Anybody have any useful tips on removing footstrap screws that refuse to budge without destroying the whole deck. Could be crossthreaded.
- Stick it in the freezer / fridge then use an impact driver on it?
- Dremel a nice large slot in the head to get more leverage?
hi greame stu here, did you put on with thread lock if you did give it a tap with a hammer to break the seal. if not heat usually works for unsticking threads.the trick is going to be getting it hot enough without damageing your board.
good luck.
If it is crossthreaded it may have damaged the insert as well. Impact screwdrivers can work for removing seized screws just make sure the underside is well supported or you may drive the insert through the board. Dont hit it to hard. If you are removing a set of foot pads to replace them and discarding the old ones you can cut the foot pad off around the screw and use a pair of pliers multigrips or vice grips to grab the screw. a dremal tool with a cut off disk would work well. You can also use a screw driver with a hex on the end that you and put a spanner on to get a bit nore leverage try moving it back and forwards to break away whatever is holding it. There are also some sprays you can try if you can get them near the threads like rost off(worth), CRC, WD40 etc. I also used a spray recently that freezes the screw by spraying the head, this shrinks the screw and should make it come out imediatly after. cant remember what it is called but got it from balckwoods. Good luck
Thanks heap guys. A lot of good advice here to try. I'm just firing up the oxy acetylene now - that should get the little sucker
I had a similar problem where the insert was spinning in the deck and as such I couldn't remove the footstrap screw. I used a drill with a 1/16 drill bit and drilled into the deck at a 45 degree angle eventually contacting the insert. Once I wedged the insert with the drill bit it would then allow me to unscrew the footstrap screw. Once the footstrap screw was removed I put some epoxy into the drill hole which stops the insert from rotating anymore. This works fine if the insert isn't cross-threaded.
if you just like the screws and don't care about the deck, try sawing from the edge of the board until you get to the screw hole, remember to saw carefully at the end so you don't damage the screw. When you get close to the screw it should start moving a bit and you can unscrew it and throw away the board. 
once broke the head off of one of the screws and then managed to break the remainder of the thread that was exposed by using vise grips on it. So once I was left with the screw broken off flush with the board my only choice I could see was to start with my smallest drill bit and drill down through the centre of the screw until i could feel it contact the bottom of the insert, then moved up to next size drill and so on until finally I was drilling and most of the screw that was left tore itself away from the insert.(with a nice bang I might add, thought I tore the insert out of the board) I then got a set of thread taps ( bottom, intermediate and taper) and slowly worked back and forth on the thread until I had removed all the seized screw material. The moral of the story is go slow, don't panic and be patient.
