The Seatpost Man

[jimo746]

Re:

Sometimes, theres a loud crack to be heared, sometimes its the seatpost on the move.

And the other times? it's your knees??


This freeze spray sounds like a cracking idea.

 

[legrandefromage]

The chap is a bit grumpy with RB

https://www.facebook.com/theseatpostman1

 

[firedfromthecircus]

Notice all the facebook keyboard warriors slagging us off for being forum keyboard warriors!

People in glass houses and all that! :roll:

 

[Woz]

What I'm about to suggest is either sheer genius, or a sure-fire frame crusher.

The first step in getting out a stuck post is to crack the bond.

Now, as for a lubricant, the best is a homebrew mix of 50/50 acetone and automatic transmission fluid. I mixed some up for my father who restores vintage agricultural equipment where rusted bolts are the order of the day.

Do the usual trick of filling the seat tube with the fluid through the bottom bracket shell and leave to soak.

Now here comes my whizz-bang idea.... If you're trying to crack the bond, there's no rule that says you have to pull the post out. What about pushing it back inside the seat tube to crack the bond?

Take a floor jack and set the frame/post and jack up under a frame of some sort (like the bearers and joists under the house, or even make up a steel frame. Put the BB sheel onto the jack and with the head of the seatpost against the top of the frame, give the jack a little press. Not a lot, you don't want to bend the frame.

But the pressure on it might just be enough to get the bond to crack, especially if you've got some penetrating lube in there first.

I wouldn't be putting a heap of pressure into it and killing the frame, but after time, the bit of pressure might get the bond to break and the post can then be pulled out.

Not saying there isn't an element of risk, especially if you're heavy handed, but it's another option, surely?

Obviously not for posts where the wrong size has ben jammed in or where the head of the post is against the top of the seat tube.

Grumps

I read a good article (dammed if I can find it again) about a very clever bod who had too use a pull
method because it was a carbon fiber aero seat-post in an AL aero profile frame. Obviously heat
couldn't be used, and chemicals are a bit iffy. I seem to remember him making a pulley system driven by a bottle jack.

 

[legrandefromage]

Jurrin the woar...

When I was managing a bikey workshop for about 5 minutes, many a frame had come in with grease on a carbon post inside a carbon frame. Not nice as quite often the grease had reacted with the bonding so it all expanded into a non budging mess.

 

[d8mok]

Just to bump this up.


Had a seized post in a Lava Dome frame and this worked a treat.

The spray is available from screwfix at £8

 

[d8mok]

Re:

It breaks me bleedin' 'art to see, and even read people recommending the old hacksaw method..corrosive chemicals and even man's red fire...useful sometimes, but, not the right start.

freeze them out! sherlylock and his marin PM offered a good tutorial on the method. I have removed two that way for ringo, no mess or damage to anything else. The post completely re-usable.

If the post is intact, just stuck.....

ebay search crack-it freeze spray for water pipes. £7 or there abouts.
car sponge, tie wraps, carrier bag, vice or some other way of holding the seatpost head.

What i did...

remove BB and/or seat tube bottle cage bolts.
Get seatpost/frame upside down in vice nipped up as tight as you dare.
tear open(like pita bread) the sponge and wrap it round frame local to seatpost insertion, tie wrap in place.
wrap plastic bag around all that. tie wrap or knot in place(helps with splashes and thermal regulation).
If crack-it has no tube, make one(fish tank air line, cable outer) etc.. blast a good 1/3 of tin down into frame via BB or other.
No need to wait..blast rest of tin contents into sponge, impregnating it.
Give it 2-3 mins and use frame as leverage, rock it left and right with increasing pressure(steadily).
If all is well there will be a firm "bang"..it's loose! Now lift as well as rotate.
That should be that. never failed me, providing.....

some dummy hasn't hacked the seatpost head off
!!!!!!

" me mate said i could i could hack-saw it out!" good luck..after 57 blades and bleeding hands. thinner posts maybe but the kalloy alloy...narrrr!

Gloves and eye protection as minimum PPE.

Worked fantastically!!!!

 

[brocklanders023]

Will try this on my Pine Mountain.

 

[d8mok]

I was doubtful but 10 mins later and lots of grunting it was out.

Impossible without a vice I’d say though.

 

[hellodave]

I literally ordered some of this stuff from screwfix earlier today
Cheapest I could find was £15 though not 8...

Glad you bumped this thread though, I only had a vague idea of what I was going to do with it, this has really helped