That sucks. Whenever you injure your nail it takes a longggggggg time to get back to normal.
I normally wear mechanic gloves when I work on my bike.

No need for heat (and isn't WD way flammable?). Just the mallet and a decent wrench will get it.

This.

If it's tighter than that, you should've used never-seize to begin with. Your grip is a lot stronger than you think.

gloves never save me. i start a job, put on the gloves, everything is going smoothly. i then remove my gloves to do something else and come back to whatever i was doing and forget to put on the gloves. i then smash, pinch, cut, mutilate my hand into something. the gloves don't even have a mark on them, they seem to know how to avoid disaster.

WD-40 is not a lubricant, it is a solvent.



+2, mechanics of any kind know this.

I cut myself once by cutting towards myself when I was 12 or 13. Since then I'm incapable of wrenching or cutting in a way where slips will injure me. I read OP like 4 times, and still can't picture how you could hurt yourself removing pedals.

I do it without a stand at all. Put spindle at the bottom, put wrench on pedal, wrench pointing towards the back of the bike. Use your foot to push the wrench until it pops loose. No need to stomp, no need to even bend over...

I used to have scars on every single knuckle of my hand. Some of them have faded away by now.

I guess that means I learned a lot!

Without pics this is just a Darwins Club wannabe thread.