Anyone drilled out a rusted stem before?

Yup - my stem has oxidised itself to my steerer...
And yes I am a king sized lazy twat for riding it through the rain for 2
winters with no front mudguard and never quite getting round to a re-grease...

Ideally does anyone have the tools/time/skills to help me carefully drill out
my steerer so that i can re-use the forks?

Tips and offers of help most greatfully accepted!

1 inch threaded?

Aye! Dunnae get this problem with an ahead set now do ya! : )

are you ABSOLUTELY sure you can't twist it out? get some musclemen on the case.

get some arnie look-a-like to hold your forks and twist the stem out.
or try that coke thing... invert your frame, pour some coke down the steerer, goto sleep, wake up, then twist the damn ting out.

And when you've undone the bolt, has the bolt gone upwards or has it stayed where it is in the stem?

If it's come up, then hammer it down to stem level, then try twisting the stem again.

I did think about that - also WD40d the hell out of it just in case... but
really dont want to bend my forks. If the aluminium's oxidised there's
no way force is gonna budge it.

Hmm... Dilemma.

Jake- the bolt's out and the wedge has dropped down so can't do that either..
Edmundane - It's definitely an "aluminium oxidising itself to steel" issue... no amount of coke or WD40's gonna do much i think..

Just a thought: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=remove+aluminium+oxide&btnG=Search&meta=

Mr Bungle Jake- the bolt's out and the wedge has dropped down so can't do that either..
Edmundane - It's definitely an "aluminium oxidising itself to steel" issue... no amount of coke or WD40's gonna do much i think..

This has worked for me before but could damage your headset (possible but not likely).

Place block of wood on floor and underneath steerer tube (between forks). Place block of wood over top of stem. Take large hammer. Beat the shit out of it like it was Gary Glitter and you were a 3 year old.

No bent forks, force of hammer blows may eventually loosen oxiding enough to twist stem. It worked for me.

No guarantees though.

tallsam [quote]Mr Bungle Jake- the bolt's out and the wedge has dropped down so can't do that either..
Edmundane - It's definitely an "aluminium oxidising itself to steel" issue... no amount of coke or WD40's gonna do much i think..

This has worked for me before but could damage your headset (possible but not likely).

Place block of wood on floor and underneath steerer tube (between forks). Place block of wood over top of stem. Take large hammer. Beat the shit out of it like it was Gary Glitter and you were a 3 year old.

No bent forks, force of hammer blows may eventually loosen oxiding enough to twist stem. It worked for me.

No guarantees though.[/quote]

Sounds risky but possible - replace dangerous twisty force with only ever so slightly less dangerous mashing force...
HOT DAMN, I LIKE IT!

Mashing force. I like that.

I tryed everything in the end I took it to bike fix and they cut the top of the stem and heated out the rest worked fine

ThisIsRob (RJM) I tryed everything in the end I took it to bike fix and they cut the top of the stem and heated out the rest worked fine

"heated out"?

Is that like heating the headtube so it expands? Never thought of that.... Think there's a "gas hob" version that
might work???