Troop seats - stuck piece of wood

[cattlerepairman]

Troop seats - stuck piece of wood **solution**

(for update, see below)

I have one piece of old, wooden cargo bow upright stuck in the troop seat square pipe. Soldier A had left it there and the wood got wet, swelled up and got stuck. Eventually, someone broke the upright off. I need to remove it, so I can put a new cargo bow in. Can't be that hard to get out, can it?

Ok, so I drilled out what I could with a long drill, then got a longer drill. Drilled several holes right trough the length of the piece, top to bottom. Scraped out wood as deep as I could reach with long drill. Have about 6-8 inches in the middle I cannot get out.
Cannot scrape out the wood in the middle, because the flex drill that is long enough to drill through always slips into one of the already drilled-though holes.
I used a blow torch to heat up the square pipe and tried to ignite the wood inside as well.
I had noticed that the sawdust I got while drilling was soaking wet (despite the truck not having seen rain in almost 6 months), so I was not surprised when I could not ignite the wood.

After the heat treatment I thought I felt a little movement, so I grabbed a piece of fiberglass stake which fits the squre pipe very snugly and used it to whack out the piece of wood stuck in the middle of the troop seat pipe.
Seemed like a good idea at the time. Wood did not budge. Now I have a fiberglass stake stuck in the troop seat, as well as the rest of the rotten wooden cargo bow upright. I guess there are splinters of wood sticking out that wedged themselves between the fiberglass and the inside of the pipe, firmly locking it in.

Tried all sorts of things to get the fiberglass stake back out. No dice. Doesn't budge. Used the flex drill and drilled holes right alongside the fiberglass.
Whacked the thing in the vice in various ways as if there was no tomorrow. Nothing.

My next impulse involved a gallon of gasoline, so I stopped before I could dig myself an even bigger hole and parked the truck for the night.
I am not feeling particularly intelligent right now and welcome suggestions!


***** UPDATE*****

"Punching through" with a rod did not loosen it up enough to get the plug out.
What worked: One hour on the propane barbecue, full blast. Let cool, then use steel rod to easily knock the now charcoal-like wood out. The fiberglass piece transformed into blackened strands of fibers.
Clean, prime, paint the upright.

I recommend burning the wood out of the upright.

 

[gunboy1656]

I have one that does that as well, I shoot WD40 down it and soak it then beat the daylights out of it. One of these days I am going to replace that socket.

Since the piece is broke off, get a small diameter piece of pipe and go at it from underneath the pocket

 

[TeufelHunden]

I had the same problem only I didn't try to force it out with a fiberglass stake. I removed the wood by detaching the the tube from the seats and throwing on a burning fire and let the fire burn it out, it worked plus stripped the paint off too. Don't know what to tell you to do for the fiberglass stake.

 

[steelandcanvas]

My next impulse involved a gallon of gasoline, so I stopped before I could dig myself an even bigger hole and parked the truck for the night.
I am not feeling particularly intelligent right now and welcome suggestions!

I have one like that also, and your post has shown me what not to do. On the contrary, you are an intelligent man. The temptation of using a gallon of gasoline, and the possible situations available, you chose to put the truck away, you chose wisely my Friend.

 

[Varyag]

maybe stick it in a mounted vise so the short sides are in the clamp and beat it out with a hammer and a long piece of round steel. Thats how I think I would do it.

 

[Recovry4x4]

I've never completed that mission before although I've tried. Now I just start with replacing the upright before I get frustrated.

 

[cjcottrill]

All of mine were stuck, on both sides. I waited for a hot dry; day-wood shrinks a little when dry- if it's wet or even damp with water or oil it will swell making it even tighter. I took a piece of 1" square tubing, welded a flat 1x2x1/8" to it, lined it up at the end that was flush with the stanchion, then used a heavy hammer and knocked the old one out. I noticed that what made it stick was where it had been bolted a little too tight and the box tube was squeezed in a little. After I drove the old piece out, threaded a piece of 1/2" stock, slipped it into the stanchion, placed another piece of 1/2 plate on the outside and threaded a bolt to sandwich them around the tube until it was straight. After that, the uprights slid in and out easily. Be careful bolting the uprights in the stanchion tubes, if you overtighted you'll have the same problem, especially if you use wood bows.

 

[SCSG-G4]

I've beaten out the wood with a large piece of steel rod. Get one just a hair smaller than the inside of the steel and give it a good whack. You will eventually get a plug of the wood out. Then start on the other end/side and do the same. when it has pushed out two full plugs of wood, the rest will follow a great deal easier. Drilling or using a pipe (hollow) just makes it more difficult - you need something solid pushing on the wood. The fiberglass was the right direction, just not solid on the end to make it work.

 

[cattlerepairman]

added update in original post