Handle for Modular Frame Prep Tools

Frame prep is a small set of operations that each need a different cutter or guide on the same drive: chasing BB threads, facing the BB shell, reaming and facing a head tube, T47 thread chasing, and a few related jobs. The 1695.1/4BI handle is the common drive end of that family. Rather than shipping each tool with its own dedicated bar, Unior built the frame-prep series around a single handle pattern; you buy the cutters and guides you need, and one or two handles serve the whole bench.

What this piece does

The 1695.1/4BI is the T-bar handle that mates with Unior's modular frame-prep cutters and tap holders. It carries the torque the mechanic puts in at the bench through a square-drive coupling to whichever frame-prep tool is currently mounted. Bottom-bracket tapping needs two of these (one each side of the shell, working simultaneously); head-tube reaming, BB facing, and T47 chasing each need one.

Compatibility

Drives every modular tool in the frame-prep family:

• Bottom Bracket Facing Tool 1699
• BSA Bottom Bracket Tap 1697 and the BSA / Italian tap holders
• Taps T47 (M47 × 1.0 thread)
• Head Tube Reamer and Facer 1694

A shop that owns one full frame-prep operation already owns the handle; for the second operation, buying the cutter / guide / tap holder alone is enough. The handle is the part you only need once or twice on the bench.

Specs

• Type: modular handle with square-drive coupling
• Compatible tools: 1694, 1697, 1698, 1699, Taps T47, and other modular frame-prep cutters and holders
• Made in Slovenia by Unior

Made in Slovenia, since 1919

Unior has been forging hand tools in Zreče since 1919, and sponsors professional road and mountain-bike race teams. The modular handle is the design decision that connects the whole frame-prep series; the same handle on the BB facer, the head-tube reamer, the T47 taps, and the BSA / Italian tap holders is what makes a frame-prep bench compact instead of cluttered.

Pro tip from our mechanics

BB tapping needs two handles working at once: one driving the drive-side (left-hand thread) holder and one driving the non-drive-side (right-hand thread) holder, both feeding into the shell simultaneously so the taps stay parallel and the thread cuts cleanly. A shop that has one handle and one tap holder can still face a BB shell or chase T47 threads; for BSA / Italian tap chasing on a paint-fresh frame, a second handle pays for itself the first time you reach for it.

The walk-through of the full BB-prep sequence (tap holders driving simultaneously, then the facer, with the right feed control) is in our Tech Tips: Frame prep: threaded bottom bracket shells →