Snapped a Park Tool spoke wrench clean in half last Tuesday

I was cranking down a spoke on a filthy old commuter wheel and the handle just gave way, so I had to finish the build using a cheap multi-tool while ordering a replacement, anyone else had a tool just fail on them like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

theagarcia15h ago

i mean "snapped a park tool spoke wrench clean in half" sounds like you were using it as a breaker bar on a stuck bolt or something. those wrenches are pretty tough but theyre not designed to take that kind of torque like a proper spoke tool is. unless you were cranking on a seized nipple or something which yeah thatll break anything. honestly if youre putting that much force into a spoke nipple you probably should have just cut the spoke and started fresh instead of fighting it. maybe youre overthinking it a bit though because a broken wrench is annoying but not exactly the end of the world.

taylor.betty10h ago

yeah i agree with @theagarcia on that, especially the part about "probably should have just cut the spoke and started fresh." i've been in that spot where you're trying to muscle a seized nipple and you think you can win, but honestly you're just asking for a broken tool or worse, a stripped nipple that makes the whole wheel a bigger headache. those park tool wrenches are decent but they're not indestructible, and if you're putting that much force into them you're probably past the point where it's worth saving the spoke anyway. i've snapped a couple cheap wrenches myself on stubborn nipples and learned the hard way that cutting the spoke and replacing it is way less annoying than fighting with a messed up nipple for twenty minutes. plus if you break the nipple trying to force it, now you're fishing pieces out of the rim which is a whole other level of frustration. so yeah, maybe just take the loss on that spoke and move on, it's not worth the hassle in the long run.