jdawginsc 

Usually, I use the RJ method of WD40, then a coat hanger drill mock-up with steel wool, then a squirt of WD 40, then a hanger with rag and grease. This works great for oxidation, not for seat tube burs.

Does anyone use either the
Flexi hone 1" https://www.ebay.com/itm/11183767825...MAAOSwYHxWLYDm
or
Brake cylinder honer https://www.ebay.com/itm/30325433790...cAAOSw3hFdVcdl
to clean up the seat tube.

I have looked for long extension flapwheels and couldn't find them.

BFisher

I just recently used a flex hone to clean up the seat tube on an old Schwinn. Worked great. I purchased mine from McMaster-Carr.

I have a piece of stainless hex stock about 5 inches long that I drilled through years ago to make into a file handle. 3/32" set screws on both ends to secure the file. The tool also works well as an extender for flex hones, it turns out. I chucked a round rod into my drill, secured it to the file handle with the set screws, and then installed the hone into the other end. I was able to get almost to the bottom of the seat tube with that setup. Make sure you lubricate the flex hone. They make a specific oil for them, but I just used a lightweight oil I have on hand.

gearbasher

I've used a brake cylinder hone like the one in second link the OP posted. It worked well. But, on the second frame I did, one of the "stones" broke off of the hone.

merziac

I got both styles at Oreily's and Auto zone, efbay is cheaper. First is a cleaning with WD and Scotch brite zip tied to a coat hanger. I always go after burrs, snags and high spots with a good half round file first, the hones will not take those down evenly enough, next is the flex hone to knock down the crusty grime, rust, corrosion, final is the stone hone that will flatten out the inner ST so the posts slide in and out as they should.

merziac

The stone hone is not for burrs and snags, they are a finish tool for when the bore is already clean and smooth but not well finished, those and any high spots need to be taken down with a half round file first.

thinktubes 

Iuse a 1x1 flap sander with a drill bit extension

jdawginsc 

By flatten out the seat-tube, do you mean round it out a bit? I read somewhere on here (cannot find the post) that they used some old stem of some sort to round out a seat-tube? Or maybe it was a steel seat pin?

And the usual suspect burs for gouging, therefore filing, are near the ears and slot...but can be lower I guess.

gearbasher

The "stone" broke off while I was using the hone, after I used an adjustable reamer on the seat tube. It was a cheap ebay hone, so it was no loss.

tiger1964 

I did several frames last winter, in one sitting, the results looked good but then the hone was shot. Fortunately, those are cheap.

merziac

Yep, poor choice of words I guess, not necessarily rounding but on a smaller, truer, smoother scale. If there is a high or rough spot, burr, snag AND it is out of round, you have a mess that get worse fighting with it, eliminate the burr, snag, rough or high spots and the out of round becomes much less of a problem, often taking it out of the equation.

Reamers are of course the be all, end all but I have always felt that many ST's are beyond reaming to a degree, I think they should be carefully massaged back into good shape to maintain their sizing which may not have been very good to begin with. Once its clean and smooth, many of them work great while having good interference fit that hold the post tight without overtightening.

This is another critical area where a little patience and careful working can really produce a good result.

merziac

Ok, I get that, my point is that the stone type hone regardless of grit is for cast and machined bores that are already very smooth by nature with little or no real defects, something a ST really never resembles even after reaming where it will be smooth and true on one side of the tube and often still a mess on the other side, fragile stones often don't stand a chance regardless of cost or quality.

jdawginsc 

I would imagine those “hone stones” will be gone, if it hits a water bottle boss burr...

merziac

Exactly, pretty fragile, won't tolerate leaning on or getting after it, the hurrier I go, the behinder I get.

jdawginsc 

Maybe the ball hone might be a more durable flexible option...

The 3m pad and hanger idea might be better than steel wool and hanger.

jamesdak 

I've used a 1" ball hone for years to clean out seat tubes and head tubes. Never had an issue from use yet or any noticeable damage to the hone. I use an extension like in post #6 above to fit all the way down a seattube.

Edit: I should mention that all I've used it for is just to clean off some infrequent surface rust on a few bikes over the years. Quick pass down and back has done the trick.

repechage

They are not made to the same standards that they were decades ago.
They do work.
But, on a steerer, way back another shop employee overdid it, and the stem would not grab.
I had the customer take a walk and I would fix it up, removed the stem and took a bastard cut rat tale file to it. and whacked the stem at the expander region.
Done.. Was on a Confente by the way.

merziac

The 3m pad is better, more aggressive and in the beginning, getting it clean is key, the balls and stones load up with crap that keeps them from doing their job well.

The ball hones are not robust enough IMO, they wear out pretty fast and kind of skip over the bad spots to a degree, if you get after those with a file first the hones can get down to the nitty gritty. Once you run them through, the stone version can help "true" the tube better. in the end.

If the tube is still out of round too much an old school chrome steel SP can be tapped in with lots of heavy grease to true it better, just be prepared to fight with it if it gets stuck.

Hobbiano 

I've used a ball hone, maybe 120 grit, don't remember the size but it fits pretty snug in the seat tube, on at least four frames, and it worked pretty good - no more scratching the seat post. I kept it lubed & flushed out with WD40 which seemed to keep it from glazing up. The little balls are starting to flatten on the outer surface but still looks like it has a good bit of life left. I found it on Amazon for about $20 if I remember correct.
My seat tubes didn't seem to be distorted that I could tell. They just needed cleaning & smoothing so the seat post would slide in without getting scratched up. If you can feel a burr by all means hit that with a file first. Be sure to clean out all the grit before sliding the seat post in.
I have a brake cylinder hone but it seems like the stones could catch on the slot at the top of the seat tube so I didn't try it..
edit: I call it a ball hone but the one I used is called Flex-hone by Brush Research Manufacturing.

lasauge 

Another vote for the flex hone - at one shop I worked in it was standard practice to use one of those hones on the seattube of every basic bike as a part of the build process. Easy to do a quick pass with a flex hone to prevent scratching up a brand new seatpost and decrease the chances of seatpost slippage!

rustystrings61 

I've used a hone like the second one in the original post, and had to repair it after operator headspace error on my part damaged it. It all works properly again, though. Mine has been used to remove corrosion from several bikes built with Reynolds 531that someone had fitted with undersized seat tubes. In both cases I got to use a large screwdriver to gently pry the top slot back into parallel, then lube the stones and run it up and down the inside of the seat tube. Especially with old Raleigh/Carlton frames, after doing that suddenly the correct size 27.2 mm seat posts would fit correctly with a light coat of grease. I have also run it down the interior of steerer tubes, and need to do so again with my Allegro, as it feels as if there is still some corrosion in there that makes a Nitto Technomic just a whisker too snug when fitted.

If a tube is genuinely out of round, that is another matter entirely. But so far the hone has worked wonders on 531 and Tange steel frames AND on my '86 Cannondale as well.

Russ Roth

Typical burrs I've dealt with are just at the top related to the seat binder, a light file takes care of that. Water bottle bosses are low enough to not be an issue. I've got the flexhone and find it does a great job with some liquid wrench at getting the inside of the seattube as clean and smooth as it needs to be. Can't really imagine what else there would be in a seattube that it wouldn't take care of.

Glennfordx4

I use one of these with a drum sander myself, I do want to pick up a flap wheel sander to try.

wrk101

I've been using a brake hone to clean up seat tubes for years. They work well.

jonwvara 

Possibly I'm a little slow, but I don't understand what it is that you actually did. What are "they?" What's "it?"

OTS 

I use a brake cylinder hone as well.

Works great for me.
Patience is key.