De Rosa, stuck seatpost

A friend of mine is recently engaged and his soon to be father in law gifted him this bike. Its going to need a fair bit of work done, and unfortunately the seatpost is stuck, looks like its practically fused to the frame. must have been stored pretty poorly... Any one got any ideas on how to get it out without damaging the frame / paintwork?

Any tips welcomed and appreciated!

Looks like its ready for the bin, give it to me and I will dispose of it for you.

your friend should disengage

edit: massive 27.2mm reamer is your answer

here is cool photo to demonstrate whutchamtalkin'bout

a frame builder told me to feed oil to it and give it a whack with a mallet everyday when you walk past it and it will eventual free off. if youre prepared to oil it and wallop it all the time that would be the safest way, will just take ages.

there is a guy who extracts seat posts somehow without damaging anything, on a bike like this it may be worth taking to him http://www.theseatpostman.com/

Mystic incantation?

^ I've never heard of that actually working

Is it aluminum? It looks it. You can dissolve it using sodium hydroxide. It's a common drain cleaner available from hardware stores. It fizzes a lot and a bottle of £5 drain cleaner will dissolve it all away.

just playing devils advocate here but sodium hydroxide is used to help strip chrome, chrome being chromium, chromium also being used in chromo frames when added to steel.

on a more high end frame like that i wouldnt want to compromise its strength etc

safest thing I reckon is the hacksaw blade. Cut seatpost almost flush with the top of the seat tube and then start cutting down lengthways. Have the blade cut on the up stroke. Once you are near to cutting through the alu seatpost you can "feel it" change you need to keep checking every 20-30 secs. If you're careful, and it's easy to be careful (it just slows things down) you will not damage the seat tube.

Some people have had success with ammonia but it's not guaranteed.
Of course there's always
http://sheldonbrown.com/stuck-seatposts.html

I got one out recently by drilling a hole thtough the post about middway up the part that was sticking out. I then bolted a sturdy 8mm nut and bolt through it, clamped the BB shell in a vice and twisted the seatpost with a large 4 feet sash clamp. I didn't try to do it one twist but rather gradually twisting and pushing a little further every time. When it freed up it went with a real bang so much so that I thought I'd popped a joint on the frame.
I should say that this frame is cromo not some lightweight racing frame.

I also vote for the one ended hacksaw. As an addition, I'd suggest sellotaping a piece of card or something at the end of the blade so that all the cutting action is on the seatpost and not the frame. Cut 90 degree quadrants almost through, then use big grippy tools on the bit of the seatpost still sticking out.

Sodium Hydroxide probably would need the frame to be stripped of stuff. If you saw before Sodium Hydroxide, the Sodium Hydroxide phase goes a lot faster.

Soak in Diesel, inside and outside the frame, for about a week use a bench vice to apply leverage regularly. This method worked for me, and after a week or so it came away.

Great father in law!

I did the sodium hydroxide thing with an 853 Ribble. It took longer than I expected and you need to be very careful (ie more careful than me) about your paintwork.

Sodium Hydroxide is obviously corrosive. But just like anything, if you do a good job (which isn't hard) it won't do your frame or paintwork any harm. If you soak your frame in it for a while it will.

You cut the top bit of the seat post away. You then block the bottom of the seat post with a cork or bung. Pull some inner tube over the outside of the seat tube and mask over the frame around the seat post. Small amounts of Sodium Hydroxide at a time, turn the frame upside down to pour it out, will take half an hour.

Aluminium binds with steel under galvanic corrosion, and over a period of years this bond can become incredibly strong, and hitting it with a mallet certainly won't work.

My advice would be to send it to the seatpost man, seriously. There's many things you can do, all of which will be a pain in the arse and most of which will damage that lovely paintwork. I've fought with many seatposts and it's never been worth it. Seeing as you got the frame for free you might as well spend a bit of cash to get it sorted

or just give it to me, it's probably not worth the bother...

^trade secret of course but any idea how he does it? Temperature difference?

I've been wondering what his secret is especially as he claims to keep seatpost/seat tube and paint unscathed. I was gonna try to heat the seat tube and then quickly apply pipe freezing spray on/inside the seatpost to get some shrinking/expansion going on. Apparently alu shrinks a lot more than steel. As I've not tried it I didn't put it in my reply but I reckon it stands a good chance of working. The pipe freezing spray is about £10

Anybody ever tried it?

Thanks for the tips guys! I think the safest option is the 'seatpost man' especially as he's been recommended by a few people. I'd dread to think what the FILaw would do if he damaged the frame... :)

I'm sure hes got a few techniques up his sleeve, he also mentions some specialist bespoke tools of his own design.. all very hush hush!

Googling for seatpost liquid nitrogen shows a lfgss thread with some lines about frames cracking... Also the postman faq mentions this as a dangerous method. We have been warned! If you can afford it I guess to the pillar puller it most go...

I'm a suspicious type, I reckon the seatpost man uses temp difference and the "specialist tools" aren't the key to the job just to make his life easier.

Re frames cracking due to liquid nitrogen could this happen with a steel frame? Again being a suspicious type wouldn't the seatpost man obviously say it's dangerous, especially if it's the very method he uses?

I can't see how he can be using tools, specialist or not, that don't cause some damage.
There are only 4 methods as far as I can see.

1. Chemical erosion either complete (sodium hy etc) or partial, ammonia / coke etc.
   
2. Mechanical / force, puller or hitting it in further to loosen the bond.
   
3. Controlled destruction of seat post. ,i.e. cutting it out or reaming it out
   
4. Temp manipulation.
   
   

Is there another any other method that doesn't fall into one of the categories above?

I better head over to the conspiracy thread!!!

I suspect the guy have only more experience than most, how many stuck seatpost each of us dealt with? 0, 1 or maybe 2 when the guy do that all year around with various frames.

It's exactly like welding, you can do an OK job in 20mins when you weld few times per year but someone welding all day can do an awesome job in few seconds. He use the same methods but with much more experience so know already what should and shouldn't work before to start.

A bit like those metal bender who bend a bump in a car door without painting, only a matter of practicing.

^^My guess would be a subtle combination of 2 and 4? He slightly heats the tube and slightly cools the post, then uses something pneumatic or hydraulic to steadily apply pressure to the underside of the post with some sort of clamping device.

I've been thinking this over on the train, feeling a little

If you've got a little patience and want to try something not that destructive, Coca Cola works really well (or any high acidic soft drink of your choice). Just brush it on and let it soak in to any gaps. Keep applying more, it'll take a couple of days. But this has worked for me and doesn't particularly damage the paint or the frame. And when I did it the seatpost was still useable afterwards, needed a lot of polishing though. I've also had quite good success with Citrus degreaser too, although try to keep this off the paint as its can be quite strong.

I have got seized posts out before. On a kona mtb at i was having repainted i had it mealt it out with a welding torch didnt take long and it was fun see it dribble out. rode the bike for over a year afterwards without issue. Still got the frame.

On a cusmer bike i was ftr more patient. 2 weeks of spraying a can of plus gas on it. And every day i clamp thenpost in the vice and turn the frame or at least try. After two weeks the post started to move. I saved the post too which was a noce campagnolo post. Frame and post were seperated and the re united with a good smear of anti seize to stop a further renewal of wedding vows.

The hacksaw method will take hours.

i drilled a hole through the seatpost once and stuck a long screwdriver shaft in it for leverage and managed to move a post out