The drill is whining!
A customer rode in with a bike equipped with a Shimano PRO PLT stem where they'd stripped out the hex socket on one of the upper bolts on the steerer side and couldn't loosen it anymore with an Allen key.
They want to swap out the stem, but since the bolt won't come loose, they're asking if I can extract it. Of course, I'm not one to enjoy rough work, so I'd have liked to solve this without making the drill sing, but the damage to the hex socket was so severe that there was no way to loosen it and remove it cleanly.
Since the customer doesn't need the current stem, I could've done something rough and ready, but as long as we just replace the bolt, we figured we'd cleanly extract this one so the current stem can keep being used.
We call a bolt with a hex socket head a "cap screw," and by carefully drilling away just the cap screw head portion and leaving only the threaded shaft in a setscrew shape, I figured we could open up the narrow slot that's clamping the steerer.
The head of the cap screw snapped off first and got tangled up in the drill bit, coming free that way. I looked for this piece afterward but couldn't find it.
As I kept drilling further, right before the bolt would lose all clamping force, I was incredibly careful and would just tap the drill for a split second at a time. Then finally, when the bolt separated into just the washer and setscrew, there was a distinct *crack* and the stem's slot popped open. I'd already removed the lower steerer bolt.
↑Here's the state where I've cleanly drilled away just the cap screw head. No damage to the stem body itself.
The back slot opened up nicely. Now because of this:
This specialty tool—the Setscrew Recovery Guy—was finally able to grab the bolt's threads. I reinstalled the lower bolt that I'd removed earlier because without the stem being fixed, it would spin around and make the work from here on out really difficult.
I keep turning and turning, bringing out more of the setscrew portion.
Successfully extracted the bolt with the stripped hex socket. Since the customer had brought along a different stem, we swapped it in instead of using this one.
About the Setscrew Recovery Guy. The top image is a Keiba snap ring plier. A fine tool.
When you squeeze the grip, one side opens and the other side closes.
The pin tips on this thing are delicate, and if you force it, they break easily. Embarrassingly, I've had to replace ours about three times since the shop opened.
I took the snap ring plier whose pin broke and modified the tip shape to make
The Setscrew Recovery Guy.
↑Tip shape
On the return spring part of the grip, I've dangling the previously drilled-off cap screw head—like some barbarian displaying an enemy general's head as a trophy.
For earlier exploits of the Setscrew Recovery Guy, check out （→here） and its linked posts.
About these recovered parts here.
↑These guys
↑When you flip the washer part over, it looks like this, so the drill bit never touched the stem body.
There's a spot where the washer and setscrew fit together perfectly, and
you can see that right before the point where it would've sheared off, it was in this state.
A customer rode in with a bike equipped with a Shimano PRO PLT stem where they'd stripped out the hex socket on one of the upper bolts on the steerer side and couldn't loosen it anymore with an Allen key.
They want to swap out the stem, but since the bolt won't come loose, they're asking if I can extract it. Of course, I'm not one to enjoy rough work, so I'd have liked to solve this without making the drill sing, but the damage to the hex socket was so severe that there was no way to loosen it and remove it cleanly.
Since the customer doesn't need the current stem, I could've done something rough and ready, but as long as we just replace the bolt, we figured we'd cleanly extract this one so the current stem can keep being used.
We call a bolt with a hex socket head a "cap screw," and by carefully drilling away just the cap screw head portion and leaving only the threaded shaft in a setscrew shape, I figured we could open up the narrow slot that's clamping the steerer.
The head of the cap screw snapped off first and got tangled up in the drill bit, coming free that way. I looked for this piece afterward but couldn't find it.
As I kept drilling further, right before the bolt would lose all clamping force, I was incredibly careful and would just tap the drill for a split second at a time. Then finally, when the bolt separated into just the washer and setscrew, there was a distinct *crack* and the stem's slot popped open. I'd already removed the lower steerer bolt.
↑Here's the state where I've cleanly drilled away just the cap screw head. No damage to the stem body itself.
The back slot opened up nicely. Now because of this:
This specialty tool—the Setscrew Recovery Guy—was finally able to grab the bolt's threads. I reinstalled the lower bolt that I'd removed earlier because without the stem being fixed, it would spin around and make the work from here on out really difficult.
I keep turning and turning, bringing out more of the setscrew portion.
Successfully extracted the bolt with the stripped hex socket. Since the customer had brought along a different stem, we swapped it in instead of using this one.
About the Setscrew Recovery Guy. The top image is a Keiba snap ring plier. A fine tool.
When you squeeze the grip, one side opens and the other side closes.
The pin tips on this thing are delicate, and if you force it, they break easily. Embarrassingly, I've had to replace ours about three times since the shop opened.
I took the snap ring plier whose pin broke and modified the tip shape to make
The Setscrew Recovery Guy.
↑Tip shape
On the return spring part of the grip, I've dangling the previously drilled-off cap screw head—like some barbarian displaying an enemy general's head as a trophy.
For earlier exploits of the Setscrew Recovery Guy, check out （→here） and its linked posts.
About these recovered parts here.
↑These guys
↑When you flip the washer part over, it looks like this, so the drill bit never touched the stem body.
There's a spot where the washer and setscrew fit together perfectly, and
you can see that right before the point where it would've sheared off, it was in this state.