Weird nut on Planet tuners

So the vintage Planet tuners on my National Triolian tenor are becoming unreliable, and I resolve to replace them with new Rickards.

Come time to remove the old tuners, however, and this is what I see: they are held in place by weird little round nuts with two notches in them. sort of like a castle nut, but castle nuts tend to have more notches.

Diameter of this nut is about 0.42".

Any ideas for getting it off without scratching up the headstock? I gather there is something called a "hook wrench" or "locking nut wrench" for nuts like this, but the smallest one of those I can find is 1/2 inch and I'm not sure it would work.

Attachment 195784

Spanner socket.

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Originally Posted by j. condino

Spanner socket.

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Will look into it, but somehow I've managed to make it this far in life without owing a socket wrench. I might have to spring for a whole set of sockets to get the right one.

You can probably make something that would work with some bar stock of the right size just bend it into a "U" shape.

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Originally Posted by Nevin

You can probably make something that would work with some bar stock of the right size just bend it into a "U" shape.

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I was thinking of starting with an old dinner fork and bending the tines into place ...

A normal socket set isn't going to help you. That needs a spanner. If you know anyone that is really into bicycle mechanics the spanners made for Campagnolo chainwheel nuts will probably fit that. The ones that Park sells won't. It will look something like this.

Martin,

I'd likely go after it with a snap ring pliers............but if you have never even owned a socket set at this point in life I would not go there. And would definitely not modify a fork.

I see long deep scratches when the tool slips off. Then again, you only have to do it four, not eight times.

Good luck, sir.

It would be a bummer to destroy or scratch up anything on a vintage instrument from impatience and stubborn improvisation over buying an $11 socket......;)

Hardware store had many sockets but none of them were spanner sockets. They did have the snap ring pliers.

It shouldn't be difficult to make 4 holes in a scrap of cardboard and fit it over the string posts to serve as a temporary scratch guard.

Take it down to your local bike repair shop and see if they’ve anything which will fit.

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Originally Posted by j. condino

It would be a bummer to destroy or scratch up anything on a vintage instrument from impatience and stubborn improvisation over buying an $11 socket......;)

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How about a link to the socket in question? ;)

I've removed similar nuts by using a pair of needle-nose pliers VERY carefully.

I made a little tool out of flat steel using a hack saw. It's not hard to make and then you have it if you need it again.

You could make a socket from a length of hardware store brass tubing that fits over the post. Either file the end leaving two teeth to engage those notches or solder short lengths of nail to the outside of the tubing.
And protect the headstock with cardboard!

Google adjustable spanner wrench

I really like Ray’s suggestion. The guys at a bike shop will probably give you a blank look but then will see the nut and go “Oh, yeah sure, just a second” then come back and pop it right on/off!