How to melt a stuck bicycle seat post using caustic soda.
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- #konabikes #fixie #diy
In this video I show you how I used caustic soda to melt an impossible to remove (completely stuck) aluminum bicycle seat post in a steel frame. Playing with caustic soda can be dangerous so please use appropriate precautions if you plan on doing this yourself, enjoy!
Please also check in with your municipality on how to safely discard Lye water (toxic waste), different places/different rules.
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Great video. Especially the shots of the paint & inside of the tube afterwards.
I, a BMX guy, went from doing some random research on drinking water and Caustic Soda, to finding this extremely high production value niche video on a bunch of stuff that interested me. Kudos.
Excellent! Followed your lead and it worked like a charm. I used a 3:1 water:lye mix and found that it takes about 8x the weight of the seat post remnant in lye to complete the removal process. Again, Excellent video. Thank you.
P.S. I recorded seat tube temperatures of 235 Fahrenheit.
is the 3:1 ratio by mass or by volume?
not being able to finally bring myself to do the same with my bike frame, I started looking up youtube videos
this was the best video on the topic out of all that I came across so far👍
I was advised by a bike shop once to use coke the fizzy drink I thought he was having a laugh but it actually worked
A good idea that would make for easy work as long as you could isolate all of the fluid in the seat tube. What I could not overcome was how to stop all leaking into adjacent tubes and out of the frame itself. I used uninflated balloons stretched over either side of the BB shell which worked really well. It ran through the holes for the BB cable guide which I successfully plugged with chopsticks. Great. But then it found its way out the chain stays at the dropouts and out the headset, out the stem. Everything is open inside the frame to some degree. Then I flipped the frame, plugged the top of the seat tube and tried filling through the BB shell. Ultimately the same problem. It ended up getting so messy (and dangerous) that I had to stop. If it was just a matter of plugging the BB shell (or the seat tube and filling through the BB) and fill the seat tube it would be a certain fix for all bikes. This is super gnarly stuff. extreme caution critical.
great job! i feel optimistic now!
I had a thick alum post stuck in a chrome moly frame. It took 2 days and multiple doses. Also I used a rubber stopper on the seat tube in the bottom bracket.
So you sat the rubber stopper half way up the seat tube?
Thanks I’ve tried every single method to get my aluminium post out even the gallium method(it worked but didn’t soft the whole seatpost😅) so I used this method to eat the rest of the seatpost and it worked 🎉.
Lye or sodium Hydroxide is an old school paint remover and good degreaser/oven cleaner. Dilute solutions used to be used in restaurants to clean tables which was then followed up with vinegar to neutralize it. It would leave a squeaky clean surface. This use of vinegar in the cleaning process is why many people mistakenly think it is a great cleaner, it isn't, it is the sodium hydroxide.
Shoot! Great video! Looks like quite the nukulur option.
Funny enough, the stuck seatpost in question for me is a Kona Honky Tonk, pretty similar to yours.
Awesome video, thanks for making it! Super clear what to do with the process. What did you do for clean up afterward? Both for the bike and the solution of dissolved aluminum?
You are welcome! Just rinse the bike with soapy water, as for the water I left it in a disposable container and waited for the water to evaporate, then disposed of the container. Different places have different regulations as to how you can get rid of the byproduct.
Ok that was pretty cool!
Thanks Ron
Nice work. Looking at doing this myself. Did you pour the liquid out of the frame each time before adding more or just leave it all in there and keep topping it up? Think I'll copy your BB method but use a funnel and hose too.
Thanks, I was letting the overflow drain from one of the bottle cage rivets and so I was just toping it up when the mixture looked like it wasn't reacting as much. A funnel and hose will probably do the trick as long as it is heat resistant (it will melt cheaper plastics).
I tried the same method but was unsuccessful, I guess I’ll have to try again with different brand of lye.
I im in similar situation, may I ask if you had to pull the seatpost out after or did it just fall out?
