[Closed] Installing a headset without the correct tools

Threaded bar, big washers, nuts

Or

Block of wood & hammer

Block of wood and a mallet.

Threaded bar and big flat washers

I use a vice, a cautious approach, a steady pair of hands and an iron nerve.

I use a block of wood and a mallet, hasn't failed me yet

Wood and mallet or if your really want to be posh, vice.

I’ve used a block of
Wood / mallet / wooden work bench the last few times.

I wouldn’t use that method on an expensive frame - but on budget ones I’m ok with it. All of them have gone in straight/ with no dramas.

I've variously used block of wood/mallet, threaded rods, local shop, just hammer/mallet.

None have gone wrong/damaged the frame/exploded. So for me, block of wood/mallet does the job.

+1 for block of wood and a hammer. Hardest bit is holding everything to start it off. My preferred method is to put the bike in a work stand then place a long bit of wood between the bottom of the headset and the floor to support it. This gives something to hammer against. Put a screw partly into the end of the wood to roughly hold it in place. Once one cup is in, spin the frame over and repeat.

Bit of light grease and a rubber mallet.

Use a clamp if you have one.
If not then what I used to do is put a rear wheel on the bike, rest the front of the bike on a workbench, chock up the wheel until the face of the head tube is parallel with the bench then use a block of wood&hammer from the top to install both cups.

Used a large g-clamp in the past worked fine.

I find a mallet a lot easier to swing than a vice .

Hmm last one I did was with a Head press press and it was a tight un, but made a satisfying clunk when it finally went in.

Don’t forget you can leave the cups in the freezer to make it a tad smaller, allegedly.

Log splitting axe and a length of scaffolding pole

Threaded rod is cheap n cheerful enough and readily available, I once had a 56mm cup that refused to go in straight and was too big for my headset press so had to use 4 extra rods, one in each corner of some inch thick 5" mahogany squares.
It would've been impossible with a mallet.

Traditional 1 1/8 could get damaged with mallet so I'd advise threaded rod.

Thanks for everyone's responses. A mallet and block of wood has done the perfect job.

Tbh, I find a rubber mallet easier than farting about with threaded bar.

Got a length of M12 threaded rod some 10 years ago. Half of it went as a Landy drop arm ball joint puller, only lasted 3 or or so ball joints as those in the know would expect.
The other half, together with a couple of large washers, lives to this day as a headset cup press. Used it on dozens of frames. Cups on freezer overnight makes the job easy

Glad to hear that everyone is as much of a bodger as I am. I have always used wood and mallet but felt I was taking the bodging a bit far each time I did it.

Just done this using a combimation of rubber mallet and vice.

Went in but was hard work.

Should have put the cups in the freezer d'oh!

Block of wood & hammer

These are the correct tools.

I tried the freezing thing, didnt make a blind bit of difference to the last headset I had to install. Though having tried the vice method, the whacking it with a hammer method, and the using the proper tool method, I now have a proper tool on my christmas list.

I must have fitted a dozen or more with this, made with offcuts from work about 20 years ago.

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I made a wooden press, and I bought a proper press a while back. But what I use, is a rubber mallet.