This is great,
At home, in your spare time, be the first one on your block to build and "electronic dropout vaporization kit." With a few simple tools, components and $20.00 your can offer this service to your local community at a handsome profit.
Please sent $75 for plans to your financial freedom now!
On another note and old friend told me he used to extract broken drop out screws with a round drift punch (NOT A CENTER PUNCH) that was long and slightly smaller than the 3 mm dropout screw. A couple of hard square blows and the brittle (it broke off because it was brittle) remains of the dropout screw fly's out the opposite side.
Lots of cutting oil and gentle back and forth with the proper tap restores the dropout to new he claimed. I've never been brave enough to try this; actually I am fearless as most of you know but never had a project that required this step of a frame I didn't treasure enough to use as a guinea pig. Besides with my new at home "Dropout Screw Vaporizer Kit" why should I bother?
DISCLAIMER FOR KIT ABOVE: Please don't send money now as this is not real a real offer.
Good luck in your new enterprise.
Gilbert Anderson Raleigh, NC USA In a message dated 7/1/02 12:21:32 PM, jimallen@nctimes.net writes:
<<
What you need is someone that does "tap removal". If there are machine
shops in your area, they will know who has the specialized equipment to do
this. Or look in the yellow pages under "Machine Shops".
Basically, the bolt/tap is electrically vaporized with a pointed probe.
In our area, North San Diego County in Southern California, I have used
Slivnik Machine in San Marcos. They have removed several dropout screws as
well as taps from dropouts for me. You need to tell the machinist the tap
size, they generally aren't familiar with bike parts...it almost always 3mm
x .8mm.
It is pretty amazing that this can be done without harming the paint, but it
is possible. I believe that last time they charged around $50 ... that's
much better than replacing the dropout and repainting/rechroming.
They may be the same company that Jimbo at Cyclart used, as mentioned in the
second reply below.
If you're really cheap, I once saw an article in a magazine on how to build
a simply EDM to do this.
Required about $20 in parts... a light bulb and a diode were the major
items. No, I don't remember the exact magazine, but it was probably Popular
Electronics, Popular Science, one of those types.
--- snip ---
Here's a plea for help going out to the frame guys: I broke off a dropout
screw just as the end was reaching the dropout. Now the bad news: the screw
broke off nearly flush on the other side. What do I do now? Drill and E-Z
out? Any recommendations? Thanks. >>