An epee wire question

[Purple Fencer]

This is aimed at Neevel and Sallearmorer, but I'll take any answers I can get.

Is there a reason for that itty bitty plastic ring that sits under the cup of an epee wire? It looks like a spacer of some sort, but I can't think why one woudl be necessarry...it's be simpler to just make the cup deeper.

It's really irritating if I'm wiring an epee and forget to dig the ring out (or thought I did and missed). The contact spring won't reach the wire and I've just wasted my time and a wire.

It happened right before the Sandy NAC. A kid from another club asked me to reqire his two epees before he left becasue he didn't know how. I realized (after hooking it up) that I'd missed the spacer on one of teh weapons, but he was leaving the next day and I didn't have time to strip the blade (or the wires, since he uses the FIE ones and supplied me with one for each weapon). I didn't charge him for the work, sicne I knew it wasn't going to function.

[oiuyt]

That's exactly what it is. Incidently some manufacturers DO make deeper cups that therefore don't need the spacers. I agree with you, it's stupid, why shouldn't they all be deeper and then we wouldn't have to worry about figuring out whether or not that little piece of plastic is or is not still in a barrel that we want to reuse.

Apparently they're kept because that's the way it's ben done historically. I was unable to get a good answer on why that would possibly have been the original choice that we're now stuck with.

Annoying, aren't they.

-B

[neevel]

Prieur epee wires have the ring as a spacer (can't answer as to why that instead of a deeper contact). German and Sport 7 epee wires don't have it.

The easiest way to deal with it when rewiring a blade with another Prieur wire is just to leave it in and remove the ring from the new wire.

BTW, a good idea is to use a small file to inscribe a correct 'depth mark' on whatever point setting implement you use-- that way you can tell if you've got the contact seated down properly before you actually glue the wire in.

-Dave

[swordsen]

I personally always hook teh blade up and test it after I put the tip on and before I glue it to make sure everything is seating correctly. It saves alot of time.

[Purple Fencer]

Originally posted by swordsen:
<STRONG>I personally always hook teh blade up and test it after I put the tip on and before I glue it to make sure everything is seating correctly. It saves alot of time.</STRONG>

Thanks!

Y'know...that's one of those ideas that's so simple and right in front if your face, you forget to do it! Doh!

Neevel, same for your comment. I HAD marked by point-setter, but I didn't think to physically scratch a mark into it...I did it with Liquid Paper and it had come off. My bad.

Thanks for the heads up on the points, btw.

[edew]

Originally posted by swordsen:
<STRONG>I personally always hook teh blade up and test it after I put the tip on and before I glue it to make sure everything is seating correctly. It saves alot of time.</STRONG>

I wire foil blades, primarily (I just buy my epee blades wired...they're just too much a PITA to wire), and I always do a quick test before glueing the wire into the groove. What I do is seat the wire into the groove, unglued, and test to see it pressing down the tip will open the circuit. If there's still a light, that means there's a short (some insulation was nicked off when I threaded into the barrel), or that the spring is bent and touching the inside of the barrel. There's other tests to see what might be happening as well.

In short, check to see if the connections are good before you put the glue on. And then, make sure you glue the wire INTO the groove, and not next to it (I did that with a recent blade...Stoopid).

[Purple Fencer]

Originally posted by edew:
<STRONG>And then, make sure you glue the wire INTO the groove, and not next to it (I did that with a recent blade...Stoopid).</STRONG>

Oh, Eric! You must've been asleep!

You gonna be at Long Beach next weekend?

[edew]

Nope, not asleep. The room was too dark and I couldn't make out whether the wire went into the groove or not. It felt like it was in it. But, Uhlmann wires are pretty thin, so I couldn't feel it well, especially with all the glue on my fingers. I didn't realize it until a few days later when I went to scrape off the glue from the top of the blade. I then realized that the wire was only partially in the groove.

I'll be at the LBI. I'm flying in, even. To LAX, even.

[sallearmourer]

The Purple Fencer as learn that rewiring epee is not so easy after all. I have made a small tool out of a probe use by my Dentist to get the ring out of the barrel. I try to avoid useing Prieur epee wires because of the spacer ring. THe wires that neevel mention are of better quanltiy. The most I have seen in one barrel was three of them how the guy even got the tip in was be on me. I think I rewire them in Sandy Ut I did about 20 blades on Sat. Never can tale.
Tim

Ye3 Olde armourer