Framebuilders - Frame taps & facing tools

Now that the Campy tool kits with frame facing and thread cutting tools are nigh on impossible to find and/or afford, who makes the go-to tapping and facing tools? I.e. BB tools, head tube facer and reamer, steerer tube die, fork crown race cutter. I'd be looking for English BB, 1" English steerer, and 1.125" English steerer.

Thanks,

Pete

I would guess the next step away from campy would be Park, but there are a lot of different makers out there right on down to relative budget models, and it gets tougher the lower one goes to get a read on what one is getting into. Head tube units appear the bigger challenge.

I would imagine the units sold by stawberry should be first rate also. They sharpen a lot of people's cutter in the custom sphere, so they ought to have the specs dialed in.

http://www.strawberrybicycle.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=LAN71

I got my hands on some xpert/icetoolz (I know, horrible names) BB tap/facer. From lifu.biz in Taiwan. Apparently they make the tools for other brands.

Anyway they are sold on eBay, at close to LBS cost price (we got them from a friendly LBS), i.e. around $300 for IT and BSC taps and facer. I haven't used other tools, but those are super. Spring loaded facer, sharp, etc. I just ordered the HT tools, same price, with 1" and 1-1/8" facer/reamers. We'll see how those are.

I'll also look into crown race cutters. Ceeway sells the Cyclus for 50 pounds. Lifu has one too.

Those icetoolz BB sets actually look really promising; comes with both BSC and Italian taps, plus the look like they are TiN coated, at less than half the cost of the Park tools. Park are nice, for sure, but in the end, a complete set of frame facing and tapping tools will be at close to Campy tool kit pricing.

I forgot about Hozan; the last shop that I worked at had a Hozan steerer thread chaser/cutter that was pretty nice.

Thanks for the lead.

Pete

I can`t recomend any brands, but I did find a very well stocked vendor for that kind of stuff, might check if you haven`t already seen their site:
http://www.biketoolsetc.com/index.cgi?id=835166726708&h=main&m=top_ten
Their shipping is terrible, though- I just bought a set of pedal taps from them and it seems they charged me $8 for S&H.