Park Tool spoke wrench broke on a simple wheel build - wasted $25

I bought a brand new Park Tool SW-0 spoke wrench to true up a rear wheel I was building up. On the third spoke nipple, the little tab inside the wrench just snapped off. I wasn't even cranking hard, just normal tension. Now I'm stuck with a useless tool and a half-finished wheel. Has anyone else had this happen with the smaller sizes, or did I just get a lemon from a bad batch?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_gray2d ago

Have you checked if the wrench was actually the right size for your nipples? Park Tool makes them in 0.0, 1.0, 2.0, etc. but some cheaper spoke nipples are slightly off spec. I had a similar thing happen with a different brand wrench where the tab snapped because the nipple was actually a hair bigger than what the wrench was meant for. Might be worth measuring both your nipples and the wrench with calipers before buying a replacement. Could save you another $25 and a lot of frustration.

jennifer_west522d ago

Oh man, that's such a good point! I spent like an hour once trying to figure out why my pedal wrench wouldn't grip right and it turned out my pedals were just a tiny bit too big for the damn thing.