# I need to shorten the front brake housing cable.



## edle (Mar 25, 2013)

What is the proper way to cut the brake housing cable ?
What kind of tool do I need ?

Thanks.....


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## tihsepa (Nov 27, 2008)

I use a pedros cable cutter then finish it square with a dremel tool with a cutoff wheel. Works great. Some people have good luck with just a dremel but I have never gone that route.


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

edle said:


> What is the proper way to cut the brake housing cable ?
> What kind of tool do I need ?


So, what is it you want to cut: the housing (the outer "tube") or the cable (the inner steel wire)? "Brake housing cable" is a bit ambiguous, don't you think?

Anyway, if you want to cut the outer housing, a high-speed rotary cutting tool (Dremel, etc.) works very well for all kinds of housings. Just keep in mind that it tens to melt the plastic as it cuts, so some extra clean-up might be in order after making the actual cut. 

If you don't have a Dremel, then you need a housing cutter tool. Ordinary side cutters won't work, since they will squish the cable flat before cutting it, which is not good. And with a classic spiral-wound housing they might just ruin it.

As for cutting the actual inner steel cable, you are going to need a cable cutter tool (many bicycle-specific cable cutter tools actually combine housing cutter and cable cutter in one tool). Some people use ordinary side cutters for cutting cables, but I would advise against it. It tens to fry the end of the cable, making it much harder to works with it.

Before I bought a dedicated cable cutter, I was using cable cutter built into a Leatherman multitool. It wasn't perfect, but it was still much better that an ordinary side cutter.


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## Touch0Gray (May 29, 2003)

as a brief bit of advice....pull the core OUT before you cut the housing for reasons that are far more obvious to me after having done it the wrong way the first time I ever shortened a cable.....lol.

Also, if you are cutting the core with the rotary tool, make sure you are cutting from the correct side so the rotation of the disc doesn't unwind the cable!


edit: oh, and buy a set of parks cable cutters...


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

wow, this thread is full of overkill. all you need (and all every pro team mechanic uses) is a diagonal cutter. like an electrician uses. cable cutters for cables (duh) and shift housing. brake housing is much easier to cut, so ***** have been used ever since i can remember. no need to fire up electric tools that just melt the liner in the housing. make sure you open up the liner and clean up the cut if needed, but that's all there is to it.


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## DocRogers (Feb 16, 2006)

A small round pick is nice, too, in case you mash the housing and need to round it out. Not that I ever do that.


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## edle (Mar 25, 2013)

Great tips. Thanks...


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## cmdrpiffle (Mar 28, 2006)

cxwrench said:


> wow, this thread is full of overkill. all you need (and all every pro team mechanic uses) is a diagonal cutter. like an electrician uses. cable cutters for cables (duh) and shift housing. brake housing is much easier to cut, so ***** have been used ever since i can remember. no need to fire up electric tools that just melt the liner in the housing. make sure you open up the liner and clean up the cut if needed, but that's all there is to it.



Wow, thank you! I couldn't have said it better. Diagonals and maybe a touch up with a file on the steel coil of a brake housing is all I've ever used.


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## AJ88V (Nov 14, 2012)

Not a big fan of using *****. The Park tool works great and is a bargain. Easily the best for cutting the cable itself, although it often leaves a burr on spiral wound housings.

The dremel can be the cleanest route, but the proper cutting discs are very fragile.


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## Agent319 (Jul 12, 2012)

cxwrench said:


> wow, this thread is full of overkill. all you need (and all every pro team mechanic uses) is a diagonal cutter. like an electrician uses. cable cutters for cables (duh) and shift housing. brake housing is much easier to cut, so ***** have been used ever since i can remember. no need to fire up electric tools that just melt the liner in the housing. make sure you open up the liner and clean up the cut if needed, but that's all there is to it.


+1 exactly


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## PlatyPius (Feb 1, 2009)

cxwrench said:


> wow, this thread is full of overkill. all you need (and all every pro team mechanic uses) is a diagonal cutter. like an electrician uses. cable cutters for cables (duh) and shift housing. brake housing is much easier to cut, so ***** have been used ever since i can remember. no need to fire up electric tools that just melt the liner in the housing. make sure you open up the liner and clean up the cut if needed, but that's all there is to it.


