Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 42 total)
  • These home-made headset press thingos…
  • psychle
    Free Member

    Are bloody difficult to use! How do you get the cups lined up straight to start with?? Have spent the past 15 minutes trying to get both to start going in square, but one or the other always ends up starting at an angle! Bloody LBS wants to charge me £30 to fit the damn thing, so I WILL get this in myself 👿

    Any tips chaps? btw, should I be using some grease on the cups? I'm thinking yes, but not sure…

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    do them one at a time?

    Edit – grease on the inside of the frame will help too.

    psychle
    Free Member

    one at a time… why didn't that occur to me? 😳

    it's a CK headset, is there any special thing I should be doing? or just clamp it into the headtube?

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    as long as you keep the bolt centred on the cup you should be fine. If it starts going in at an angle then move the bolt to the opposite side and press there a bit to even it up.

    MaryHinge
    Free Member

    Not quite sure what "style" of home made press you are using.

    I use a length of threaded bar, some nuts and some big thick washers. I also put a suitably sized socket into the headset cup and run the threaded bar through that too to give it some shape.

    Plenty of grease, one at a time, give it a tap to line it up if needed when you start winding it in.

    psychle
    Free Member

    same thing, threaded bolt with two big square washers and nuts… shall whack a bit of grease in there and do one at a time…

    Can I do any damage this way? it's a nice secondhand Ti frame, it's had headsets fitted in the past, so assuming the headtube is all faced/reamed fine…

    NWAlpsJeyerakaBoz
    Free Member

    I did it one at a time using a threaded bar and large washer method. As the cup gets close to the headtube, just check the gap is even and take your time.

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    keep the gap even and take it slowly and you'll be fine.

    alpin
    Free Member

    try it it round washers that sit in the cups better.

    if one side begins to go skew-if then tap it with a hammer to counter it. nice and slowly. oh, and think about where you want the logo/name before setting it in the frame.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    Are bloody difficult to use! How do you get the cups lined up straight to start with?? Have spent the past 15 minutes trying to get both to start going in square, but one or the other always ends up starting at an angle!

    Yeah I made one and tried it. Same result. So I went back to a hammer and 2 bits of wood, which has always worked fine for me. 🙂

    angryratio
    Free Member

    My buds dad has a lathe so he machined two gadgets which look rather like the parts you get on a "cyclo" one.

    So two cones with stepped interfaces for different size cups.. then threaded bar..
    few M nuts of appropriate size and for the sake of sharing it between us, new frames become less hassle.

    rockthreegozy
    Free Member

    Wooden faced bench vice for me- bit of a faff lifting the frame up but its always spot on.

    Definetly one cup at a time

    Ewan
    Free Member

    I gave up with mine. Twatted it with a rubber mallet resting on a bit of wood. Did the job.

    simonfbarnes
    Free Member

    just hit it!

    PJay
    Free Member

    When my LBS quoted £20+ to press headset cups I bought a Cyclus press (similar to the one shown in angryratio's post) for about £30 and they seem to work well. I'm a bit hamfisted at the best of times and £30 seemed a good investment, I wouldn't want to screw up a headset and, potentially, a frame just to save a few pounds.

    toys19
    Free Member

    PJay – Member

    When my LBS quoted £20+ to press headset cups I bought a Cyclus press (similar to the one shown in angryratio's post) for about £30 and they seem to work well. I'm a bit hamfisted at the best of times and £30 seemed a good investment, I wouldn't want to screw up a headset and, potentially, a frame just to save a few pounds.

    +1 on the cyclus press I've made a vew home made presses but the cylcus one really si top quality and its not 200 quid.. 33 delivered from somewhere on google.

    mudmonster
    Free Member

    I bought one of these but one cup just didn't wanna go in straight. The guy who made it machined me some nylon guide things but still didn't work. Gave up in the end and just bought a "proper" one. I tried it with a headset with a short flange and it worked fine though.

    ddmonkey
    Full Member

    I have always used the fork steerer and top cap with stem loose and extra spacers to sqeeze my headsets in, a bit of grease it works a treat. Why the need for a tool? Steerer has added advantage of holding the cups in alignment as they go in.

    jimbobrighton
    Free Member

    £30 to press in a headset is hilarious. my LBS charged £10, which I would feel is as much as I'd ever pay, given it's a 2 minute job.

