removing shaft of alu quill stem from aluminium fork.

I bought a frameset with the quill stem seized into the fork steerer, I didn't want to use the fork on the build so just chopped the neck of the stem off to remove it. However the fork is quite nice and I would like to salvage it if possible.

It is an aluminium stem in an aluminium steerer so I can't just dissolve it out. I have read about drilling the majority of it out then carefully cutting into the remainder to release it, however I have no idea what kind of tools I would need to do this?

This brings me to my second point. Would it even be cost effective once I have purchased all the bits etc? Does anyone know how much a framebuilder would charge to do this kind of thing?

Cheeers

Block the top and fill with vinegar from the bottom . Then its chisels mallets and a mandril to knock it out. Their is a guy who has a website who does it .

Hope this helps.

Do you have a link to the site?

Vinegar is acidic therefore as far as I know no use on aluminium oxide (or aluminium)? I thought do go this route I would need something which was alkali but this will also east away at the steerer :(

Thanks

Heat / cold, followed by lots of hammer treatment? Different alloys might expand / contract at different rates* and loosen it enough for the brute force approach?

*I am far from a metallurgist and have no idea whether this is true or whether or not heat / cold will make the bit you want to keep more brittle

I looked into this quite a bit for a seatpost and a stem I was trying to avoid cutting out of steel frames recently.

Aluminium oxide is described as amphoteric which means it may be susceptible to acid or base so vinegar, coke, lemon juice are all possible treatments. Caustic soda will eat your fork as well, as you expect. But all aluminium has a layer of oxide on it, and an aluminium fork in an aluminium frame should not corrode further since there is no galvanic potential between them - this problem of corrosion and sticking is for aluminium components in steel frames.

Your seized stem should therefore be due to friction from a very close fit or maybe dirt and old grease. You could try heating the steerer and hope that because it is on the outside, it heats up and expands more quickly than the stem, freeing it. You could try cooling the end of the stem at the same time (e.g. stick the stem end in water/ice/salt mixture while heating the steerer). If dirt and grease is the problem, a penetrating oil (plusgas?) seems most promising to me, but maybe coke (I'm not convinced that it will work its way in very effectively).

Also, if a friction problem, I read a really nice thing about somebody trying to get a carbon seatpost out of a carbon frame. He reasoned it wasn't corroded, but was stuck by friction, and that pulling on the frame and the post served only to stretch and narrow the seat tube, gripping the post more tightly. He created some sort of system that held the frame and pulled the post and it slid out. Don't have a link for that though, sorry.

Gripping the stem end with the strongest vise grips/biggest wrench and trying to get it to turn is also a good thing to try from time to time!

In my haste to build up the frame I just hacksawed it out as was building up with the original fork ( this one is non-original to the frame) so currently looks as it does below.

I've bunged it up and filled the steerer with some of Sarson's finest distilled white vinegar; looks to be bubbling a little although not sure if this is due to any kind of reaction or if its just working its way into the gaps.

I'll let is sit overnight and give it a few whacks tomorrow and see what happens. If it doesn't budge I may flush it out and repeat the process with some kind of penetrating oil.

Thanks for the help.

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How about trying this after you've gone through the vinegar/penetrating oil stage,

1. Drill a hole sideways through both sides of what's left of the stem as close as you can to the fork

2. Thread a nut or threaded race down onto the fork threads (make sure you use something with really good clean, long threads)

3. Put a long bolt or piece of steel rod through the hole in the stem, so that it sticks well out on both sides

4. Wind the nut/threaded race up the steerer till it hits the bolt (use a spacer between them if need be to keep the nut/threaded race well engaged with the fork threads)

5. Give the nut/threaded race a bit of a twist with a big spanner to apply some tension to the bolt, pulling the stem out of the fork

6. (assuming you've got the stem wedge out) If the stem doesn't come out, turn the fork upside-down and using a mallet and a long rod down the steerer give it a whack (if the wedge is still in, this will just jam it in tighter)

Repeat 5&6 with more penetrating oil until it comes out. Keep an eye on the fork threads to check you're not mangling them.

Good luck!

Great idea.

The wedge is still in there (loose). I was planning to hit it downwards to break the bond then kind of fish it out afterwards. This sounds much better, Thanks!

The wedge is still in there (loose).

Can you wrangle it out the bottom of the steerer? If you do that then you'll have a clear run at the bottom of the stem.

Looking at my post above I'd say use as many spacers as you can between the nut/threaded race and the bolt so that you're working on the threads as far down the fork as possible. It might not matter if those threads get a bit mashed, but you want to keep the ones at the very top nice and crisp.

I may be showing my ignorance, but that looks like a STEEL steerer. I'd be surprised if aluminium could be so thin and so threaded. If that is so, I'd go for vertical hacksaw cuts 90% of the way through the stem, at 90 degree intervals followed by NaOH, followed by pliers.

I may be showing my ignorance, but that looks like a STEEL steerer.

Worth doing the magnet test, I agree.

Got the magnet out. It is indeed a steel steerer; with an aluminium crown and fork blades (Principia fork).

The hole in the crown is tiny and no chance the wedge is going to come out through it. I'll leave it bathing in vinegar another night (as I'm too lazy to do it right now) and have a crack at it tomorrow afternoon.

It is indeed a steel steerer

Get something more caustic in there then. Plug up the hole in the quill, pour caustic stuff in through hole in the crown.

This video's pretty useful, he manages to remove a stuck aluminium stem from a steel steerer after trying brute force, vinegar and eventually succeeds via vertically cutting with a hack saw...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GRbdnTRH-4

Superb vid, GreatSince...good to know that even the mechanics have to make huge efforts at times - I'd have given up much sooner lol