Leon Paul Epee Tip Contact Springs

[Mike O]

I switched to the Leon Paul PTFE coated epee points not long ago and the contact springs seem to move out of adjustment with alarming speed! I resumed competing again a couple of months ago after a hiatus and this has become a major pain in the butt, as my weapons fail shims on a regular basis. (This very rarely happened with my old German points, so I know that it's not my test shim or user error.)

I've tried using a little loc-tite after setting the points to pass shims, but I'd rather not have to do this, as at one point a small piece of the dried loc-tite came loose and covered one of the contacts, causing the weapon not to go off.

Has anyone else out there encountered this with the PTFE coated epee points? Any other solutions to this than loc-tite? Could it possibly be a bad batch of contact springs from Leon Paul?

[Epee Scherma]

On all four of my epees I use PTFE coated LP tips. I'm surprised though, I've never had this problem. In fact, I've rarely if ever needed to adjust my contacts. I'm surprised that is happening to you.

[DangerMouse]

This is why I stopped using them. I now use German tips in the LP barrels.

[Inigo_Montoya]

I also have not had any problems with needing to make adiditional adjustments to the contact spring on PTFE points.

[CvilleFencer]

Hey Mike. Try using Uhlmann contact springs. For some reason they seem to stay tight better than the LP ones. I decided the Loctite was a bit of a pain, for the same reason that you mention among others, but I have had really good luck just using German contact springs on LP points. Let me know if you need a couple and I will bring them Tuesday.

[Alex_Paul]

Leon Paul tips are designed so that the contact spring should always be screwed the whole way into the tip. When replacing the spring you should screw the new spring the whole way, you will feel a tiny little click at the end as the spring falls in to an annular grove. The spring then bunches onto itself in this groove and locks in place. You will not then be able to screw the spring out, to remove it you will need pliers and it will destroy the spring. The reason people have problems with Leon Paul points is usually because they are trying to screw the spring in or out in order to adjust the travel.
With a new spring that has been screwed the whole way in to the tip the travel should be set automatically. Once the travel goes out of alignment you need to adjust the travel by stretching the spring NOT by trying to screw the spring out. If you are screwing the spring in and out to adjust the travel you will find out that it goes wrong very quickly.