Coming to this a little late, but…I’m gonna agree with all that’s been said. First, get one of those dental pick type tools, easily found at any good hardware store, and clean out the hex hole where the Allen/hex wrench goes in. All the way to the bottom.
For future reference, by the way, a little wax rubbed on the threads and stuffed in the hex hole prevents this fun. Surf wax is fine. You should do this with all fin box screws.
Next, get a decent hex wrench. The ones sold by the fin/finbox companies are absolute crap, I think they make them out of bubble gum. The only justification for using such a miserable material would be to damage/sacrifice the key rather than the screw if the latter got stuck, but it’s poor logic. I was once in a surf camp, way out on the edges, and all we had was those miserable things in various degrees of rounded out and utterly worthless.
Likewise, if you have an allen key/wrench that is getting a little worn or rounded or loose, either replace it or grind it past the rounded area. If it doesn’t feel really solid, it’s not ground far enough or it’s the wrong size. Try metric, try SAE, whatever gives you that really solid feel. Personally, I like the T-shaped hex wrenches, like these: https://www.harborfreight.com/sae-t-handle-hex-key-set-10-pc-69369.html . You want some in your toolbox anyhow.
If it doesn’t turn, a light smack or three on the allen key with a plastic mallet, a light-ish one, can break it free of the adhesive. Worth a try, don’t go nuts.
Okay, that didn’t work? Try a little heat. I’ll emphasize ‘a little’ , something like the tip of a light soldering iron ( the type used for electronics) inserted in the hex hole. If you see smoke you overdid it. You’re trying to soften the adhesive a little to get the thing to start unscrewing, so you want that tight-fitting Allen/hex wrench handy and be ready to have at it. I’ll note this is kind of a Hail Mary move, if you don’t want to risk it you won’t hurt my feelings at all.
Awright, now it’s EZ-Out time,.They use, as has been mentioned, a left hand drill bit and typically a thing that looks like a reamer.with a little left-handed twist in it. The latter are meant to be used with a tap wrench, not thumb pressure and pliers or similar. They are surprisingly good if used correctly, see YouTube for videos on how to do that. I mean, they use the things for getting seized bolts out of engine blocks, they’re good. If misused ( yeah, thumb pressure and pliers) you can break the hardened steel extractor and break it off in the hole, utterly bollixing up any future attempts to get the screw out or drill it out and retap or drill out big and use some sort of threaded insert. And then you;re stuck with replacing the box.
Now, your original question, whether the makita router I had with the futures 1 pass bit would be sufficient to expand the finbox so I can put in the longbox - or should I try to get through all the glass with a die grinder before routing for the new box.
I’m not familiar with the bit Futures uses, but my guess is it’s just meant to cut foam, not glass or fin box plastic or whatever you used for bedding in the old box, all of which can send your bit off in exciting new directions as a surprise gift. . I would suggest a carbide bit with an up-cutting spiral that’s the same diameter as the one meant to go with your fin box jig. Carbide, while it can never be as sharp as high speed steel, can handle the glass and plastic without going rapidly dull, the upcutting spiral will get the fragments out of the hole so they don’t screw up your cut. Stick your jig on well, the forces on it while cutting something tougher than foam can make it walk a bit and really screw up your cut. I’ll just bet you can guess how I know that. Hot glue wouldn’t be a bad idea, though you want to be really careful how you do that, getting the alignment smack on could be tricky. Option B would be using a really good industrial double-stick tape (try an auto-body supply store) to hold the jig and plenty of it. It won’t be fun to get off ( nor the hot glue) but it’s better than trying to figure out how to deal with the ‘Z’ you unintentionally carved in the bottom. And yeah, I’ll bet you can guess how I know that one too.
hope that’s of use
doc…
