Lets design a spoke wrench.

zerodish

10 mW
Joined
Nov 9, 2012
Messages
32
What I want is the round kind with 8 sizes. These are marked with the gauge sizes and there are a least 2 standards. So lets git of that. Mark them with the inch size and the metric size. I would like a .127 .130 .136 and .156. I don’t know what the 13 gauge standard is but I would like those and one more 12 gauge size if they exist. If not Wald made a spoke wrench which I never used because it was smaller that .127. These are easy to make. Just buy a tube cut if off and mill 8 slots. A torx will greatly increase the cost so an alternate wrench can be made for those who want them.
 
Multi-sized ring wrenches are tediously slow to use. I only reach for one when I've completely exhausted all my single size spoke keys.

That said, they wouldn't suck quite as hard if they had color coded sectors to designate sizes. They'd still have their unergonomic grip to make me not want to use one, but at least they wouldn't make me try multiple slots or have to read the wrench with every new spoke.
 
Those multi-spoke gauge tools are useless for lacing a wheel or doing a regularly scheduled truing of the wheel where you gotta hit multiple (5+) spokes.

I myself have a few of the cheap ones around as I can never find one when I need one.
I bought the red Park Tool spoke wrench today when I was out and about as I wanted a second Park Tool tool, and zero fussing around with 8 slots for multi-spoke nipple tool.

Park Tool does sell a 3-way multi-spoke tool. I just about bought it, but did not.

If you can make a multi-tool spoke wrench, then why not make 8 different single tools?
You will never use 3/4 of the sizes. You may only ever use 2 sizes if you go through many wheels.
It would be wise to copy exactly the Park Tool spoke wrenches in terms of the shape, then find the same plastic cover that goes over the Park Tool spoke tool.

How precise does the dimensions of the slot in the spoke tool have to be to not round off nips?
 
I tour. I don’t carry the absolute minimum but just a bit more to help people out. I had the 3 corner and broke every size. Also it hurt to use. REI gave me a full refund. I carry a Park .127 these break also. The round ones never break which means the hole in the center can be larger which means you can make them out of a tube.
 
zerodish said:
The round ones never break
They definitely do break. I've had a really cheap one just crack right across on a regular 14g nipple, not even done tensioning with it. Stripped out more than one in every slot that fit any nipples I had.

Cut my hands and fingers wide open on the pointy corners trying to get in there are turn it in closely-spaced nipples for small wheels.

Oh, and destroyed numerous nipples because they just plain don't fit right.


I still carry one in the on-trike toolkit...but I don't like using it unless I have to.
 
zerodish said:
The round ones never break which means the hole in the center can be larger which means you can make them out of a tube.

I think they could be made not to break or wear out, with the right choice of material and heat treatment. But I think the way to make them would be one size only, with either identical slots on both sides of the ring, or a 2 corner "square" slot on one side and a 3 corner "diamond" slot on the other.

My thinking is if you have the machine tech necessary to produce good precise consistent slots from hard material, you probably have what you need to make a better tool shape than a round ring.

My go-to spoke key for working fast and efficiently is the standard Park wire loop wrench. For turning a wheel up to high tension, it's the DT Swiss winged wrench, which I modify with a small chamfer at the opening.

SW-0_001.jpg


dt-swiss-spokey-pro-spoke-wrench-393251-1.jpg


The DT Swiss key gets crowded when doing 48 spoke wheels that are 26" or smaller, or some across-the-rim spoke lacing patterns.

I want to try out the GSport wrench, but I haven't gotten one yet. I suspect having two different interfaces on the same wrench might become frustrating in the same way as other multi-sized spoke tools.

1093936a.jpg
 
It looks like 13 gauge spokes use 4 and 5 mm wrenches. That is actually very close to the standard .156 standard so some one needs to do some measurements. Custom builder Ron Boi told me Paramount tandems used 13 gauge spokes but the nipple was 14 gauge sized so it was impossible to true the wheel with out damaging the nipple. Spokes are stronger now which means they can be pulled tighter assuming the rim can take it. This would necessitate a bigger nipple but I think 5 mm is a bit of overkill for 2.3 mm spokes.
 
Spokes bigger than 2.0mm (14ga) have no benefits when used with bicycle rims, but they have serious drawbacks. Fat spokes don't stay tight worth a damn, don't support the rim with a damn when it's under load, and make wheels into a maintenance headache.

I build wheels for pedicabs that carry 2000 pounds plus on three wheels, and the 14/15ga butted spokes I use are dramatically more reliable and low maintenance than the 13 and 12ga spokes that appeal to the cheap seats.
 
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