    That said, last time I pressed in a headset I used an old crank and a chopping board. Went in perfect, though I was a bit relieved!

    antigee
    Full Member

    tap it with a hammer

    make that a rubber mallet – maybe a few gentle taps to get it seated and def one at a time as said

    hijack alert! put a few headsets in frames i've bought and hammered out knackered ones but never taken one out so can get frame powder coated and reuse – suggestions? all i can think of is a wooden dowel

    wwaswas
    Full Member

    long blade scredriver inside the headtube and gently work your way around the cup from the 'wrong' end. Turn frame over and repeat.

    ddmonkey
    Full Member

    For removing the removal tool is very handy, only about £10 for one. Otherwise if you are lucky you can drift it with wooden dowel as you say.

    PeterPoddy
    Free Member

    tap it with a hammer

    make that a rubber mallet

    Nahh. Put a bit of wood over the headset and give it a good hard belt with the biggest hammer you've got. Hit it like you mean it, don't stroke the damned thing FFS! 🙂

    toys19
    Free Member

    I've got an old pushrod from a motorcycle engine that does this job nicely.

    jimbobrighton
    Free Member

    antigee – Member
    tap it with a hammer

    make that a rubber mallet – maybe a few gentle taps to get it seated and def one at a time as said
    hijack alert! put a few headsets in frames i've bought and hammered out knackered ones but never taken one out so can get frame powder coated and reuse – suggestions? all i can think of is a wooden dowel

    Make a cup remover. get a section of copper pipe, cut down the length, and then slightly splay out the ends so they sit on the inside of the cup, hammer. cup falls out*

    *I've done this and it worked for me. but that could have been blind luck 😯

    coffeeking
    Free Member

    Most of my founding MTB years were done with a couple of blocks of wood and a lump hammer, and a cold chisel for removal. Careful use=no damage. These days I have a 10T press for the job 🙂

    psychle
    Free Member

    just an update… I had success 🙂

    didn't manage to get the 'king' bits to lineup, but oh well 😳

    Konastoner
    Free Member

    Take it out and start again 🙄

    psychle
    Free Member

    I don't think so… took me almost an hour to get it both cups in straight! I need to improve my 'headset press'

    Googling around finds this evolution::

    Just need to find the appropriate plumbing bits 🙂

    Konastoner
    Free Member

    I use the same except 16mm threaded bar is my tool of choice. Also where the copper bits are, I use a cheapo 30mm seat post cut down that passes through the washers. The inner diameter of the headset cups are 30.5mm, and as such keeps the headset parrallel and allows you to install both cups at once.

    andrewh
    Free Member

    I use a bench-vice, not attached to a bench. Put a blck of wood on one end of the head tube, headset cup on the other and tighten, pretty much lines itself up. Undo, change ends, job done. About 3mins.

    seth-enslow666
    Free Member

    I have put 10 headset or more in with my good old block of wood. always done the job spot on.

    igm
    Full Member

    For what it's worth I stuff a bit of pipe lagging (the foam rubber sort) inside the headset cup and run the bolt through that, Keeps the bolt centred well – very cheap addition. I'm liking the bits of plumbing though.

    For drifting cups out I use about a foot of wooden broom handle – effectively cheap thck dowel. Doesn't last for ever, but it's cheap and it doesn't score the frame.

    nickc
    Full Member

    So I went back to a hammer and 2 bits of wood,

    That's not fitting a headset, that's getting away with it… 🙂

    Brother_Will
    Free Member

    My LBS charges a fiver so ive never seen a reason to make one. But if i was going to id look at getting something like this.

    psychle
    Free Member

    I wish my LBS charged a fiver… that's not bad value at £35 delivered, cheers for the link 🙂

    Zedsdead
    Free Member

    use a vice.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    So I went back to a hammer and 2 bits of wood,

    That's not fitting a headset, that's getting away with it…

    Too right. Remind me NOT to give you lot the job of fitting my next H/S
    One of these days you ARE gonna **** your headtube, I've seen it done. (& not by me)

    julianwilson
    Free Member

    lordy, if i was going to press a ck headset into an indy fab i would consider £35 for my own cyclus headset press a right bargain!

    toys19
    Free Member

    Thats the one I bought. Very effective it is too, we tried to use a home made one to get my mates semi integrated cups into his boardman, kept going off sideways. As soon as we applied the cyclus press, happy days. As they say in the trade "Pure Fahkin Magic.."

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 42 total)

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