Stripping stuff with Caustic Soda

Yeah that sounds like a better method, just need to pick up a cheap plastic bucket from somewhere.... Thanks for the tips...

@dangeruss I've been doing this over the weekend - I just cut the stem as it meets the steerer. Makes things a lot easier, as you can just leave the inverted fork dipped in a bucket of solution and then you don't have to worry about stuff bubbling over the top. If you're taking casutic to the stem, it's assumed that you're not going to use it again, so, though it feels wrong to hack bike bits apart, it makes sense to do it this way.

My solution was roughly 250g soda to 2ish litres of water. I left that for a day, which halved the amount of alu, then made up a new batch last night and the fork in that. When I checked this morning, there was hardly any stem left, so I expect it to all be gone when I get home. As has been mentioned, it's worth using warm water. I got pretty much instant awesome fizzymeltyness as soon as I put the stem in.