I have been trying to reposition my AtomiQ footstraps. When I tried to tighten the screw, I heard a grinding sound. When I took the screw out, a piece of clear plastic came out with the screw. The screw reinserted okay but I was wondering where the plastic came from and if I have damaged the board?

Also, how tight do I need to tighten the footstrap screws? I am worried that they may bottom out on the bottom of the insert and penetrate into the board.

Cheers.

Clear plastic ? thats strange.
I use a small drill in my fingers the size of the hole to clean out the hole before screwing in. All sorts of stuff ends up down those holes , especially sand.
Oh , and tight enough that the straps dont twist , and keep an eye on them , they magically loosen

Make sure the thread pitch and length of screw are the correct size for the foot strap inserts. I screw my screw in very tight with a screwdriver, then I'm drunk afterwards. Lol...

I really do tighten up the screw very tight. The threads in the inserts are very tough and handle lots of torque.

Shove a thin wire down a new screwhole to check depth, then measure it against your footstrap screw taking into account the thickness of your footstraps where the screw goes through.
Tighten so the straps don't twist, then add another 1/2 thru. Check later if the straps start to twist, then tighten again.

BTW, is using electric screwdrivers with footstraps a really bad idea? (I want to experiment with the outboard footstraps on my FSW, but I'm always deterred by the time it takes to screw/unscrew the footstraps.)

Use a low torque setting, something lighter than the power of your wrist, and do final tightening and initial loosening by hand.
Windsurfing does need some forearm and wrist strength, so maybe moving footstraps around by hand is a good exercise.
Most footstraps I've installed in one day is 26 boards, 19 with 4 footstraps, all done by hand.

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LeeD said..
Use a low torque setting, something lighter than the power of your wrist, and do final tightening and initial loosening by hand.
Windsurfing does need some forearm and wrist strength, so maybe moving footstraps around by hand is a good exercise.
Most footstraps I've installed in one day is 26 boards, 19 with 4 footstraps, all done by hand.

So how time much per board? With the local seabreezes being so fickle this year, time is not on my side.

I use a little bit of liquid soap as a lubricant when screwing in

makes for a much easier time