how have you made yours? I ask as I made one which does not really work as it doesn't hold the cup straight. Do you need to put rubber or cork on top of the washer to grip the cup? Any photos or advice welcome.

if you live near stafford you can borrow my cyclus one

a carpenter's vice works well…

I had 2 brass cup holders machined at work and put them onto 12mm threaded bar with nuts each end , all you do is tighten the nuts and hey presto , headset in ..
where are you ?
if your in birmingham , you can borrow it
Have also used a BIG G clamp with bits of wood either end to protect the headset cup ….

Tony

I cut two plywood plates and drilled a hole in the centre, I use a long threaded bolt with washers and nuts, using plywood stops the headset cups getting damaged, it works a treat and the best part is that cost me nothing

do 1 cup at a time and don't expect it to go right in without having to slaken it off and move it slightly to keep it straight.

I have threaded bar with nuts and large square washers with some thin rubber cut and stuck to the washers to stop the cups slipping and going in wonky and to stop them getting damaged
it's never going to be perfect, and go in first time, everytime – but it cost a couple of quid rather than 50

thanks people, I'm not based near any of the offers but I do have a carpenters vice.

mine similar to pic but added a couple of plastic bottle tops that fitted snug over the bearing races rather than got something machined up
as llama said one cup at a time

but I do have a carpenters vice.

I think it's actually better than the other tools, as it's inherently parallel. The only downside is having to offer up the frame to the vice, which can be a little awkward…

The only downside is having to offer up the frame to the vice, which can be a little awkward…

yeah you have to watch the downtube, but I have one cup in. 😀

I found that with my home-made one I needed to use a hammer and a few light taps to get everything straight. No mater how many times I tried I could not get it to start straight without putting a bit of pressure on and then tapping the ply to line things up.

Yeah, likewise I start mine with a few gentle taps from a rubber mallet, just to get it seated.

Bit of pipe lagging (the foam rubber stuff that's like the stuff they made Karrimats out of, not th esofter stuff) around the bolt will centre it in the head tube, thus making it pull straight. It's not "necssary" but if you're having problems, it does make it easier.

Edit – 1st time every time by the way (so far)

Dude, you need to get the cups started by 'twating' (an engineering term) them in with a wooden/plastic/rubber mallet, tap all the way round to get it relatively square, then you can start using your press, if you try without them seated, it'll just wander all of't place and won't go in square, did this with my CK headset, no probs.

Best tool I ever used was a fly press and a couple of scrap plywood off cuts.

But a bit of M10 studding, some chunky washers and 2 ply wood discs (Cut with a hole saw) work pretty well for me these days…

I bash mine in, with wood and hammer… 🙂

I made a tool like the above which worked just fine, but hitting them in with a wooden mallet was even better. 😕

I was going to get my LBS to fit the my CK headset for £10, but then I thought he might pass it on to his little scroat who'd fit it upside down and scratch the crap out of everything in the name of learning!

The trick here is to have an old 30mm seat post and cut it slightly smaller than the head tube length. As 1 1/8" headsets are just over 30mm inside diameter then this acts as a guide and allows you to secure both cups at the same time.