Removing a broken, frozen, aluminum stem from a steer tube with drain cleaner

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Be careful folks. Sodium hydroxide is not an acid.

It is a base.

It will react violently with any strong acid.
Oops, good catch. I'm not conversant in a lot of (most) chemicals and got some bum information from the internet on the acid/base part of the drain cleaner.
 
Don’t get it near ammonia.

(Now that I said that, I know somebody’s gonna try it. It gets hot and if you do it right it gets really hot and if you do it wrong it blows up because it gets hot so fast.)

Same thing with bleach and ammonia. Don’t get them together.
 
I had a similar issue with a broken seat post in a chromoly frame years ago. A frame specialist deemed it a write off. I discovered the drain cleaner fix on youtube. I took all the precautions. After several applications the wall thickness of the post was reduced to that of an aluminium can. I pulled the remnants out with long nose pliers. This is the bike I saved.
2B0931E0-A0EE-4B6E-88DE-322DB75C19E7.jpeg
 
Hmm. Just saw this. I'm surprised that you didn't just torch it out. The melting point of aluminum is lower than steel for sure. I would think flipping the fork upside down and getting it red hot around the middle where it was stuck with a torch, and it outta just fall out. But dissolving the aluminum is pretty wild.

GC.
 
Hmm. Just saw this. I'm surprised that you didn't just torch it out. The melting point of aluminum is lower than steel for sure. I would think flipping the fork upside down and getting it red hot around the middle where it was stuck with a torch, and it outta just fall out. But dissolving the aluminum is pretty wild.

GC.
I don't have a torch set at home anymore, I sold off my welding gear when I stopped racing. I was going to thin it out with reamers but decided to look for a method that anyone with limited access to tools could reliably use. And there was no rush on my part to get it done. Hopefully this method will save some forks and frames that otherwise would have been written off.
 
I don't have a torch set at home anymore, I sold off my welding gear when I stopped racing. I was going to thin it out with reamers but decided to look for a method that anyone with limited access to tools could reliably use. And there was no rush on my part to get it done. Hopefully this method will save some forks and frames that otherwise would have been written off.
Is the paint still staying good like it was early on for you? The lye I used destroyed the paint. I was repainting anyway.
 

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