Lisle 10000 Brake Cylinder Hone

Used this first with water cooling, then with CRC Power Lube to "Roadkill" a good running 351C race engine back to life after losing an oil pump to debris. The Steve Dulcich bore restoration method, if you will. There were some scratches in the bores, nothing super bad, and we were able to get most of them out and leave a nice crosshatch. Wife manned the water and the spray lube - hose the bore, 10 passes, hose the bore, repeat twice more, wipe and check. After initial clean up with water as lube, we switched to the CRC at 10 passes/wipe/check. We did not remove an appreciable amount of material. Cuts slow with water. When paired with the CRC, the hone cuts pretty good so proceed with caution. Followed up with 10w-30 on a 320 grit Flexhone to get a final crosshatch and finish, then a slight buff with lube and green Scotchbrite. No, it ain't a Sunnen but the new moly face rings seated immediately. Making passes now with zero issues.

While this is designed for honing brake cylinders, I used it for final finishing of the head tube of a steel bicycle frame. This is to install the headset and fork. Overkill for what I needed, which was to remove leftover bits of paint (and some metal bits, most likely), but it beats paying the ridiculous sum that Park Tool charges for their admittedly nice, but overkill, bicycle specific tool. The tool feels solid for what it is. It does not include instructions if I recall correctly, but the concept is rather easy to figure for those with some mechanical aptitude, especially if you are tinkering with your brake cylinders. There is a threaded portion that adjusts the width of the bones and it fits into a drill. Chucked it into my cordless drill (Bosch, which rules in my opinion), and made quick work of the head tube debris. I’m talking maybe a few minutes at most in total, quickly checking in between each 10-15 second spin up and down the head tube. Not polished in feel, but smooth enough (don’t want to thin the tube). A tip is to be careful around entering and exiting the head tube, bearing careful to not chip the paint. Considering the top and bottom edges of the head tube will most likely be covered up by the headset, minor chipping is probably not an issue, but I like a scratch free frame. At least until the shiny wears off the new toy. Also, for a new steel frame, be sure to apply frame protectant to the interior after honing. I went with Fluid-Film, which is lanolin based, adding a not so nice wool smell to your frame (it dissipates very slowly). Better than rust. For my rather limited use, it is highly recommended. I’m sure it would work fine for brake cylinders, given it is Lisle brand. I have few Lisle auto specific tools and have no complaints.

Worked perfect for my 57 Fairlane master cylinder rebuild

This hone worked well on the master cylinders I have hones. Stones wear quickly and I expect 5 to 6 hone jobs before stone replacement.

I bought this for a 19mm brake cylinder and this was advertised as 1/2" but it clearly is much larger. I am in an emergency situation and this was my last hope. So I decided to wear the stones down by use till it could fit. It broke within 2 minutes!

I bought this because I've had too many bad experiences with overseas wheel cylinders. You can barely trust even the most well-known suppliers nowadays. Specifically, I had 3 sets of wheel cylinders leak in 2 weeks on one car, the last set that leaked was the straw that broke the camels back and took the axle seals with it causing gear oil to leak all over a brand new set of shoes. In hindsight, I should have rebuilt the ones that were on the car. I took the wheel cylinders apart and found pieces of shot inside one of them. At any rate, I'm (slowly) rebuilding the brakes on a 69 F250 and started at the LR wheel, which I found was sticking when the truck got hot. The wheel cylinder was completely jammed. I had to soak the pistons in Aerokroil and force them out with a brass drift. One side of the wheel cylinder was so badly pitted it was beyond salvaging, but I washed it with soap & water and a stiff brush and proceeded to hone it for practice. Glad I haven't lost the touch. Started by cleaning and drying the cylinder, clamped it in aluminum jaws in a vice, lubed the stones and cylinder with clean brake fluid and went after it. The cylinder came out nearly perfect with a nice cross-hatch pattern like a fresh cylinder wall, except for the deep pits from where some water must have set for a long period. I trashed into the scrap pile, but had it not been for the pits, it would have been serviceable. I'm sure I'll get good use from this tool in the future.

Turns out I didn't need this tool after all but it sure is a quality built item that may come in handy for future projects.

Stones broke on first use

I've used lyle tools for years and this is a good quality hone.Arrived a day early too.