Josephine! - Restoring a Joe Waugh ladies tourer

Thanks for that, I'm trying to figure out what he means by that last bit: "roll the seatpost up inside itself"... could someone explain? He makes it sound like it's a jumper sleeve or something!

He means roll it inside itself along its length - like the way you would roll a Swiss Roll.

Caustic soda will always work on an aluminium seatpost, given enough time. It might take a week, but it will dissolve the aluminium. Mix up some strong solution and top it up regularly, and wear some proper safety equipment. Perhaps mix a solution of the same strength and deposit a piece of test-aluminium in it to see how it's doing...

Be careful not to get it on the frame as it'll damage the paint.

twist one side of the cut tube towards the other, as though you were making a number 6 shape out of a snipped number 0

Like opening a tin of spam perhaps?

He means roll it inside itself along its length - like the way you would roll a Swiss Roll.

Caustic soda will always work on an aluminium seatpost, given enough time. It might take a week, but it will dissolve the aluminium. Mix up some strong solution and top it up regularly, and wear some proper safety equipment. Perhaps mix a solution of the same strength and deposit a piece of test-aluminium in it to see how it's doing...

Be careful not to get it on the frame as it'll damage the paint.

I think I shall continue with this for the meantime. It's certainly always worked for me in the past too... I like the sound of doing a test bit too.

Do you havE a jig saw?

If so put a hack saw blade in it.

Saw the seat post off horisontslly and then carefully stick The saw down vertically and saw CAREFULLY towards the seat tube until you almost touch the actual seat tube.

Sharpen an old screw driver and chizzle out the last bit where you've sawn.

Now clamp/ queaze the Seatpost so it collapses and pull out.

Does that make sense... I've had a bit to drink, but it worked to get a stem out for me.

Sorry my post is pretty much the shekel. Method post led above.

Cheers man, that definitely makes sense.. I'll give it a go if all else fails.
Couple of questions, though... What happens to the stuff you can't reach? ...Or should the rest of it lower down follow suit and rip off?

Just thinking of the difference in length between stems and posts. The last time I did this there turned out to be over a foot of post in there!

I ve sawn one out, you need the right type of saw and patience.

Carefully does it, keep the tube level and there will come a point when the post goes"ping" and is suddenly loose.

if you used vinegar at the same time as the caustic soda, you might as well have tried perrier water.

perrier water.

Does that work too?!
; )

The hacksaw trick does not always work. I had an aliminium post seized in a titanium frame and went with that method for removal.Turns out that it had corroded and bonded to the seat tube all the way round, all the way down. There was no simple rolling up of the post once it was cut through.

In the end it had to be saw away over and over and over and over until there were so many splits sawn down the post it was more like deposits stuck to the walls of an empty seat tube, rather than a stuck post. In the end I had to take it to a proper :BS to have them use a lot of heat and reaming/scraping tools to clean up the inside of the seat tube.

Just seen this, great thread! Josephine is an excellent name.

I've done the seatpost saw out thing a couple of times. Each time it's come out easily once I had two cuts into the post.

I did the cuts about 1cm apart then as soon as I had removed that thin slice in between the remainder of the seatpost came out easily. This is because as the post corroded new oxides were formed between the frame and the post generating pressure which was squeezes it out against the frame. Once a small slice is removed the seatpost can flex and the pressure is released.

I used a long hacksaw blade and cut by hand. You can feel and hear when the blade touches the frame because it is a much harder metal to cut than the alu seatpost. I think i's the best way to avoid damage to the frame.

This job takes patience, good luck!

This may be of interest:
http://forum.ctc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=16716

The basic problem is aluminium oxide. Ammonia apparently dissolves aluminium oxide and is apparently recommended by Sheldon. Some also suggest coca cola. Caustic soda just dissolves the seatpost (in theory) rather than attacking the aluminium oxide.
Re. heat, not sure of the theory of this but if you are doing it just apply say, a hot kettle's worth of water. Don't bother applying cold as well. Some say the differential expansion thing doesn't work in this instance because the two parts are chemically fused.

From what I understand (hearsay) they shouldn't be chemically fused, but rather the oxidisation "grows" in the tiny gap between post and tube, thereby creating a similar effect to an expansion bolt in a stem. This locks the post in place, but (in theory) only by the force of the expansion (not to be underestimated), so that cutting it (and thus relieving this pressure) should work.

Correct me if I'm wrong, of course; I think the world could use a definitive answer to this...

...mdcc_tester?

; )

Here's a quick progress report:

So this seatpost has 5mm thick walls!
Might be a bit tricky to roll up. It's certainly a bastard to get a hacksaw blade into.

My new plan is cut it like a karate chop across the diameter until it looks a load of chop sticks poking out of a bike (you can see where I kind of started in the last pic).. then bend the chopsticks in a bit with locking pliers.. and finally try and get a sharpened screwdriver in there between the post and the frame to chisel them out.
Any other ideas before I start?

That ^^^ looks like one solid post. Good luck getting that rolling.

This is a great thread = I am working my way through the list.
Picked up a mercian frame off the 'bay with a stuck post. So far used a vice in the lbs (no luck), put down penetrating oil (yesterday) and now it is upside down full of coca cola so will be leaving it for a few days.

I would avoid chiselling between the seatpost and the frame; you could end up with the screwdriver going through the tubing! If the slots you cut go right through the seatpost, the pieces should come straight out with no chiselling required.

Perhaps cut the slots, and fill it up with penetrating oil to hopefully release it. Or ammonia, which does indeed dissolve aluminium oxide (but also paint, probably).

could cut notches into it to turn it into a nut a use a massive wrench to twist it out?

If you've already tried twisting it in the vice using the frame for leverage surely just the foot or so of leverage you could get with a big socket extension would be nowhere near as much.

How big is the hole in the seat post? Maybe you could tap it with an M12 or similar, alloy is easy to tap. Cut the threads deep as you can because it's soft. Then borrow/make a slide hammer. I would have used plus gas to soak it in (you buy it from Halfords/autoparts store) caustic soda is alkali, adding coke/vinegar (those of you using balsamic earn way too much!) is adding acid - it will neutralise the effect.

I would probably also heated the bastard up with an oxymapp torch by this stage but someone on here might well say that's stupid because it might affect the temper of the frame (I learnt my skillz on cars.) I would do it carefully though, you want to only heat the seat post. It might screw the paint up but it's worth it for that bike.

I would just keep using caustic soda. It is guaranteed to work, eventually.

Mercury?

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2004-09/amazing-rusting-aluminum