Hozan Miscellaneous Spoke Tools
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Works fine for occasional wheel building or repair
By Once in a while
This tool gets a bad rap, and unfairly, I think. Sure it takes time, but it works fine for the occasional wheel building project or replacement spoke. It's a nice item to have in the tool box for a rainy day when you can't be riding. You can build or repair a wheel instead. Even a bike shop might find one of these handy.It's fairly simple. The tool mounts in a vise. The three rollers emboss threads in the spoke, rather than cut them. This makes for a stronger spoke. You turn the crank and the rollers "chase" threads up the spoke. When you get the threaded length you want, you turn the crank in reverse to back the rollers off the spoke.I just used it to thread 36 14-gauge spokes, with no problems at all. (It threads 14 and 15 gauge spokes.)The keys to using this tool successfully are to generously use cutting oil (or an equivalent), start with a properly chamfered spoke, and make several passes to get the depth of thread you want.I think one reason this device gets such a bad rap is that people try to make it cut finished threads in one pass. If you tighten down the rollers that much to start, it will be difficult to get a blank spoke to feed into them.Practice with a few extra spokes first. Chamfer the ends slightly with a file or a grinder.Open up the Hozan tool's rollers by loosening the adjustment nut, until it will easily "take" a blank spoke and lightly emboss threads. Back the spoke out, tighten the nut a quarter to half turn, and make another pass through. Repeat this until you get threads embossed deeply enough so that a spoke nipple screws on easily for its full length. That will be your final setting.Now you can back the adjustment nut off a full turn (360 degrees). This is so you can start a blank spoke. Make a first pass through, back the spoke out, tighten the adjustment nut a half turn, pass the spoke through and back out, and tighten it one half turn again for the final pass. Repeat this process for every spoke you want to thread. After a few you'll get into a rhythm and things will go faster. Apply more cutting oil with every spoke.After every few spokes clean the rollers. I spray them with WD-40 while holding a folded paper towel underneath, then re-oil them for the next spoke.The instructions say that with proper care this tool will last for years. I don't see any reason why it won't.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
It works, if you're patient.
By A. Lundwall
I have a pair of Ellsworth XC wheels...I love my Ellsworth bikes, but these wheels...not so much. The main problem is that they are underbuilt for a 200 lb rider, and I was having continual problems with my rear wheel due (IMO) to the thin, quad-butted proprietary straight pull spokes they used.Making this worse, the hub and rim are 24 hole parts...that's right, 24 holes. So, when I went to respoke the wheel, I could not find straight-pull spokes in the lengths I needed... My only option, other than throwing the whole mess away and buying a new wheel, was to buy longer spokes and rethread them. That's what I did...I ordered DT Swiss DB straight-pull spokes in the closest length available, which turned out to be 10mm longer than my original spokes.I've used the Hozan to add threads before...but I didn't do that this time, for two reasons. First, as I explain below, multiple passes are not, IMO, a good idea. But mostly, there is a finite lenght you can thread a spoke before the Hozan reaches it's limits, and that length would not have put enough thread onto the spokes I used...I'd have had to cut them and then add even more thread... So, I simply cut the spokes to length first, which removed all of the existing thread. Then I rolled new threads using the Hozan. It worked...but here are my observations from the experience.First, I must disagree with the previous review...While he's right when he says it's much easier if you roll the threads to an intermediate depth first, I don't think that's the best way. There is no guarantee that the subsequent deeper passes will exactly match the previous pass, and you may (and I think, will) wind up rolling the final thread in a different orientation. If you were using a dies and "cutting" threads, this would be analogous to cross-threading in that situation. But, since we're rolling threads and not cutting them, you probably won't notice this when looking at the final result. It will simply deform the threads into the new orientation with each pass. Will it work? yeah, I tried it and the threads looked fine. But, I'm fairly certain that they won't prove as strong as if you rolled them in one pass. They may still wind up stronger than the threads in an alloy nipple, however, so perhaps it doesn't matter. Either way, rolling each spoke three times is a LOT of work if you're building a 32 or 36 spoke wheel... I only had to thread 24 spokes, and I still thought it took forever. It took me longer to thread the spokes than it did to build the wheel once I had them ready.Second, it's VERY important to prep the end of the spoke correctly before trying to thread it! The other reviewer is correct when he says it's difficult to roll full-depth threads in one pass...specifically, it's harder to get the thread started! But, if you have the appropriate amount of chamfer on the spoke, this is alleviated somewhat. At any rate, that's the way the instructions tell you to do it...in one pass. I found that even with a chamfer on the end of the spoke, it required me to firmly push the handle into the spoke as I rotated it the first 1 1/2 turns. From that point on, it would feed itself.Finally, it's important to make sure that the vise (the part of the Hozan that hold the spoke...NOT the vise you're using to hold the Hozan itself) is properly aligned with the axis that the Hozan's threader spins upon. if it's not, you'll wind up with a bend in your spoke somewhere in or near the threaded area. But, even after aligning my Hozan per the directions, I still got a slight bend in the threaded part of the spoke. I believe that this is because the tapered part of my spokes (where they reduced from 14ga to 15ga) fell right in the place where the spoke is clamped, leaving it at an angle to the threader. It was a slight bend, and did not prevent the nipples from threading on, or interfere with the build. I mention it only to illustrate how important it is to make sure your tool is aligned properly.Use cutting oil (even though you're not 'cutting' the threads) Keep the rollers clean (I use a wire brush and brake cleaner every 10 spokes or so). Both make things easier.DO NOT continue to spin the handle when you've reached the end of the Hozan's limits, or if the spoke is bottomed out in the center of the roller assembly. This is easier to miss than you'd think, and if you do so, you'll damage your new threads.It is handy to have a magnifying glass handy so you can look at the new threads...make sure you're getting the full thread depth (no flat spots atop the new threads). I have trouble seeing stuff that small up close, so I have a magnifying visor to help me.Bottom line? Well, it's a little too expensive to justify to someone to build one or two wheels. In my situation, I needed spokes I couldn't buy without specially ordering them, and so the hozan allowed me to get my wheel back together for less than it would have cost me to buy a new one...If I hadn't had the Hozan, I'd have had to discard my oddball hub and rim, so it was worth it. If you have a wheel combination for which you can easily buy the correct spoke, then I'd probably say that was your best option. On the other hand, this machine would be a lifesaver if, in a pinch, you needed to thread a longer spoke down to the length needed by someone who needed it very quickly. Generally, I see this tool as being a good idea in a bike shop, but a luxury in a home shop like mine.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Tool for making parts
By Vernon Forbes
While most tools allow you to adjust parts this tool allows you to make the parts you adjust. Spokes come in 1mm increments usually in a couple of different gauges so you would need to keep like 15 boxes of spokes on hand if you wanted to repair bikes at home without running to the bike shop every time you needed a spoke. For less than the price of 2 boxes of spokes this tool will thread any spoke saving you money and time.It works by rolling the threads instead of cutting them so is a little tricky. You clamp the tool in a vise to use it. Don't let the rolling head rattle around in your tool-box. For stainless spokes you can get the rolling head for stainless steel spokes. Remember to slightly round the edges of the spoke on a grinder after you cut it. Use oil when rolling the threads and make 3 passes to form the threads. Operate the roller by turning it twice forward and one backward for the first pass, just as you would use a tap. After that you go back across the threads a couple more times. I use an already threaded spoke to set the tightness of the rollers. At the correct tightness the spoke will just be able to thread into the rolling head.
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