help!! stuck seatpost in a steal frame

hi i have a really nice old handmade steal road frame
but the seat post is stuck in,
any ideas of how to get some movement going????

any help would be greatly appreciated
cheers

PlusGas. Lots and lots of PlusGas. Then, when you’re high as a kite and you’ve made your own hole in the ozone layer, more PlusGas.

From the outside, then through the bottle mounts (if there are any) and through the bottom bracket. Someone once recommended forming a plastercine “cup” around the seat-tube/seat post interface and pouring PlusGas into that, so there’s a resovoir of it to soak down. Leave to soak for a bit (hour or so), wiggle, repeat…

also apply some heat first(hot air gun)do this for about 10 mins to get some expansion going.if you dont want the seat post use a large pair of stilsons to get it mooving.good luck.

cheers guys will give it a go
will a stilson/pipewrench grip the seat post,
wont it damage/score the post?

I suspect you won’t be using the post again anyway!

Turn the frame upside down and clamp the seat post in a vice, use the frame as a large lever. Be gentle if you value the frame.

any ideas of how to get some movement going????

Pain
Tears
Blood
Hacksaw
More blood
New paint job

Could take many hours over a few days, but you will get it moving, get a few mates round so you can spell the work. Second the vice method, gives you some real leverage

IIRC caustic soda will dissolve alloy but not steel, fill the frame up from the BB and watch the seatpost turn to a gray mush.

Post in a vice is good.
Penetrating oil, coke, caustic soda , will work on the rust.
Heat – if you can get the frame and seatpost to expand and contract at differing rates you can crack the “bond”. Gentle will save the paint on the frame, try leaving the frame outside over night, the pouring a kettle fun of water on the seat post (be careful!) then stuffing it in the vice.
Harsh – if all else fails a workshop a welding torch will heat it up for you, and the post WILL come out. But your paint will be shagged.

…..and also ruin the brazing if it’s a nice old lugged frame.

Sheldon is very helpfull

cheers for all you info will try the heat up cool down trick first of all,
its a really nice handmade frame so would like to minimize the damage,

cheers again

had similar one with stem in forks. Vice is probably best. Heating the post with blow torch(if its alu this will work well as alu is much more conductive than steel), at the same time cooling the frame with ice, its the difference in temp that will get it moving. if using a vice be careful of applying too much force to the rear stays/forks as you could put wheel alignment out.

caustic soda. the seatpost is galled into the frame, the oxide of aluminium take sup more space than the alloy itself so they stick together.

Caustic soda will ‘reduce’ the oxide and the post will come out.

plug the bb with plasticine and fill her up from the top and leave it overnight, leave it in the bath…

I had this problem with a steel Bianchi. In the end the local bike shop sent it to an engineer, who sawed the seat post off, tapped a large thread into the seat post and then screwed in a nut. Then using spanner removed the seatpost by tightening the nut.Au and steel do not mix using copper slipgreae will stop them from binding together.

Try the vice and twisting method first after a bit of GT85 soaking.
After that start with the plus gas.
After that start the sawing.

I managed to move one from a steel road frame many moons ago. Alternating boiling/ice water. As said above the differential expansion contraction should break the bond. I then got it out easily with a mole wrench on the post and no vice.

Cut off the post near top of frame and use a pad saw then inside the post to cut out a slither of the post so you can then use a wrench to “crush” the remains of the post and pull it out.

I did my old mtb frame set last week 10 years of not being touched

I took out the clamp bolt and wedged the seat tube open a bit. Plus gas overload for a couple of hours, then I used 2 long screw drivers and clamped them into the seat post one handle poking out forward and one backwards, more plus gas and twist out it came

Sorted