[Closed] ouch - going to have to cut out my seized carbon seatpost. Tips?

Basically what you said - cut it off just above the seat tube top and then use a hacksaw blade on it's own to gradually cut through the post inside to outside..

presumably with carbon posts you cannot stick it in a vice and swing on the frame like a gorilla. It might turn the post into a splintery mass of carbon fibres but as a last resort before the tedium of hacksawing the post out it has to be worth a go right?

I was planning to cut it off at the top of the seat-tube and firstly see if I can fit a skinny seat post inside the now thinner seat tube.

This isn't going to work for a whole hill of reasons...... I foresee a hacksaw blade in you're future.....

I would be getting me one of these if I was you 😉

[img] [/img]

Cut it off just proud of the clamp then work down through the clamp slot.

Wear gloves and goggles.

Don't learn safety by accident 8)

I removed a post recently by drilling a ~8mm hole through it an inch or so above the seat clamp, inserting a long screwdriver and twisting it - this does at least avoid marking the frame with the hacksaw blade.

If all else fails, just push it further down the seat tube with the next seatpost - think of it as carbon reinforcement. Did this once after I lost patience with the cutting method. There were no consequences other than a modest increase in frame weight.

Being carbon rather than alloy, I can't see why it shouldn't come out (eventually).

Really IanB? That would make me very happy. Was yours also a carbon seatpost? I had imagined it would then splinter

[i]just push it further down the seat tube with the next seatpost[/i]

if you can do this then cutting it off a couple of inches above the seat tube and ****ting it with a hammer to see if that shifts it is worth a try. If it does shift then clamp the remaining post sticking out the seat tube in a vice and twist it out.

I had this and just kept spraying with GT80 & twisting the seat - it eventually came out (and back in for another 2 years)

If you planning on killing the seatpost now anyways, get an old seat and a crow-bar, pop the bar through the seat and use to to lever the seatpost round?

I would do that Zippy, but it's a horrible iBeam saddle (part of the reason I'm trying to shift the thing) so that won't work...

So far I've emptied a can of WD40 in through the bottle cage mounts and left for a week to no avail. Can't find anywhere local that sells plus gas so trying coke this evening...

I removed a post recently by drilling a ~8mm hole through it an inch or so above the seat clamp, inserting a long screwdriver and twisting it - this does at least avoid marking the frame with the hacksaw blade.

Hmmmm... I may try this myself before getting out the hacksaw. Steel post in aluminium frame.

oh bugger, errr scaffolding rod on the nose of the saddle?

I had imagined it would then splinter

For other solutions, try here: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/stuck-seatposts.html

Can't find anywhere local that sells plus gas so trying coke this evening...

Tried everything (except coke which I might try tonight) and it ain't budging.

Everything except the thing designed for this purpose?

been trying to remeber the name of "plus gas" since seeing this thread, who actually sells it? (well other than amazon - any shops?)
Halford sell their own brand but I have no idea if it's any good.

Motor factors.

I found it in a motor factors in Brighton.

I would find something like a scaffold bar to put over nose of saddle, apply lots of weight to rotate saddle whilst someone smacks the saddle with the biggest sledgehammer you can find. Just protect the frame with some wood incase the sledge misses. Only way I could get a seized post out (after lots of plus gas) was to smack it down an inch to free it and then painstakingly twist it out.

What about gently heating the seat tube with a hairdryer say? Very often the application of heat will cause enough differential expansion of the different materials to break the stiction.

If it doesn't work on its own it might well help in combination with one of the other methods suggested.

or even just boiling water? (had good result from this and stuck seal lately)

Give it a go - why not - but the conductivity of the metal and the heatsink provided by the rest of the frame is likely to mean the metal local to the post is only going to get warm, not hot, with either hair dryer or hot water - unless you go at it with a naked flame (with obvious consequences). The only thing in your favour is that the conductivity of the post is likely to be low, so the relative expasion fot he frame will be higher than if they were both, say, aluminium.

Can't see it coming out without a combination of plus-gas/brute force or the deft application of a hacksaw blade.

Its not stiction.
I bet you greased it and that tends to soften the epoxy which then glues itself to the inside of the seat tube. Its effectively superglued in.
The coke should work (use fat coke and not diet btw)- pop the bb out and tip it in thru the hole. Try to keep the frame flat on its side and rotate it 45degrees every day so it gets down each side of the post.
Keep doing it for a few days then do the breaker bar/ saddle nose thing.
Good luck.

This sounds like fun. I love a challenge.

Please update on progress!

I didn't grease it but the git who sold it to me did.

When I emailed him to say the seatpost is seized he said 'it shouldn't be I just greased it'. When I emailed him back to tell him that was the problem, I surprisingly had no response.

$%£*

DOH!