I acquired a 2011 Kona Paddy Wagon which also has a ridiculously stuck seat post (that's why I'm watching this video). From what I can tell the seatpost must only be inserted about an inch or so but it is seriously stuck. I have also read about another Paddy Wagon with a chronic seatpost, so I wonder what the issue is with these bikes? Maybe they weren't coming with any grease from the factory or something like this.
Anyway regarding your paint - Generally Kona's have very thin and weal paint. I have a Kona Shonky which I was cleaning with pure Isopropyl and completely ruined the clearcoat. Probably not wise to use pure Iso on any paint but I have done it before on other frames with no worries.
something had to be wrong, they were either coming out without grease or poor quality one, I have also seen a lot of paddy wagons with stuck seat posts. The clear coat was really thin on this guy so not too surprised by the result (didn't take any precautions though as I wanted to see the effects of the soda on the paint). if it wasn't so messy, I would use it as a paint stripper, works much better than most purpose-made ones these days.
Nice vid, thanks.. 👍🏼
Thanks! 👍
I have done 3 bike stems with Muriatic acid
Great job. I have a stuck bottom bracket and I want to try to remove it with caustic soda. How many grams should I put in a liter of water?
300ml in 1l of water
Interesting! Do you know if this method will work on a titanium frame with an aluminum seatpost? Would the soda react with the titanium? Thanks!
I’d like to protect my paintwork. Bike is only 3.5 years old. What could I cover it with that the soda or heat wouldn’t penetrate. ?
Super cool 😎💨☠️
Thanks!
@@MaverickTube no thank you . that was great 😊 super high quality great editing almost felt like there was a chance for an explosion. it had everything sorry I didn't watch it the minute it came out.😔
@@Jarrod_D Glad the hard work was noticed
Is chromoly also dissolve using this method
Chromoly is steel so safe with this method
Yo! Are you in Montreal by any chance?
I have the same issue right now and would be interested in getting some advice!
Hey no I am in Ontario, what's your problem?
@@MaverickTube Same thing as you! Aluminium seat post stuck in a steel frame. Just bought the frame and I would like to keep it. Tried force but it doesn't budge.
@@Yesandsowhut Then I definitely recommend trying this if you have tried everything else. As long as you protect yourself and have an outdoor space to do it, it's actually really easy to do. You can also spend more time than I did protecting the frame and you won't have paint damage.
@@MaverickTube Yes! I have an outdoor space so I think I'll give it a go. Do you know if it changes anything that the frame is Chromoly? I know the Kona probably wasn't high tensile steel. By the way thanks for responding. I think you're the one who did this trick in the smartest way by pouring in from the BB. Most pour it in from the top of the seat tube.
@@Yesandsowhut the type of steel won't make a difference and will work across all qualities, high ten or chromo.Yup I have learned what to do and what not to from a few of these videos =)
Was the seat post aluminum?
Yes
Can any kind of plastic contain soda?
It needs to handle heat, as the mixture get really hot.
Cork from a wine bottles, drink the wine
Painful to watch. Doubt a lightweight racing bike frame will take such punishment. Apparently, you have to strip bike down completely then dissolve alloy stem iwith acid to break down stem but not frame! New stem required.
Caustic sauda does not disolve steel so the frame is perffectly fine.
WD40 let soak I don’t even know how I got here
Had a few seat post that wd40 don't fix..a Cannondale here now that I've sprayed cans upon cans of penetrating spray at that's stuck bad still...alumiinium frame though so this methods a no no anyways
No no this horrible. Think outside the box. There is a man in Britain who has done over 2000 seat posts. Sit down and think about it.
?
@@sharivari81 hes probably suggesting a special saw for removing these.
If you’re referring to the man in Yorkshire with “the beast” then
1. He’s in Yorkshire
2. That equipment was custom made
3. You’d need to sign a waiver cos even he doesn’t guarantee the frame safety
4. Oh yeah. HES IN YORKSHIRE.
Folks are looking for a solution that’s last option. This is one. I blame the LBS. At no point was I advised to remove the post periodically or risk aluminum welding itself to steel.
No the man is in Chorley. The seat post man. A comment he made when l picked up my frame got me thinking.That is all.
@@johnwilkinson3880 well let us know, don't leave us hanging.