noglider 

@rootboy, ! But really, did I do something I shouldn't have done?

The damage occurred in Maplewood, Noo Joizy.

wrk101

Very easy to find acetone here in the USA. Walmart sells it as nail polish remover, a small bottle is 99 cents. Pretty much all the dollar stores sell it as well.


There have been several scientific tests on the various products out there. WD40 was damn near worthless (for loosing bolts). PB Blaster was better. Kroil was about twice as good as PB Blaster, and the acetone/ATF mix was the best. And for many, the acetone/ATF mix is also the cheapest.


Much like Tom (noglider), I have destroyed a frame trying to free up a post. Realize a frame is NOT designed for taking side to side twisting load. You can put more strain on a frame than it can withstand.

ral929

Just removed an aluminum seatpost from a steel frame by using a mixture of 3 parts water and 1 part lye. Poured the mixture into the seat tube and let chemistry do the work. It took two days to complete but it worked perfectly. No more post.

Chombi

I suspect, n the end, different bike frames/posts/stems/BB cups stuck to each other seem to respond differently to each of the penetrants listed by people here.You almost need to just luck out that the stuff you are using matches up to the particular type of seizing happening to your post or stem.....
But then we all have our favorites anyway.
Mine's "FREEZE-OFF" by CRC
Good penetrant + differential material contraction by freezing in one can = off goes the stuck stem or seatpost or seized BB cups in a mater of a minute at most, at least in my case.....

rootboy 

I was going to recommend Freeze-Off, which I like, but have never used it on a stem or seat post. How do/did you apply it in such an application, Chombi? Just spray it down the seat tube? Along the joint?

auchencrow

+10. Some seat posts come more or less reluctantly, but others pull nuggets from the steel seat tube.

Mark Stone

Temporarily closed for cleanup. Will reopen thread soon.

. . . . . . time passes . . . . . .

Thread reopened. Remember folks to keep the thread On Topic without bickering! Thank you.

pastorbobnlnh 

Thank you! Your housekeeping was much needed. Too bad it went astray in such a way. I hope @Lonesome_rider can feel as if he can still participate in the conversation.

Lonesome rider

ATF sells everywhere. Acetone is banned. Buying things at black market isn't the way I wanna follow. Sometimes kerosene helps but as a component for penetration liquid acetone has no substitute.

Chombi

Spray the stuff right near the joint so it will go into the seam and into the corrosion welded area. You need to mostly hit the component that you are trying to shrink away from the frame, mostly, so with something like a stuck stem, hit it maybe about a half inch above the seam where it goes into the steerer tube, all the way around and let the penetrant run into the seam. That way, the aluminum stem will contract, away from the steerer tube walls the. Be generous/liberal with the sprayng, enough so you you are sure that you are freezing and causing a contraction of the component that is stuck. The seized component does not have to be aluminum for the stuff to work as I had released things like seized fixed cups from project frames with it with the same ease.
It's really just the reverse of when people use a torch/heat to expand materials to release seized items, but without the destructive effects that the right amounts of heat can usually cause.
One thing to watch our for with Freeze-Off though, is it is very volatile/flammable. Stay away from open flames like pilot lights in water heaters in garages and only use it in very well ventilated areas.
BTW, usually, with really stuck items, you still need to use tools like a dead-blow mallet, to crack the component free, so a few well placed hitis is usually needed for things like stems to cause the corrosive bond to crack apart and get the component off the frame. Remember to hit it with the tool while the item is still frozen and the temperature/size differential between the frame and component is greatest.

jonwvara 

How did they assemble a group of bolts of an identical degree of stuckness for test purposes? And if they weren't identical, how valid are the numbers they came up with?

pastorbobnlnh 

My dad worked in the Quality Control lab for a major aerospace company. They would test things like this all the time and they had a means to standardize the test samples. I'm guessing whoever did this started with the same new items and subjected them to the same controlled harsh environment, before putting them on the same test bed to determine the needed load to undo.

jiangshi

Kerosene or mineral spirits would be an acceptable substitute for acetone. The Acetone acts as a carrier. The author of the Machinists Workshop article admitted that it was not a scientific test. Note that all parts soaked for 8 hours. The Machinists Workshop test was on threaded parts, so YMMV.

miamijim

So I'm in WalMart looking for Kroil and cant find any. They have acetone, transmission fluid, fireworks and ammo...but no Kroil. Around the corner at the hobby store I can buy quarts of 30% nitro.

I could soak a seat post in a mixture of acetone and tranny fluid then pour some nitro fuel down the seat tube and ignite it with a bottle rocket. If that didnt' work I'd shoot it and leave for the garbage man.