Was going to purchase a pin spanning tool and figured I could make one. Took a 14" piece of 1/8" music wire and put it into my hand held drill and with the drill running, held each end against a file to taper the tips so they'd fit into my Campy BB cup. Next, I held the tips against some sandpaper to polish them. Bent 1/2" of each end to 90º and then put a bend in the middle.





Saved me a few $ to spend on other bike stuff.

You can pick this music wire up from your local True-Value hardware store or the like.

somegeek

I made one out of an old circlip tool I had lying around. It's a pliers-like handle with screw clamps on the end to hold various straight or right-angle heads to engage clips.
I just ground off the little pins; the body of the heads fits right into most BB spanner holes.

Nice idea and nice photos!

Ok let's see this stand up to a sezied cup

Heh... didn't say this was bullet proof.

If you can engineer a tool that can withstand having a breaker bar put on it about 1M in length to break off sezied cup, i'll buy the first one you make

Bet it'd be easy to make one that would utilize all six holes(or whatever your application) out of a piece of steel... given you have a plate of steel and maybe a drill press and a tap. Drill the seven holes in a metal plate and use 10.8 hardness screws which fit all six holes. With all six studs taking the force, they'd be less susceptible to break.

Sharp.

There already is a tool like this out there. 6 pins with a threaded piece that threads it on the outer cup of the bb. The problem usualy is that the pins don't withstand the force needed to break the cup free.

This is the home-made version of Park Tool's "Hairpin" spanners made in various sizes for bottom bracket cups, Shimano and Campy auto-extractor crank retainer rings and Ashtabula cranks. They are not bullet proof or expected to be.

If the cup is REALLY frozen in place, you remove the lock ring and apply a pipe wrench to the exposed threads. Then you buy a new cup.

Or.... Get yourself a punch or drift pin that will fit into one of the spanner holes, and use a hammer. With luck, you can even use the cup again.

OR remove the fixed cup, axles and bearings. Then get a bolt that just fits through the axle hole put a nut (maybe a lockwasher too) on the other side and use an impact gun to remove the cup. The impact wrench will tighten the nut (well, hold it with a wrench) and the vibration/impact will release the cup.

IF that fails, heat the cup (not the bottom bracket shell), let cool and repeat.

So what happens when you can't remove the fixed cup either?

If you can remove a stuck fixed cup with any tool that uses those 6 little pinholes, I'll eat my hat. Use the Sheldon Brown bolt method on a stuck fixed cup. The OP has a nifty device for holding the left side while it's being tightened.

What kind of musical instrument uses 1/8" music wire? Never seen a guitar string that robust.

AKA Piano Wire - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_wire

Would 1/8" be the lowest string on a grand piano? I need to take a look at a piano. Can't find any strings on my Casio keyboard!

now you should dip the end in that "plastikote" stuff or whatever it is called.

mx

It's called Plasti Dip, but I don't know why you'd want to dip the ends in it. That would be like dipping the tips of your screwdrivers

thanks

i meant the one "u" end

mx

Still nice,

I like it!

Nice! I've been using the tips on a pair of needle nosed pliers...

you know I do that too? I find it 1.) stiffer than a spanner and 2.) easier to control.

I take a pair of needle nose pliers and put the ends on the opposite side pins of the cup, then use an adjustable wrench secured to the pivot point of the pliers.

I find that I can get substantially more torque without slipping. I've been able to remove cups from rusted-out-behind-the-shed old bikes with that and a little triflow.