I know there is more than one way to skin the 'remove castle nut' cat, here's the one i came up with:
I needed to remove my castle nut and i don't have a set of the correct castle nut pliers, and the grinding down a metal clamp didn't work for me as i don't have access to a grinder.
My vice grips jaws are too wide and bite on the flash hider as well as the castle nut so i searched for something to space the jaws away from the FH.
I work in a bike shop, so i came up the idea of using conical washers that are super common:
They are made of aluminium so they don't mark the castle nut, and they bite in nicely into the serrations/dimples on it. One on either side of the castle nut, with the flat side of the conical washer against the jaws of the vice grip and it went super easy.
Pretty much every bike shop mechanic will have these lying around and they shouldn't cost you anything - they come with every set of replacement 'V Brake pads' and the old ones get tossed in the recycling/garbage, just ask nicely.
I needed to remove my castle nut and i don't have a set of the correct castle nut pliers, and the grinding down a metal clamp didn't work for me as i don't have access to a grinder.
My vice grips jaws are too wide and bite on the flash hider as well as the castle nut so i searched for something to space the jaws away from the FH.
I work in a bike shop, so i came up the idea of using conical washers that are super common:
They are made of aluminium so they don't mark the castle nut, and they bite in nicely into the serrations/dimples on it. One on either side of the castle nut, with the flat side of the conical washer against the jaws of the vice grip and it went super easy.
Pretty much every bike shop mechanic will have these lying around and they shouldn't cost you anything - they come with every set of replacement 'V Brake pads' and the old ones get tossed in the recycling/garbage, just ask nicely.
