Problems with my uhlmann FIE mask

[I live to FENCE]

I got myself an uhlmann FIE mask last year. The reviews on this mask were mainly positive and several people in my club were using it and had no complains. i like this mask very much and this is the most comfortable mask i have tried. Disaster struck when the back end(the tongue) snapped during practice 3 months ago. I taped it up and used some industrial strength glue to patch it up and have been using it ever since. Now my mask has become uncomfortably loose and i have to push my mask up between every point.


Anybody else have this problem?

[RebelFencer]

You've gotta tell me, how in the world did the tongue of the mask get snapped? Did you readjust it a lot? I don't think I've ever heard of this happening.

[millsisland]

I tossed 2 one-year-old Allstar FIE masks last year- same problem. Ye Olde Armourer (Tim Loomis; he's on here somewhere) claimed he could make a repair. Upon disecting the mask myself, that appeared to me to be impossible.

Replace your mask with a Leon Paul with the contour fit system, and you won't have this problem again. It might be possible to remove the toungue on your Uhlmann and somehow attatch the LP system (available separately), but I doubt it would pass control.

Mills

[Inquartata]

I too had an Allstar ( sabre ) FIE mask that did that, albeit after a lot more than one year of hard service as my practice mask. I thought about trying to repair it, but then the welds at the top of the mask started coming apart so it was no longer safe to use and I gave up on it.

The tongue is basically a heavy-gauge wire. I had been considering whether two pieces of metal tubing with an inner diameter slightly larger than the outer diameter of the tongue wire could be used to hold the broken ends of the latter together. Slip the tubing over the broken ends of the wires still in the mask, then slip the broken ends of the wires on the tongue into the other ends. Maybe some epoxy to keep it in place, or maybe brazing...unless the tongue is broken off where it's attached to the inside of the mask---at the root, as it were.

[I live to FENCE]

Yeah, i readjusted my mask a lot. That must be the cause. Although i admit i expected this sort of thing not to happen. I stll have my uhlmann 350n mask and it's still in good shape.


Any idea how i can modify my mask to accomadate the LP comfort fit system?

[yeoldearmourer]

I can make the repair to the mask it run about 60.00 for the time involed but it as good as new and I use better mateiral. Its about a 4hr job but it can be done. Its not a impossible job has I have done several time. It take patrice I took several old mask apart to learn how to fixed them. I also bought a mig welder which is wire feed to weld the tang back to the mask. I problem the only armourer that has made that repair. I say I can do it and I can no bosst just stated a fact. You waste two good mask that could have been back in service and meeting all the rules

[millsisland]

I can make the repair to the mask it run about 60.00 for the time involed but it as good as new and I use better mateiral. Its about a 4hr job but it can be done. Its not a impossible job has I have done several time. It take patrice I took several old mask apart to learn how to fixed them. I also bought a mig welder which is wire feed to weld the tang back to the mask. I problem the only armourer that has made that repair. I say I can do it and I can no bosst just stated a fact. You waste two good mask that could have been back in service and meeting all the rules

Tim,

I didn't mean to disparage your armouring skills. You are very good at what you do; it's just that both these masks were broken right where the wire is attached just at the back of the mask, right after the wire cross-over. The remaining piece would have had to have been ground off, then a new plate and wire welded on. Considering the abuse these masks took (constant adjustment) it didn't seem to me a weld would hold for very long. Things have a habit of breaking at the worst possible moment, so I opted for the dependability of a new Leon Paul with contour fit.

Mills

[yeoldearmourer]

That why I change 60.00 bucks to do it. Because I go in and replace the plate and reweld everthing. It took a lot of practice to get the techquie down to do it. Plus finding the right wire that is stronger then what the manufactor used. I bascally strip the whole mask down to the frame in order to make the repairs

[MyraTrue]

I might also mention (and I don't know if this is already known or not, so forgive me if it's old hat) that one of the most common causes of a broken tongue I've seen is people adjusting the mask "wrong." If you put the palm of one hand so that it pushes the tongue up against the top of the mask, and adjust the tongue with the other hand, it creates a lot less stress on the wires, and they last longer.

I've actually watched a lot of people look absolutely stupified when they start pulling on the tongue and the next thing they know, it snaps.

[yeoldearmourer]

I might also mention (and I don't know if this is already known or not, so forgive me if it's old hat) that one of the most common causes of a broken tongue I've seen is people adjusting the mask "wrong." If you put the palm of one hand so that it pushes the tongue up against the top of the mask, and adjust the tongue with the other hand, it creates a lot less stress on the wires, and they last longer.

I've actually watched a lot of people look absolutely stupified when they start pulling on the tongue and the next thing they know, it snaps.

You are so right that most pepole didnot know how to adjusted a mask right

[Inquartata]

Many people "adjust" their masks by sitting on them or flinging them at walls or onto hard floors in fits of pique, apparently.

[RITFencing]

Many people "adjust" their masks by sitting on them or flinging them at walls or onto hard floors in fits of pique, apparently.

Don't forget stomping!