Homemade nipple driver!!

[DRZRM]

I wish I'd come across this earlier. I'd put off buying the Park or Var nipple drivers for no good reason, but that a grinder shaped screwdriver seemed fine. I kept looking at them, but given how often I build wheels, it seemed like an unnecessary luxury. Actually, maybe it was safer to say that every time I was considering buying one, I already had the wheel parts sitting in front of me, and it wouldn't help until the next build. I'm surprised that I never ordered them with spokes, I guess you have to order from Dan's over the phone, and I never remembered.

Anyway, I came across this site (I'd used spokes to thread on nipples before, but never considered how much better this could work).

Build a Nipple Driver from an Old Bike Spoke

I made both of these, and they saved me a ton of time on the build (certainly an hour, maybe a few). I don't know who Kristofer Henry is, but I definitely owe him a beer. Jeez, sorry the images are so big.

[hollowgram5]

Kristofer Henry runs the custom frame building company 44 Bikes. He's up in New Hampshire, and specializes is MTB, Fat, and gravel bikes.. I've always been a fan of his stuff, if you are looking for one of those types of bikes, he's worth a consideration..

[keevon]

That's a beautiful thing. I especially love how it threads all the nipples onto the spokes at the same depth - something my anal-retentive self constantly struggles with

[Dave B]

Awesome...


however, i was very disappointed with the thread when you had an awesome title like that!


but my maturity is pretty low, so you know grains of salt and stuff.

[smontanaro]

Neat. I'm probably missing something obvious, but it's not clear to me how it grabs the spoke nipple.

[unterhausen]

it grabs it by the threads from the backside. The other nipple works as a stop. I usually use a spoke from the wheel I'm building to do this, but I probably should build one of these.

[DRZRM]

Yup, you spin on the nipple from the back and the other nipple that is on as far as it can go backstops the nipple being put on so you spoke took does not just spin into that nipple (the problem I've faced before making this tool).

Hey unterhausen, apparently we are neighbors. Where do you ride?

[unterhausen]

Originally Posted by DRZRM

Hey unterhausen, apparently we are neighbors. Where do you ride?

Mostly in Rothrock nowadays, either gravel or mtb. I also do some randonneuring with the Eastern PA randonneurs. Here's my routes page on RWGPS

[rePhil]

Kristofer has a nice thread over at GJ not only about frame building, but shop building, and tooling as well. It's a nice read: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=112578