Barry2 

Never owned a cassette before, only free wheels.

Buy splined remover, lock it into vice, put wheel on top, turn wheel. - easy

But that doesn’t work with a cassette, wheel just goes around. And you need a “chainwhip”
And I don’ts-gots a chainwhip.

I don’t recommend you do this. This is for entertainment purposes only.

I took a 9/16” ring spanner (wrench) put both ends of an old chain through the ring.
where the chain folds it is too big to pass through the 9/16” - instant chainwhip.
I will mention that a didn’t have to lean on it. I suspect it might break the wrench.

hey, I now have a squeaky clean cassette.

Barry

subgrade

I just put on some padded glove, wrap the chain arond my hand and find a leveraged position to hold it in place while unscrewing the lockring.

dsbrantjr

I've looped an old chain around the cassette and clamped it with Vice-Grips.

3Roch

DON'T DO THIS AT HOME

but it works fine . I do have a chain whip but if you don't use an air impact wrench SET TO TURN IN THE PROPER DIRECTION !!!!!! to turn the lockring tool . It spins the lockring right off no problem. If you turn it in the wrong direction.........well, you wanted a new hub anyway.

It takes about 15 min to make a chainwhip from a piece of steel stock and 2 sections of old chain; some blue tape for a handle if you want to be fancy

zacster

I always just took an old chain and grabbed it and the spokes with a gloved hand. I also put the tool in a vice and turned the wheel. Now I have a whip and it takes two seconds. A whip isn't that expensive.

andrewclaus

I have an old 18" pipe wrench that grabs a large cog with a bit of chain around it.

I seldom buy special tools if I only need them once a year or so. I volunteer at enough bike shops, and I can usually use the facilities when they're not busy, so my home shop is pretty bare of special bike tools.

WizardOfBoz

I like to have special tools, but for something done so infrequently I think your large pipe wrench idea is terrific.

AndreyT

What's "splined remover"?

Retro Grouch 

That part of his post was talking about freewheels.

79pmooney

This. Home Deport for a piece of 1 x 1/8" flatbar. An 1/8" (or a touch larger) drill bit. 5" of chain and a foot of chain. 3 holes. (Look at any chainwhip and the hole locations will be obvious, There is no rocket science here. You will need to grind down the flatbar in the area of the holes to the inside width of the chain. (1/8" chains for fix-gears are easy!)

Now, you can get much fancier. The fix-gear of my avatar sports a 22" aluminum shop-quality chainwhip that weights 1 pound exactly. For on-the-road cog changes at hill tops so I can go from a 23 tooth cog to a 12 for long (ear-to-ear grin) descents.

I had to replace the chain of my first tool after 15 years because the end pin pulled out. Luckily, I have bikes that regularly generate surplus chains.

Ben

zacster

Or you can buy a chain whip for $7.50 on ebay... Now that I reread the instructions they are pretty easy, but why even bother.

79pmooney

I made all but the aluminum one before ebay existed. That one you will not find on ebay at any price.