Confirmed do-it-yourselfer struggling with foils!

[foilz]

I know full well, I should give my two defunct foils to the best armorers in my club to make them right, but I am stubborn.

Everything I know how to do, I have done. Both still give trouble.

The answers are probably everywhere in the forum, but from your perspective, what are the 2-3-4-6 things you recommend I should do to triage my foils, and get them right.

I don't have testing equipment, that's at the club.

But I would like to have an agenda in my mind as I study these unstable weapons, and pull them apart.

Your thoughts appreciated.

[D+F+P=Hadouken!]

rewire them. Don't make a new wire. Dont scrimp. Spend $10 and do em up noo. Either that or switch to epee.

[Purple Fencer]

Before any of the armorers here can give ANY meaningful advice, please give a detailed list of what the problems are, when the occurm in what circumstances, etc.

NO detail is too small for an armorer...something you think is of no consequence might be just the thing we need to determine the problem.

Let fly....I'd rather wade through too much info than try and diagnose with too little.

[foilz]

Originally Posted by D+F+P=Hadouken!

rewire them. Don't make a new wire. Dont scrimp. Spend $10 and do em up noo. Either that or switch to epee.

Strangely, I'm getting a lot of advice about considering epee. Even from my coach. But ... all those targets, and well, my online name. Impossible.

[foilz]

(1) 10-month old LP complete foil -- everything looks perfect, everyone agrees, tests perfectly, white lights in bouts.

(2) Veteran Santelli complete foil -- I love this foil, it's over 20 years old, but rarely used -- a raised wire, mid-blade, but flexing blade makes no difference. Rewound the wire to the cord plug. Tightened barrel. Everything. White lights.

[Araznal]

So the first goes off randomly while bouting. Ok, a few possibilities:
-Loose barrel, socket, or anything else that can get loose.
-Break in wire underneath the spagetti
-Gunk in tip (just take out the tip and check inside, you might be surprised what you find)

Not feeling very imaginative, so that's all I have as for the first blade. As for the second, it sounds like the wire is broken around the tip. You're probably going to have to re-wire that one.

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by foilz

(1) 10-month old LP complete foil -- everything looks perfect, everyone agrees, tests perfectly, white lights in bouts.

(2) Veteran Santelli complete foil -- I love this foil, it's over 20 years old, but rarely used -- a raised wire, mid-blade, but flexing blade makes no difference. Rewound the wire to the cord plug. Tightened barrel. Everything. White lights.

Did you check your body cord? Slap an ohmmeter on it....it may NOTG be the weapons.

The 3 lines are named A, B, and C

On the 3 pin end, the B's in the middle, the A is the one closest to it, and the C is farthest away.

The alligator clip is the other end of the A line....the narrower of the 2 pins at the weapon end (or the center post if it's a bayonet plug) is the B, the thicker pin/washer under the spring on a bayo is the C line.

Put one of the ohmmeter leads on the A pin on three pin end and the other on the clip....you should get a complete circuit...holding the leads against the pins, waggle them to see if there are any breaks in the wire that show up on movement.

Lather, rinse, repeat with the B and C lines.

Now....if you get NO response on the B line AND no response on the C, test it by connecting the B on the three pin end to the C on the weapon end....if you get continuity, you've got the wires swapped....you'll ALWAYS get a white light.

If continuity's good on all three lines, take the weapon end of the plug apart and pull on one of the pins...if there's a wire break you'll feel it starting to move.

[keropie]

Originally Posted by foilz

(1) 10-month old LP complete foil -- everything looks perfect, everyone agrees, tests perfectly, white lights in bouts.

Constant white lights, or random? Especially if random, check the list above (socket, barrel, cleanliness of tip, etc.) Also, same body cord all the time, or different cords? Same reel system, or different?

Originally Posted by foilz

(2) Veteran Santelli complete foil -- I love this foil, it's over 20 years old, but rarely used -- a raised wire, mid-blade, but flexing blade makes no difference. Rewound the wire to the cord plug. Tightened barrel. Everything. White lights.

Same questions about body cord, reels, etc., but if the wires popped and you can't get it back in, it's as good as dead, clean, rewire, start over.

[foilz]

My body cords are good. They work interchangeably on other foils and test OK.

[keropie]

Originally Posted by foilz

My body cords are good. They work interchangeably on other foils and test OK.

It can (and will and does and has) happen that a socket will wear away a bit, and the body cords will ALMOST fit right, so that with enough vibration on the blade (which can range from a strong beat to a single bounce), the connection is broken there and *beeep* white light. Especially if you are mixing brands of socket/body cord, most notable the PBT two prong and any other two prong body cord. Just a thought.

[larkmaj]

Bayonet or 2-prong?

[foilz]

Two prong. Use my old cords and a new 10-month-old LP cord interchangeably. Pretty sure it's not the cords themselves.

[Amadeus]

the spring is often the hardest thing to check. see if it helps to switch out a spring.

(this is somewhat random, but it's relatively easy to do, so why not...)

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by Amadeus

the spring is often the hardest thing to check. see if it helps to switch out a spring.

(this is somewhat random, but it's relatively easy to do, so why not...)

While you're at it, sand off both ends of the spring....you might be getting corrosion that's interfering with the signal.

If you can also get a small brass tube that fits down the barrel, you can spin it around and clean any corrision off the contact.

[DHCJr]

You stated they have been tested, but how. Were they tested using a meter or lights. I have seen many weapons tested as 'Good' and get white lights on the piste, since they high resistences, but the lights showed good.

[foilz]

Great comments, thank you all. Working on the ideas. Will report.