Yup, this is my bike, so I'm ok, though sad, that we had to resort to this. I'm changing to a triple anyway, so the stock double spindle was just going to be given away if it could have been saved.

No torch in the shop because I believe getting a license in NYC is a royal PITA, and they don't get enough requests to warrant the cost. Yes, I could have found a shop that has a torch, but these guys have been great to me. Would have been nice to try, absolutely. I'd still be afraid of hitting the BB or the frame, though.

Torx bit was attempted, and just caused further rounding

We were thinking of cracking the crank arm and trying to save the axle, but again, I was the one worried about slipping and hitting the frame. I'm not a pro, but I'm learning as much as I can. I'm more or less doing this myself as my first build ever, and the shop is being kind enough to loan me a stand and advice when I ask for it.

We had 3 full days of work at this dust cap before we finally resorted to these measures. We were incredulous that a simple dust cap was killing us, but I do think that not even a heat gun and more patience would have helped in this case. After 27 years of metal on metal, the crank arm threads and the dust cap threads had bonded completely. When we were chiseling and filing away at the edge of the cap we were sure we'd be able to pull off the threads when we hit the edge. But when we got there there were no threads to be seen...it looked as if one thread had melted into the other, like a piss-poor weld!

All in all, I'm happy that at least the DS arm and the entire BB could still be saved and can be donated to someone. This is what I get for getting excited by poor condition frames on NJ's Craigslist, but I'm happy with this project and can't wait to restore it as a tourer/commuter. It was certainly an interesting chemistry lesson that metals are always able to exchange electrons to the point where, after nearly 30 years, they've essentially welded themselves to each other!