General Epee issues

[D'Artagnan1673]

In spite of fencing for over 4 years now, I have only since September began to do armory work on my own weapons. Therefore, I am still at the stage where I do more damage when working on my weapons than I do harm.

Example: Last night, I pulled out my trusty visconti epee and finally convinced myself that the guard was on backwards.... and I think I may have even fenced a few tournaments like this. I proceeded to correct the problem. In doing so, I believe I have fatally pinched the wire at the guard because I tested the epee after I had here put on right..... no light. I kept the test box in as I unscrewed the grip, the light went on momentarily and then died. I haven't been able to get anything from the socket. Upon visual inspection, I see where the spaghetti has been pinched pretty good around the guard.

My problems are:

1. Not being a visual person, I oftentimes have hard time figuring out exactly where the guard goes. Does anyone else suffer from this?

2. This is the fourth time since September that I've pinched a wire. Twice by putting on the guard, twice by getting the wire bent where the wire enters into the spaghetti and goes into the guard. Are there some good rules of thumb to avoid pinching the wire. I almost always do this using pistol grips, that is probably because I never tinker with French grips.

Next item:

I saw a really cool method to soder your wires to a circular piece of metal that sits on the sockets and you then screw the nut around them. For those who have never seen this, perhaps I'll get the digital camera out and take a picture so you can see. My question is how easy is it to use a sodering iron?

Well, I guess that is it.

[suregrip]

I don't have a problem with it. Actually, that's not a bad idea you have there. My biggest problem is getting the fencing 'kids' and / or their siblings to stay away from the soldering gun. Our armory is an open room, so it makes things difficult. Usually when I solder, I do it at home.

[dunastor]

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan1673

I do more damage when working on my weapons than I do harm.

more damage than you do harm? That's really bad IMHO..

[Artisan]

The "close" side of the guard goes towards the palm. The Big side protects the back of the hand.

As far as pinching goes, sometimes you can pull up on the pad in order to peek thru the hole for the tang to see the base of the grip and see that the wires pass thru the notch in the grip.

I wouldn't bother with an eye or spade connector soldered onto the wire end - its just more handling of the wire and more chance to break it. I usually leave enough bare wire to wrap around the screw post twice, and pinch the very end of the spaghetti under the screw as well to provide some strain relief for the wire wher it makes the turn around the socket.

[Pepster]

Originally Posted by Artisan

I usually leave enough bare wire to wrap around the screw post twice, and pinch the very end of the spaghetti under the screw as well to provide some strain relief for the wire wher it makes the turn around the socket.

Do you find pinching the insulator leads to the nut "hovering" and not holding the spagetti tight against the washer/socket.

I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like It would lead to intermittance. What are your experiences?

-Pepster
- Who loves his soldering iron, but wraps and screws his sockets.

[DangerMouse]

Originally Posted by Pepster

Do you find pinching the insulator leads to the nut "hovering" and not holding the spagetti tight against the washer/socket.

I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like It would lead to intermittance. What are your experiences?

-Pepster
- Who loves his soldering iron, but wraps and screws his sockets.

I haven't had any problems with that as long as I use the softer varieties of spaghetti.

[Artisan]

Originally Posted by Pepster

Do you find pinching the insulator leads to the nut "hovering" and not holding the spagetti tight against the washer/socket.

I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds like It would lead to intermittance. What are your experiences?

If the screw post is tight it either works or doesn't. Intermittence would be caused by movement or high resistance. The varnish on wire under the cloth jacket is more of an issue, and must be scraped clean.
Haven't had a problem. Two wraps around the post helps, and the spaghetti I've used is pretty thin-walled and smushes down quite nicely - I don't let the insulation wrap around, it just catches a bit under the washer.

Once I've assembled an epee this way the only failures I've experienced are 1) broken blade (duh!) 2) Unglued wire, loosing insulation and shorting 3) normal tip problems

Some other things I do that help make a durable weapon:
- Grease threads on tang; allows you to tighten grip more, no slippage, no retightening, no pinched wires.
- Red locktite on barrel, never loosens, and still removeable.
- check amount of tip contact with .45mm shim, so you know how much its passing by.
- regularly check tip screw tightness

[Pepster]

Originally Posted by Artisan

- Grease threads on tang; allows you to tighten grip more, no slippage, no retightening, no pinched wires.
- Red locktite on barrel, never loosens, and still removeable.

What kind of grease do you use?

And have you tried/do you notice a difference between red and blue loctite performance in this application?

-Pepster
- Who wants to get his threads all greased up and glued...

[Artisan]

Originally Posted by Pepster

What kind of grease do you use?

And have you tried/do you notice a difference between red and blue loctite performance in this application?

-Pepster
- Who wants to get his threads all greased up and glued...

Nickle based Anti-seize compound - but only because I have it. Any med weight grease will do. (white lithium, bearing grease, etc. - only need a tiny bit.)

Red seems to stay a bit gummy (and smells purty too), blue becomes brittle - metal must be clean & DE-greased. Again - only a tad will do - & no, I've not had a problem with it insulating the tip from the blade.

[Pepster]

Originally Posted by Artisan

Nickle based Anti-seize compound - but only because I have it. Any med weight grease will do. (white lithium, bearing grease, etc. - only need a tiny bit.)

Red seems to stay a bit gummy (and smells purty too), blue becomes brittle - metal must be clean & DE-greased. Again - only a tad will do - & no, I've not had a problem with it insulating the tip from the blade.

In epee, I can't see why this would be a problem... The barrel isn't part of the circuit, neither is the tip. What would an isolated barrel/tip get you in the way of problems? (outside of poor grounding if you opponent hits your tip)

-Pepster
- Who is in need of a few good tips...

[tiger fencer]

Originally Posted by D'Artagnan1673

My problems are:

1. Not being a visual person, I oftentimes have hard time figuring out exactly where the guard goes. Does anyone else suffer from this?



2. This is the fourth time since September that I've pinched a wire. Twice by putting on the guard, twice by getting the wire bent where the wire enters into the spaghetti and goes into the guard. Are there some good rules of thumb to avoid pinching the wire. I almost always do this using pistol grips, that is probably because I never tinker with French grips.

If you use a triplette guard, it could be confusing. These guards are ambidexterous(sp?). But think of it as having two small sides and two big sides. Small sides go on top and palm sides, big sides go on bottom and back of hand.

Perhaps you should watch a experienced armourer in your area to show you how to break down, and set up a weapon, and troubleshoot problems. Through years of armourering and learning on my own I learned dozens of little things that helped me make good weapons.

A couple of things I did when connecting wires: I glued the spagehtti tubing to the wires at the base of the blade. This keeps the tubing from slipping. And when connecting the wires to the socket I put the grip on, tho not tightened neccesarily, to stabilize the bell and wire assembly.

After this I would cut the wires since I could then see exactly how much I needed, and then connect the wires. If you want extra wire, which may be a good idea for you, you can tape down the extra wire to the inside of the bell with CLEAR tape. However some people may consider this illegal, regarding the rule on "hiding switches" and such. Just use clear tape and you should be ok.

Good luck.

[Gav]

There's a half decent guide Epee armoury on the LP site.

Try here; http://www.leonpaul.com/shop/armoury...ee_armoruy.htm.


It's got lots of pitures that should be helpful.

[yeoldearmourer]

Excuse me the barrel is part of the cirucit of the epee it's part of the c lead which grounded out the weapon which keeps touches from scroe on the blade and bell


Tim