Everyone swears by Park Tool cone wrenches but I found something weird

I was at a shop in Portland last month and decided to actually measure the thickness on a few different cone wrenches with calipers. The Park Tool ones were off by 0.2mm on the 15mm size compared to their own spec sheet. A $12 no-name brand I grabbed off a parts bin was dead on. Has anyone else checked theirs with calipers or am I just being too picky?

3 comments

3 Comments

lilyt232d ago

Got out my own calipers after reading this and checked a few wrenches I had sitting around. @margaretc42 I get where you're coming from, but I had a similar thing happen with a 10mm Park Tool cone wrench that was just enough off to make adjusting a vintage hub a pain. It slipped on the cone and rounded it a little before I realized what was happening. Switched to a cheap no-name from a bin and it fit perfect, no issues since. For me, that 0.2mm mattered in that one case, but I think it depends on the hub and how tight the tolerances are on the cones themselves.

hannahj492d ago

Ugh yeah that's so frustrating! I had a similar thing with a vintage Campagnolo hub where my fancy wrench just didn't bite right and I ended up rounding a cone ever so slightly. Ended up using a cheap old wrench from a garage sale and it fit like a glove, go figure. Guess sometimes the old stuff just works better for old stuff lol.

margaretc422d ago

Oh come on, are we really splitting hairs over 0.2mm on a cone wrench? Unless you're building wheels for NASA, that's not gonna matter in the real world.