Need a cone wrench substitue

roger89 said:

Hello,

Is there any tool or object which I can make use of to act as a cone wrench. Perhaps just holding the cones tight will do, the spanner will do the tightening. Any idea?

You need a cone wrench to hold the cone to keep it from rotating while tightening the lock nut:
http://www.parktool.com/repair_help/howfix_hub.shtml
On most hubs you only need one cone wrench and can use a standard wrench on the locknut.

I'm unsure why you would want a substitute when a cone wrench for home use costs less than $4 U.S. This said I have grabbed the far side cone with a long nose vice grip plier("Mole Wrench" to you U.K. guys, I JUST LOVE THAT!) just tight enough to hold on so that I could adjust the cone on the near side.
However on the near side where you adjust and tighten the lock nut with a second wrench there is NO SUBSTITUTE for a cone wrench. If you torque the cone to the locknut with anything else you are going to chew up the cone.

Well you could take a perfectly good wrench to the bench grinder and make it thinner. Or you could go out and purchase a set of cone wrenches and never think about this problem again. Pretty cheap online these days. You decide. No subsitute for doing it right.