Cyclists try to make everything more complicated.
I've never worked in a shop that used a Dremel for cutting brake cable housing. Side-cuts (parallel jaws, not offset) and a file or bench grinder are all that I've used or seen used.


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

The bizarre "overkill" remark completely misses the point. This is not about what tools one _has to buy_ in order to cut the cable. It is about what tools one might _already have_ that would work perfectly well.

In other words, if the OP already has a Dremel, then the OP is all set for cable housing cutting. There's no need to spend money on anything else. Nobody can meaningfully argue against Dremel in situations when one _already has_ that tool. Dremel is an uber-tool for cable housing cutting, which produces ultimately perfect results that cannot be beaten by any other tool.

If the OP already has a cable cutter, then again there's no need to spend money on anything else. Good quality cable housing cutter will do the job just fine.

Now, if the OP has no tools at all that can do the job, then, of course, buying a Dremel for the sole purpose of cutting cable housings makes little or no sense. It is just unjustifiably expensive. It is an overkill. An ordinary bicycle-specific cable cutting tool will just as well for a lot less money. 

Yet, at the same time, Dremel is a useful tool for many jobs, not necessarily bicycle-related. If the OP was considering such a tool (for any reason), then the OP might find it interesting to know that Dremel will also cover the housing cutting. I, for one example, have Dremel because it is an indispensable tool in R/C airplane modelling hobby.

Whether "bicycle shops" use Dremel or not is completely irrelevant. There are many perfectly good reasons for bicycle shops to opt for ordinary cable cutters (unless it also doubles as an R/C airplane shop). But none of these reasons have any definitive applicability to an individual looking for a cable housing cutting tool.


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## Touch0Gray (May 29, 2003)

I have a corded dremel, a cordless dremel and 4 Foredom Flex shafts and pretty much every kind of cutters and pliers known to man. I choose to use the Parks Cable cutters. fast, clean and efficient, Fact is I'm not using my Kleins on hardened stainless steel and nicking the cutter faces. There are job specific tools, and generally, there is a reason for that.


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

A Dremel with a cutting wheel is a job-specific tool.


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## Touch0Gray (May 29, 2003)

A dremel is a poor substitute for what it is trying to be. I sit at a bench with 3 high speed (Foredom, two 15,000 and one 18,000 rpm) flexshafts with electronic feedback foot pedals providing full torque at any rpm and a high speed pneumatic (30,000 rpm) rotary hand piece. Frankly, I don't even know when the last time I touched my corded dremel was, YEARS I'm sure. The cordless is handy for trimming toenails! The job specific part of the dremel for cutting cable housing would be the heatless mizzy and cut off discs. The speed on a dremel is far too high. Even with a rheostat, at low rpm it doesn't have enough torque to be good.

I suppose if all a guy had was a dremel it could be used, I have done it, I have used just about everything and frankly, in my opinion the cable cutters do the best job.


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

Touch0Gray said:


> A dremel is a poor substitute for what it is trying to be. [...]The speed on a dremel is far too high. Even with a rheostat, at low rpm it doesn't have enough torque to be good.


This just doesn't make any sense at all. Dremel is a high-rpm low-torque rotary tool. It is intended to be a high-rpm low-torque rotary tool, specifically designed for applications that require high-rpm low-torque rotary tools. Dremel is not trying to be a low-rpm high-torque tool. These are two completely different classes of tools, each with its own set of applications. You cannot turn Dremel into a low-rpm high-torque tool with a rheostat.

The perfect applicability of Dremel to cable housing cutting is not debated. It is common knowledge. Any thread about housing cutting is usually 95% about how well Dremel works for that purpose. And for a good reason. The weird stubbornness that we observe today in this thread with regard to Dremel can only be explained by some random temporal or spatial anomaly. It happens.


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## Touch0Gray (May 29, 2003)

high speed generates heat which melts the plastic, low speed would not do that...

