Originally Posted by
FBinNY
However with an aluminum cup, is important to press from the center so the cup itself isn't stressed. The "cone" side is easy since you'll always b pressing from center.
If you don't have a proper stepped sleeve, you might try dropping the cone into the cup (without balls) and seeinf if it's tall enough to protect the rim. Otherwise feel free to improvise any adaptor which will achieve the purpose.
Not true in my experience, kings the bearings aren't pop out cartridges, you just press against the rim of the cup and no worries.
OP, a lot of times the stepped piece for the park really only fit into the headtube, but any of the park shop level headset presses I've used, which would have been made in the last 30 years, had large ends of the presses that weren't flat, they had shallow steps that the headset cup would fit in. The stepped adapters were always used to fit the headtube, only press in one side at a time, while the other adapter may or may not be used on the headset cup. I've seen headsets like the king that had bearings crushed from using the stepped adapter, I've never heard of the rim of a headset being crushed from not using it.