Interesting problem

[Army Fencer]

I was fencing the other night and found to my surprise that my epee was going off when it shouldn't. I went in tonight and found a sliver of metal that closed the circuit, but it was light enough that it would move around, causing only an intermittent light.

I looked at my weight spring and discovered that metal shavings were coming off of it, thus causing my problem. Upon inspection, it appeared that the spring itself had a thin metal coat over it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? If so, are there certain weight springs that one should avoid?

On a related note, what is the greatest resistance necessary to cause an epee light to go off?

[Artisan]

Plating ....
On the spring. Flaked off. A fluke. Or there were some imperfections in the wire used to make the spring.

On a related note, what is the greatest resistance necessary to cause an epee light to go off?

Your question is unclear. Its funny, we say "make the light go off" as if it were an gun or explosion when we mean make the light go on.
Are you asking how much impedance it takes to make the light turn off once it has been on, or are you asking how much curent it takes for the circuit to turn the light on in the first place?

[CvilleFencer]

[QUOTE=Army Fencer]I looked at my weight spring and discovered that metal shavings were coming off of it, thus causing my problem. Upon inspection, it appeared that the spring itself had a thin metal coat over it.

Does this sound familiar to anyone? If so, are there certain weight springs that one should avoid?
QUOTE]
This happened to me once and strangely enough I think I was using German points and parts at the time. It is the kind of thing I would expect with cheaper parts. It only happened to me once so I think, as Artisan said, it is just a fluke.

[Army Fencer]

Yeah, I only use German.

[Army Fencer]

Are you asking how much impedance it takes to make the light turn off once it has been on, or are you asking how much curent it takes for the circuit to turn the light on in the first place?

Now that you mention it, I'm interested in both.

[Mergs]

I would say that any spring that is overly shiny should be avoided because most likely it, and barrels for that matter, is plated (probably chrome) and can flake off like what happened to AF.

[DHCJr]

At one point Uhlmann has subcontracted some work to a company, that did not make the items to specifications, especially the barrels, so they added some extra plating. This sort of thing was happening too often.

The machines are required to give a on-target light when there is 200 ohms in the circuit and not register when there is over 250 ohms. This is of course not just your weapon, but the body cord, floor cord and reel included in the circuit, both the A and B lines. This is found in the appendix.