Board Thread:Questions and answers/@comment-27306930-20170622050605

I know there's a lot of would-be and aspiring modders on the wiki, and our good friend Mojo recently brought up the use of Screw Maps to keep track of where all the screws go when reassembling your blaster. Truth is, it's not just a good idea, it's actually the best way to retain the structural integrity of your blaster, for several reasons.

Despite the fact that Hasbro has intentionally been trying to standardize the number of different screws used in blaster manufacturing (presumably for cost containment), the screws themselves have minor inconsistencies that make their threading behavior slightly different. In other words, not all the screws fit nicely into all the holes, even the ones that look exactly the same.

When I was a noob, I paid no attention to which screws came from which holes. I just put all the long ones in one pile, mediums in another, and short screws in a third. (Bzzzzt !) Bad idea. It wasn't long before I started noticing that a significant number of screws started cross threading. I'd screw them in and they'd just keep turning and turning, without ever getting tight. The reason - the screws themselves are cheap, and there is a lot of variation in the length and the thread count on the screws.

Bottom line, it's best to reinsert the same screw into the same hole, and pay attention to how it "catches". Without applying too much downward pressure, turn the screw counter-clockwise until you feel the thread drop into place. The "click" as they call it. Then slowly turn the screw clock-wise. If it doesn't glide smoothly into the shaft, turn it counter-clockwise and try again.

In the end, the easiest way to accomplish this is by using a Screw Map (or in my case a magnetic screw tray). But hey, to each his own. 