FCSII fin completely and utterly stuck

[twistersab]

Hello! I have never seen anything like this before, so I’m hoping someone on here might have…

When putting my fins into FCSII boxes in a new board, two of them went in easily but the third was a real struggle and took a ton of effort. It was almost like this box was smaller/tighter than the others and it was a tight squeeze. Yesterday I went to take them out, and I wasn’t surprised that trouble fin would be harder to take out, but I was surprised to find that by wrapping the fin in a towel and tugging hard I somehow managed to rip out the entire fin box. I attached a picture.

Note that the grub screws are not screwed into the fin; this is definitely not the problem.

Ignoring the gaping whole in my board for the moment, I would really like to figure out how to get this expensive fin safely out of the fin box. I don’t mind damaging the box if that is necessary, but I can’t really think of a good way to go about it. Could I just drill around the fin? I have tried putting all my weight on the box and pulling, it doesn’t budge at all.

I’m at a loss here, would really appreciate any ideas. Thanks

[Naeco78]

Wow that really sucks.. sorry man that would be really disappointing! Not really sure if there's a best way to get the fin out. I would probably try to put the fin box in a table vice if you have one... or maybe a handheld clamp if nothing else, just to get more leverage on the fin box side of it. I would probably take the grub screw completely out, even though its not touching the fin, just because ya never know if there could be something wonky with the fin box and cant hurt to remove as many variables as possible. I wish ya luck with it!

[Lebowski]

I really dislike FCS2. It's like a solution for a problem that doesn't exist, like electric handbrakes on cars.

If you have a hacksaw I'd just start hacking the finbox apart carefully.

[waikikikichan]

I wouldn't mess with it. Take it to the shop you bought the board at and have them contact the FCS sales rep to come to inspect it first.

[oldmansurfer]

sounds like you should contact the company that sold you the board. My guess would be some resin got into the fin box during the making of the board. FCS2 fins don't need the screws right? So they were never used? I notice in my fins some screws have to come out more than others to clear the fin box