As for the "perfect applicability of the Dremel" being debated, it is, ....right here, right now. I contend that it is not the perfect tool for the job, I have 2 others that work far better. Unless you have tried all three, how can you argue the point. My flex shaft with carbide disk, spinning at around 50 rpm cuts clean with no melting......so do my cable cutters. no muss, no fuss, no cleanup on ends!


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## willieboy (Nov 27, 2010)

Just did new cables yesterday. Park tool to cut, Dremel to face, tooth pick to clear, install.


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## Randy99CL (Mar 27, 2013)

Wow, this thread got funny! Lots of nit-picking.

I use what I have: a rotary tool. 

Don't feel a need to buy anything else.

I use the cutoff wheel, then a little pointed burr to clean up the inside of the cut housing and a sanding drum to smooth the outer shield so it fits well into the ferrule.

And yes, I'm anal, with plenty of time on my hands.

Edit: I also use the cutoff wheel for inner cables but I first superglue them or wrap lots of tape around them (teflon coated) to lessen the fraying.


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

Touch0Gray said:


> high speed generates heat which melts the plastic, low speed would not do that...


False. High speed generates excessive heat only in the hands of a person who doesn't know how to use the tool properly. Namely, in the hands of a person who is trying to use a high-speed tool as a high-torque tool - a rather basic rookie mistake. Dremel is a "jewelers tool" of the rotary tool world. It takes some skill to operate properly.



Touch0Gray said:


> As for the "perfect applicability of the Dremel" being debated, it is, ....right here, right now.


Not really. To make a debate it takes a lot more than just a bunch of bored forum dwellers trying to annoy people by baselessly assering that black is white.



Touch0Gray said:


> I contend that it is not the perfect tool for the job, I have 2 others that work far better. Unless you have tried all three, how can you argue the point.


"All three"? I tried all five, if not six.



Touch0Gray said:


> My flex shaft with carbide disk, spinning at around 50 rpm cuts clean with no melting......so do my cable cutters. no muss, no fuss, no cleanup on ends!


My Dremel cuts cleaner.


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## cxwrench (Nov 9, 2004)

AndreyT said:


> My Dremel cuts cleaner.


oh jesus...just relax, will ya


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## PlatyPius (Feb 1, 2009)

AndreyT said:


> False. High speed generates excessive heat only in the hands of a person who doesn't know how to use the tool properly. Namely, in the hands of a person who is trying to use a high-speed tool as a high-torque tool - a rather basic rookie mistake. Dremel is a "jewelers tool" of the rotary tool world. It takes some skill to operate properly.


Hey Sparky... you realize that T0G is a Master Jeweler, right? You're really making yourself look like an idiot now....


***crickets***


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## AndreyT (Dec 1, 2011)

Fascinating! 

Apparently I accidentally stumbled upon one of the keywords (i.e. "Dremel") that makes the firmware in the heads of the local troll/drone population to enter some sort of low-power mode, manifesting itself here as sharp drop in general IQ level. 

From now on we'll refer to this mode of operation as "platypius mode".

P.S. I'm sure with a bit more effort one can make a Nobel-worthy PhD thesis in the field of phsycology out of this.


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## PlatyPius (Feb 1, 2009)

AndreyT said:


> Fascinating!
> 
> Apparently I accidentally stumbled upon one of the keywords (i.e. "Dremel") that makes the firmware in the heads of the local troll/drone population to enter some sort of low-power mode, manifesting itself here as sharp drop in general IQ level.
> 
> ...


Good plan. Deflect us from the fact that you called T0G a newbie who was basically too dumb to operate a Dremel (when he is in fact a master jeweler) by calling me a troll and stupid (when in fact I am not at all stupid....just an @ssh0le).


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## Touch0Gray (May 29, 2003)

PlatyPius said:


> Good plan. Deflect us from the fact that you called T0G a newbie who was basically too dumb to operate a Dremel (when he is in fact a master jeweler) by calling me a troll and stupid (when in fact I am not at all stupid....just an @ssh0le).


Save it man......not worth the keystrokes.....

lets see him run a #69 (.74168mm) drill bit up the center of about 15 or 20mm of a 3mm screw rusted into a rear dropout as a pilot hole to drill it out and re-tap it freehand with his dremel.


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