frogman

I am curious how everyone else cuts shift and brake cable housings and preps them for installation. Especially you guys that are bike shop mechanics.. I use a pair of Felco cutters and then use an ice pick in the end to round out the hole in the end. Sometimes with brake housing there is a little bit of the metal that curves in towards the center and I take a file and dress it a little. Lately I have been using a Dremmel tool with a little cutting wheel and it gives a nice square clean cut.

Geepig

I cut them with a junior hacksaw, having marked the required cut line with some masking tape. Support it well, apply a dash of patience, and then tidy it up with a file and something point.

Amt0571

I use a Shimano cable cutter. Usually it's not even necessary to open the hole afterwards.

JanMM

Using a Dremel with a cutoff wheel in recent years. Love the shower of sparks! Small nail for the hole and fine file as needed.

Bike Gremlin

I swear by the Jagwire WST 028 cutters. Their ergonomy (ease of use basically) and durability are both very good.

My demonstration:

rccardr 

Dremel with fibre cutoff wheel. High speed so the outer housing doesn’t melt.
Shop awl to open end hole.
Run a section of cable with a sealed end in and out a few times to polish the cut.
Perfection.

Mr. 66

I use the Park tool cutter then I retrim to clean the end.

dmark 

Shimano cable cutter with a piece of old cable in the housing to prevent distorting the housing.

sovende

I've been using a Craftsman-branded (made by Dremel ?) tool with a cutoff wheel for quite some time. Not terribly fond of the "shower of sparks" though. Holding the tool in my left hand directs the sparks away from me but I have a bit less control with that method. The outer plastic sheath does tend to melt some at the lower speeds. I can usually "eye ball" a reasonably square cut but if not, using the side of the cutoff wheel can be used to true thing up. I have shattered more than a few of the brittle wheels trying to rush the job . I've not used the fiber type cutoff wheels as I have a boatload of the thin, brittle ones. To finish the job, I use a very small tapered round file to smooth the sharp inner edge of the cut. Just an FYI! If the housing has an inner sheath, it's best to pull it back from the area to be cut to prevent melting it

HillRider

Shimano cable cutter followed by large needle to round out the liner for shift housing and "incompressible" brake housing. Side cutter pliers worked between the coils followed by a fine file to smooth and square the cut and needle to round out the liner for spiral wound brake housing. The Shimano cable cutter for all inner cables.

mack_turtle

Park cable cutter, but I find that using it on brake housing leaves a lot of extra work to get the end of the housing nice and flat. I'll probably go back to a rotary tool with a cutting wheel to get a clean, straight cut the first time.

cxwrench

Damn, some of you guys are trying to make a career out of cutting housing. I'm a shop mechanic now, recently 'retired' from being a pro team mechanic. Shift housing gets cut w/ a SRAM cutter w/ the awl built in to the handle. Brake housing gets cut w/ a Knipex ****. I can't remember the last time I used a grinder to clean up the cut and I've never used a Dremel. Complete waste of time as far as I'm concerned.

aggiegrads

Diagonal Cutter?

cxwrench

Yep...can't believe the site censored that. I use them for cutting cables as well.

frogman

cxwrench,
I was hoping to get input from bike shop mechanics, thanks ! We "home mechanics" have more time to fuss with this stuff, especially during this pandemic, way too much time on our hands

Is this the cable cutter you use on brake cables ? https://www.grainger.com/product/KNI...e-Cutter-3JXJ6

dsbrantjr

Felco cutter, ice pick to open up the liner.

cxwrench

Nope, the ones in this photo. Diagonal cutters for brake housing, and all cables. SRAM cutters for shift housing.

frogman

OK, I see. So you are using diagonal cutters. (good ones) My old side cutters (diagonal cutters) aren't up to the task
Nice storage case setup ! My bike tools get scattered all over the place and I am always looking for something "now where did I put that chain tool ?"

aggiegrads

I use Knipex 95-61-190. I prefer the Knipex over other brands because they have a built in crimpers for cable tips and brake cable ferrules.
https://www.kctoolco.com/knipex-95-6...-plastic-grip/

Pedros or Park if you are on a tighter budget.

The diagonal cutters that cxwrench uses and agree that they are very good. The jaws are extremely hard, but still durable. Also at KCTool:
https://www.kctoolco.com/knipex-74-0...-plastic-grip/

JohnDThompson 

Cut the housing with a diagonal cutter, dress the ends with a bench grinder, and open the liner with a sharpened spoke, if needed.

Unca_Sam

I was displeased with the way that the Park Tool CN-10 cut brake housing, and went back to my craftsman diagonal cutters. I noticed the difference is that the diagonal cutters will first deform the brake housing, then the cutting edge slides between the coils of the helix giving you a flatter cut. The CN-10 tends to crush the housing first, giving that little curl of the steel that impinges the cable path. CN-10's are magic for compressionless shift housing though.

Also tried the Dremel fiber cutoff wheel, and was unhappy with the shower of sparks and melted outer and inner liner. Diagonal cutters and hand tools are quick enough.

Dress the liner with a cheap nail/sharpened spoke/awl/whatever pointed thing I have nearby.

70sSanO

I use a pair of DeWalt side cutters, but any quality side cutter will work. I don’t think there is any magic involved.

I use a bench grinder to square things off. I have a dremel, but it takes more time and I don’t like the flimsy cut-off wheels. The bench grinder is just a flip of a switch.

I have few different choices to open the liner, such as, a square scribe, tie tack, etc.

I’m not a paid bike mechanic and don’t swap out a lot of brake/shift housings, but I’ve done a number in the last 6 mos (Covid projects) and try to use an easy effective way to do it.

John

tyrion

I just re-cabled with Yokozuna Reaction cables and read up beforehand on how hard they were to cut cleanly with cable cutters, so I used an angle grinder with a metal cutting blade. Worked well.

Bike Gremlin

That torque wrench looks nice.

Gresp15C

I have a pair of sheet metal snips that works well enough, square it off on a little bench grinder, poke out the housing with an awl. I'm trying not to proliferate too many specialized tools in my small workshop.