The drill whines!

↑A photo so I don't forget what frame this was

A customer brought in a Trek aluminum Emonda for repair.
This wasn't the main issue they brought it in for, but
the bottle cage on the down tube was wobbling left and right
like a loose tooth.
I quickly realized the bottle cage mounting bolts weren't just loose—
the rivnut itself had come loose from its crimp.


The frame itself isn't cracked.
Only the paint around the rivnut is broken.
After wiping it down, in the shadowed area hidden by the bottle cage,
I found streaks of aluminum dust and dirt
left from the rivnut rattling around constantly.



↑As you can see, the rivnut spins freely in circles.


Whiiiirr!
I thinned down the flange of the rivnut with the drill bit, bent it,
and dropped it inside the frame.


I installed a new rivnut.


The hole had enlarged from years of play,
reducing the contact area for the crimp,
so I crimped it quite hard.
These are the down tube bottle cage holes, but


the hole at the top of the seat tube also had a loose rivet nut.
However, it wasn't spinning freely like the other one—
it only moved within a certain angular range.
So I applied the tool and re-crimped the existing rivnut,
and the play tightened up, so I didn't replace this one.



↑The original rivnut.
Even with the seatpost removed
and the frame flipped upside down,
it wouldn't fall out,
so I had to remove the fork to retrieve it.