cone wrench on the cheap

[Gerald_G]

I wanted to clean and pack a rear hub today, but my local bike shops are not open on Sundays, and I really wanted to get it done today.

I found that I had a folding multi-blade bike tool (like a cheap bicycle swiss army knife) with a 15mm thin box opening on one blade.

Problem #1 - when attached to the swiss army knife of a handle, can't be placed close enough to the hub to get on the cone nut due to large handle.

Problem #2 - when removed from the handle, tool is too small to have the ability to apply enough torque to break apart the lock nut.

Sollution - Take a 4 inch chunk from the rear stay tube I had previously hacked apart, (the bit just above the rear dropout) and weld a handle to the cheap blade wrench. Since the stay tube is hollow, the resulting tool is nice and light weight, and the round handle is really nice to use. Worked great. Do I have a high quality cone wrench ? NO !, did I get my hub repacked ? YES. Does the job, and is AZ hacker style all the way.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb60/gerald_g/spin/wrench.jpg

[John Lewis]

Good one Gerald.

I made one a little differently. I took a strip of flat steel and hacked out a slot in the end with the angle grinder. Chewed it to a rough spanner shape and thinned the end. Gave it a quick sand smooth and it does the job just fine. I made two as its easier to adjust cones then.

Must say yours is a lot neater than mine.

John Lewis

[Sparky]

yeah, im gonna make me one one of these days. its bad to just guesstimate when a hub is tight. :o

[TheKid]

I made a few from wrenches I bought at garage sales. I got a set of 10-19mm wrenches for a buck, and grinded the ones I needed so they'd be thin enough. I got another set that was in a box of tools I bought for 3 bucks, and grinded those down so I have two to work with on one hub, although that isn't usually necessary, as I found out later.
I like the idea Gerald came up with, because sometimes I need more leverage when dissasembling older hubs, and welding on a longer handle will do the trick. Thanks for the info.