Here I am practicing my latte art (or lack thereof), and I notice that the tip on my Silvia's steam wand is leaking pretty badly.

So, I bust out my crescent wrench, give it a little turn, and before I know it I've split the damn steam pipe!

Oy, guess I should have read the manual or something, there goes $30 down the drain! I never dreamed that it would be the fragile! Lesson learned I guess. That steam wand is my biggest pet peeve about my Silvia. Would it kill them to make one that at least wipes clean?

/rant off

Been there, done that.. except in my case, overtightening the nut that holds the steam wand in place stripped the valve side threads on the "small-to-big adapter" at the bottom of the steam valve. That turned a $30 replacement into $80 for a complete valve swap! At least I got fresh o-rings out of it... Make sure you provide countertorque on that adapter bit.

I think finger-tight is appropriate for the steam tip (on Silvia at least).