Cyclus head tube reaming and facing tool

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Foghat
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Joined: 19 Mar 2013, 10:44pm

Re: Cyclus head tube reaming and facing tool

Post by Foghat »

rogerzilla wrote:The reamer and facer are separable on the Cyclus tool. I haven't tried the facer alone, so I don't know if it will work like that.

It does the job very well. I had to do a couple of chromed frames with it (this is not good for the tool) but it still faces other frames cleanly and doesn't chip the paint down the sides of the head tube.

There are no instructions with it so you have to know what you're doing. Basically, never turn it anti-clockwise, lubricate well with cutting oil and use three or four turns to add pressure after the locating cone first makes contact. For the best finish, take the pressure down to a minimum and turn the tool gently a couple of times - it shouldn't bind or judder at all.

I have also cut two forks down from 27.0 to 26.4 with the Cyclus crown race tool and that worked brilliantly.


Thanks - very useful reply.

Do you know the Cyclus code of the separable 'reamer' you have?
Brucey
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Joined: 4 Jan 2012, 6:25pm

Re: Cyclus head tube reaming and facing tool

Post by Brucey »

titanium frames are much more difficult to work on.

To check what the alignment problem is, refer to my previous post.

BTW you can go quite a long way with a straight edge and a set square

cheers
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Foghat
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Joined: 19 Mar 2013, 10:44pm

Re: Cyclus head tube reaming and facing tool

Post by Foghat »

Well I finally got round to doing the head tube facing, having procured the Cyclus Head Tube Reaming and Facing Tool that I linked to in the OP.

The tool performed admirably. The reaming and facing sections of the cutter are indeed separable from each other, but the facing cutter cannot be used without the reaming cutter, as there is no guide piece to substitute for the reamer to hold the facer in place on the tool shaft. This was not a problem, as the dual facing-reaming operation was quite straightforward. I suppose one could fashion a suitable guide using appropriate resources, to enable facing without simultaneous reaming, but I am not equipped for such creativity.

The action of the cutters left very smooth faced ends and inner surfaces - no need to finish with a file or anything else. And they cut through the titanium with ease. I've never faced/reamed a steel frame, so don't know if steel is any easier to work on for this task, but the Cyclus cutters made short work of the titanium.

I was surprised at how out of square the faces were - the head tube was basically an oblique cylinder and took some serious metal removal from both ends before the telltale signs of even, square faces were achieved.

Nice to have a properly functioning head tube/headset/fork assembly now.....if only the supplier had bothered to face the frame before shipping it.
David9694
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Joined: 10 Feb 2018, 8:42am

Re: Cyclus head tube reaming and facing tool

Post by David9694 »

I only know about steel - I thought other metals especially titanium were a different kettle of fish on this subject.

I can post some info and pics about my headset facer if helpful. I think it’s X Tools.

I may have missed it in the above but I thought the main point of the operation was to ensure the faces were exactly parallel - the tool is a necessity not a time saver?
Spa Audax Ti Ultegra; Genesis Equilibrium 853; Raleigh Record Ace 1983; “Raleigh Competition”, “Raleigh Gran Sport 1982”; “Allegro Special”, Bob Jackson tourer, Ridley alu step-through with Swytch front wheel; gravel bike from an MB Dronfield 531 frame.
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Gattonero
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Re: Cyclus head tube reaming and facing tool

Post by Gattonero »

Titanium is a hard material to work with, it's no surprise that some high-end tools will have special inserts to perform the cutting task. More simply, some shops will keep the old cutters only to be used on Titanium frames to avoid damaging the old ones: though this can lead to some slight under-cutting action (depending on the wear of the tool) is usually ok.
It needs A LOT of cutting oil and slow steady hand to do so, never force the cutters to go too fast.

On average, Titanium frames won't have a lot to remove (if any) due to the material cooling pretty fast there isn't deformation as it happens with steel. Also, the welds are usually on a reasonable distance from the ends of the head tube, which helps in minimizing distortion.
But small frames can suffer from this, because the headtube is usually short the welds can be close to its end. Also the reduced length of the headtube and forks altogether makes a bigger error between the headset cups, for the same error of the headtube ends.
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