be the easiest spokes to build with BECAUSE the aero section makes the windup 100% visible and also 100% preventable during build by using a bladed-spoke-holder tool like the DT Bladed Spoke Holder.

Also, I would suggest finding a copy of the spocalc.xls spreadsheet and plugging in the dimensional numbers for the parts you're using. What you should see is the bracing angle and tension balance numbers. The worse your tension balance is (on the rear wheel), the less durable the wheel will be in use.

I assume your bike has 1) 7 speed freewheel on the back and 2) a bolt-on axle. If so, amazon is your friend.

http://www.amazon.com/Sta-Tru-Steel-Speed-Freewheel-26X1-75-Inch/dp/B004YJ2E16/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1396397803&sr=8-4&keywords=26+rear+wheel

EDIT: Missed that you are needing a front wheel too. I saw a front linked to that page I just sent you, looks like it's another $25. You might find some cheaper ones, those are just what I saw immediately.

No personal experience with it, but the Bikehand stand is a near-clone of the TS 2.2 at a pretty reasonable price: http://www.amazon.com/BIKEHAND-Wheel-Truing-Bicycle-Maintenance/dp/B00CW90ZKW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394539358&sr=8-1&keywords=bikehand+truing+stand

Shelton Brown was speaking in terms of commuting and people that put major miles on their bike as primary transportation. i.e., will the tire still work? The technical answer is yes, but for my money I would never run a tire that had lost enough flexibility to crack. It's not conforming to the surface of the trail anymore and the contact patch is smaller.

The real world answer is replace the tire when it is no longer capable of doing the job...even if it still "looks good". Plenty of brands of tires go off long before they look worn out. From the looks of your picture, it is a pretty old MTB with off brand tires that probably doesn't see any real trail duty. In that case, no worries. However if you just commute on it or ride greenways, putting a set of new soft city slicks on your bike won't set you back much and will make riding it worlds better.
Like these
or these

You can use this tool. It's very expensive, so you can also use this

The Bicycle Wheel by Jobst Brandt

The Bicycle Wheel

Lube your spoke threads with linseed oil.

If you're replacing one or two spokes a year, you don't need a truing stand. I use a training stand bought off craigslist to hold the wheel and sockets to identify high spots on each side and along the perimeter. You can even turn your bike upside-down and use the brakes as truing gauges. Unless you're building wheels for Lance Armstrong, you can eyeball dish. You don't need a tensiometer, you can feel when the spokes are tensioned about right. Especially if you're only replacing one spoke on a wheel, when the wheel is true, it's tensioned right. I use the SW-7 3 size spoke wrench because I work on a wide variety of bikes and it covers every spoke nipple I've run into.

Don't be afraid to dig in. The worst that can happen is you break another spoke.

Don't forget to lube the threads with linseed oil.

EDIT: Sheldon Brown Truing Guide!