FCS Patent Rumors

General Discussion
21

Wow seems to have opened a can of worms.

I can’t really comment, I’ve not yet had the chance to see the new fusion system or the longboard addaptor, I guess they haven’t made it to this side of the pond, or are not widely used here yet, but we do seem to be a little behind the US and AU with the up take of new products.

I’ve seen a few of the coloured plugs, mostly on imported boards. I replaced them with the old style black plugs as I couldn’t get the coloured ones from any of my suppliers.

I’ve heard rumours that they are weaker than the black plugs due to the plastics used, but I haven’t wittenessed anything to prove or disprove the rumours, infact the the extra grove in the base to help hold them in seems like a big improvment to me.

As for striped screw heads I’ve never seen this, I’ve rounded off plenty of allen keys but never seen a problem with the screw head, occationally I get the odd stripped thread or misthreaded screw but this is down to user error by over tightening, and is an easy fix.

I will say that one thing I like about the old style plugs is that the go in after the hot coat and dont need glass over the top, from a board production pestective.

I agree that no fin ststem is perfect, and any part of the board including the fin system can and will fail if put under enough force. The interface between the fins and the board in my mind is one of the most vunrable to damage by nature.

FSC is the most widely used system here so it stands to reason that I will see more of them in the shop, I do also repair other fin stsyems and as I said in my prev post most of the failures (9/10) are due to poor installs.

Off corse no one from FCS is going to go into the ins and outs of their patents, it would be like saying, “I’ve just invested a lot of time and money in designing a new fin system, here please take my ideas and copy them”

As for the new plugs themselves, time will tell if they are up to scratch and I’ll keep an open mind towards any new product on the market until I either have the opertunity to test it myself or if the shear wait of eveidence from reliable unbias sources tilts one way or the other.

If any one wants to send my a production set I’d be more than happy to accept it ; )

22

I like the nature of the plug install. I like seeing how my fins look in relation to the board pre-install. I think you can do this with Probox and Lokbox, which is a big plus in my opinion. I’ve been experimenting with a good bit of concave through the fin area and like being able to adjust the cant significantly without affecting strength of the install. As far as I can tell, FCS and Probox are the only ones that allow that, possibly Lokbox as well. I think this would be my only area of concern with the fusion setup, that your fin cant might be limited somewhat, but I may be wrong on that.

I’ve seen little mention of the fact that you can top FCS post-install with fiberglass. I’ve done this on several boards for different reasons, one was broken right in front of the plugs, so I had to put two layers of cloth over the plug in the repair process do to the nature of the break. Anyway, just used a dremel to rout out the hole and drilled out the hole for the grub. No big deal and plenty strong. Another aspect of the plug repair is the simplicity of it. Just grab a hole saw, make a guide through a piece of thin plywood, lay that over the damaged plug, saw out around it and pop it out with a screwdriver. No router mess, and the repair is limited to the one plug.

23
Quote:

Hey Ron,

Geez your on that Mt Dew again.

Certainly got your attention but once again no answers Ron.

…

There is a problem.

Some of what you write is interesting, but its the volume, as in prolific.

Its the prolific needling and its giving industry spokesman a hard time, incessantly.

Your quickly turning into a Penguin or a Stewart or just an insensitive lout.

You may in fact be there!

24

Hey surfthis, I’ve glassed over the the top of FCS to, for the same reasons you mension. Its give a very clean look. It may just be polyurethan paint but I think that the composites like surftech get the plugs glassed over. When I repair them I always glass over the plugs to get the same look as the other plugs.

If you screw the grub screw right down and fill the hole with a little putty or wax then you won’t need to redrill those holes, just pierce the glass with a nail or hole punch and maybe widen it a little with a blade.

25
Quote:

If you screw the grub screw right down and fill the hole with a little putty or wax then you won’t need to redrill those holes, just pierce the glass with a nail or hole punch and maybe widen it a little with a blade.

Yeah, that’s what I meant by drilling 'em out. Just enough for the grub to unscrew without pulling up the glass.

26

Sorry Allen didn’t mean to be patronizing

27
Quote:
Quote:

I only use tested and proven fin systems on my boards!

Please inform us exactly which fin system you use.

Hey Mike,

Thanks for asking. Majority are FCS (all with original black pvc plugs…), then some 4-way, some various long boxes and glass ons.

So contrary to Ron’s suggestion, I like FCS plugs…but not the P-2 (because I have seen too many fail ) and it is now obvious that they knew about this and went to ground. Now they pop up with all the answers??? I don’t buy it, I have lost confidence and it is only compounded by their refusal to answer the very questions they invited, instead launching a heavy attack in some effort to shut me up! Why???

Rocky

28
Quote:
Quote:

Hey Ron,

Geez your on that Mt Dew again.

Certainly got your attention but once again no answers Ron.

…

There is a problem.

Some of what you write is interesting, but its the volume, as in prolific.

Its the prolific needling and its giving industry spokesman a hard time, incessantly.

Your quickly turning into a Penguin or a Stewart or just an insensitive lout.

You may in fact be there!

Hey Hal,

On your good observation, I will keep it short.

Ron is a good guy and I don’t want to give him personally, a hard time. However while he choses to be the voice of the lurking bankers, invites questions that he or they won’t then answer and try to use Sways as some kind of free marketing tool to launch a new product…well they can’t have both ways.

Re your point “Your quickly turning into a Penguin or a Stewart or just an insensitive lout.” What about Goat ?? Sounds like Ron would like me to be a Goat! I like lout but not insensitive lout, that hurts my feelers!

Rocky, Da Lout