Tip woes

[HDG]

Anybody ever have a foil tip come apart while in the barrel? Two of the Sport 7s I was otherwise very keen on have just plain come apart in the barrel in the last week. Plunger part came out of the ring part -- screws still in the ring, still inside the barrel (pardon the technical jargon).

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by HDG

Anybody ever have a foil tip come apart while in the barrel? Two of the Sport 7s I was otherwise very keen on have just plain come apart in the barrel in the last week. Plunger part came out of the ring part -- screws still in the ring, still inside the barrel (pardon the technical jargon).

Yep....quite common....and easy to fix.

You just need to put the little flange (the part that's in contact with the spring) back on and peen the end of the shaft with a centrer punch to spread it out so it can't screw off.

I make it a habit to peen all the German tips I get from my vendor...probably have to start doing it to the Frenchies, also.

[mrbiggs]

My mother told me that if I peen too often, I'll go blind. Should I still do it to all the tips?



Sorry. I'll grow up now.

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by mrbiggs

My mother told me that if I peen too often, I'll go blind. Should I still do it to all the tips?

Dude....whatever you do to float your boat....

[DHCJr]

I know Sam doesn't do this and I wouldn't do it on a new one, just ones that come off is to solder it on after peening it. The only problem is you must make it extremely small amount of solder. If you are not comfortable with soldering boards, don't do it.

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by DHCJr

I know Sam doesn't do this and I wouldn't do it on a new one, just ones that come off is to solder it on after peening it. The only problem is you must make it extremely small amount of solder. If you are not comfortable with soldering boards, don't do it.

Watch me solder an A line clip and you'll see WHY I won't try to solder it!!

[remise]

Solder is the answer to all fencing woes.

[HDG]

Following up my original question, does Sport 7 have more of a problem with tips coming apart? In 20+ years of fencing I've never had a french tip come apart this way.

[smeric28]

Yes i think so, i've had 3 sport 7 tips i owned do it. in my club i have seen at least 3 or 4 others have the same problem (i'm the club armor). i have never seen this problem with any other kind of tip. on a side note sometimes the sport 7's also have intermittent hits. meaning with the new timings they can have hits not register. because the circuit never breaks longer than 15ms, it opens and closes rapidly with the tip depressed. this problem happens with sligtly off angle hits. which means if you simply press straight down on the button to test it after you fix the weapon it'll work but when you fence you don't hit the button so precisly. i've just had these problems and they can be increibly frustrating.

Originally Posted by HDG

Following up my original question, does Sport 7 have more of a problem with tips coming apart? In 20+ years of fencing I've never had a french tip come apart this way.

[DHCJr]

I have had more problems with Prieur and HPK. Just today for one team, I had to use my automatic center punch on 4 of their tips. Sport 7 hasn't been around as long, so it might become a problem, but I have been happier with working on them over other French tips.

[neevel]

Originally Posted by HDG

Following up my original question, does Sport 7 have more of a problem with tips coming apart? In 20+ years of fencing I've never had a french tip come apart this way.

You must be in the (good) habit of replacing point parts before they get too beaten up. Like Donald said, the Prieur and HPC points exhibit this problem far more than Sport 7 points (because they use a softer brass for the end flange). All points are prone to this issue, including German points. While German tips are all steel and have the end flange threaded on instead of peened, the threading can eventually work loose, and the tip will come unscrewed from the flange and drop out. You'll accelerate this process if you 'spin' the tip in the barrel to try and break up any dirt & corrosion.

Re: solder-- you want to use the really fine, 29-30 gauge solder that's preferred for SMT components. A fine tip iron with adequate (>= 40 watts) is also called for. The larger gauge solder and guns/torches normally best for doing cord clips aren't the right tools for this.

Re: Sport 7 points sometimes failing to register-- since Sport 7 points, like German points, have a metal tip sleeve sliding against a metal barrel, you can get the same issue that German points have with bits of metal dust causing momentary B-C grounding in the point (as well as causing the point to simply not register on glancing touches due to friction). Basically, you should keep up good maintenance habits and clean your points regularly.

-Dave

[DHCJr]

Dave, a very good explanation and warning. I believe you had a typo. You probably meant <= 40, especially when you warned about larger guns/irons.