I've used a 4 way plenty of times before and it works great. Then today I had a stubborn axle. Remove all brake hardware, put the brake drum back on BACKWARDS. This gives you a surface to beat on. Get the biggest hammer you got and start beating. Good luck!

 You can also loosely reattach the brake drum in reverse and use it like a slide hammer...done that ALOT esp. when the brake adjusters rust up.

A decent slide hammer set from Harbor Freight is only about $35, and if you can find one of them super coupons in a mailer it's 20% less. A good investment to any tool set.

True, but not everybody has an HF within reasonable driving distance, unfortunately. All though the balljoint service kit that I got for Xmas last year is "almost" worth the drive by itself.... 

Just my 2 cents again, I took a 18 inch length of 1.5 by 1.5 inch angle iron and welded a chunk of scrap flat iron across each end of the angle iron. One flat iron was long enough so I could drill two holes to bolt onto the axle and then a shorter one across the the other end of the angle iron forming a trough that I could swing a big ball peen hammer against to pop the axle out. It worked super great and didn't cost anything to make.
Hope this helps
Bob

My hi lift jack has always been my slide hammer of choice
Brian

wow, you guys are pretty creative and resourceful!

Zuk88 from my club took an old brake drum, cut it down in size then welded a metal shaft about 2' long to it.  Then he put a sledgehammer head on the tube.  Since the bar was smaller then the inside mount on the sledgehammer it could slide back and forth easily.  Then welded a stopper on the end.  Instant slide hammer for pulling axles.  Just remove your drum, slip this one one and tighten it in place.  Then pound away until the axle comes out.

I just bought a generic slide hammer setup from Napa on sale.  I'm not creative...