zwol | bride of the return of no user serviceable parts

When you have kitchenware with more than one part — like for example a pressure cooker — it's rather important to be able to take the thing completely apart so that you can clean all the little crevices and holes. I was all set to praise my model of pressure cooker (with its fairly complicated pressure-relief apparatus built into the handle of the lid) for being held together with just three bolts and a couple of snap-together tabs, all of which were easy to uncouple and would clearly go back together again, and furthermore for all the small bits being made of materials that don't float in water, so they could easily be soaked. Some of the pieces had unnecessary crevices, but that's endemic and minor. But then, after having soaked all the bits and spread them out on a towel to dry, I noticed that one of the bits, that I had thought was a single piece of metal, was really three pieces: a hollow tube with a ball bearing and spring trapped inside. The bearing would fall out the other end of the tube if I could get the spring out, but there's just no way to get the spring out. I think they must have assembled it by compressing the spring radially so it would fit through the hole.

Would it have been so hard to make this bit with a screw-off end so you could get the spring and ball out?