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 is the official technical partner of multiple World Tour and downhill 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 →