TIL my old spoke wrench was rounding off nipples for months

I was chasing a persistent wobble on a customer's wheel in Portland, and kept re-tensioning with my usual cheap spoke wrench. After the third ride, I grabbed a Park Tool SW-7 from a buddy's stand and the same spoke nipples finally bit without slipping. Turns out the old wrench jaws had worn just enough to round off the corners slowly, over maybe 6 weeks of builds. Anyone else ever realize a worn tool was the real problem, not the wheel itself?

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david_rivera42mo ago

Yeah, I used to swear my cheap wrench was fine and just blamed the nipples for being soft, but after grabbing a proper one last season I finally saw the real issue was the worn jaws the whole time. Kind of humbling honestly.

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