Uhllmann Reels, Intermittent BC shorts

[fencerbill]

Had never encountered this problem before. But here were 3 out of 12 reels, all with the same problem, an intermittent BC short. And it took a little while to track down.

Turned out the reels were all manufactured at about the same time, about July 2004. The little contact strip that connects the inside cable end to the Mercotac and the spool is attached to an aluminum strip that is punched from the spool top and bent down to a lower level. The A wire is attached to the open end and the B wire is at the end with the 2 right angle bends. When the strips were punched from the flat plate a little extra whisker was left. And this had, all about the same time, shorted through the insulation of the Mercotac wire.

We removed the metal whiskers, relocated the Mercotac wires and the problems cleared up.

But 3 reels in the same salle with the same problem within a few days of each other?

[brtech]

We have had this problem with the latest batch of Uhlmann reels on the USFA contract. We do BC shorts testing routinely before and after a NAC to try and identify them.

We are now seeing more of the mercotac wire rubbing against the hub problem than the rough punch on the access hole, which also shows up as a short.