Mainly for armorer's

[twisterfencing]

This thread I am hoping for armorers to respond to.

Here is the question: we are really going to have to show our back side on this on.

What has been the funniest/hardest problem to diagnose on a weapon or body cord or reel that really made you feel like a heel/horses butt.

Here is mine: Had this kid bring me foil, it was dead of course and needed to be re-wired. I pop out the wire and re-assemble the weapon. Its still dead???? I do this three times with the same result. I test the wire, connection and heck, its just dead! What the heck????(you know what I was really saying at this point)

Give the weapon to another set of eyes to see if I was missing something. Five minutes later, he hands the weapon back to me and tells me that the new French wire contact will no longer fit the standard sized spring. Sure enough, the old spring was no setting on the contact plane. It was just parking wrong every time. I felt like a fool for not noticing it.

Now, your turn!


Gary Spruill


Ps, getting tired of answering questions about shoes and where to get jackets tailored.

[Monash_Armourer]

Once took apart an Uhlmann reel I'd been asked to fix. I'll admit I wasn't entirely sure about how to take the thing apart at the time, and I made the mistake of taking off the bottom of the reel thinking that I'd be able to get at the commutator from underneath. The wound up spring shot out and gave me a few minor cuts on the hand and shin. Was great fun getting it back in there, took a while to do so too.

The best part? Had I picked up the other reel in the pair instead or jumping right in, I'd have found the top removed with the screws taped underneath, with a clear view of the internals. I felt a bit sheepish at that point.

Lesson:
Get a freaking manufacturers diagram before opening things up if you ever have any doubt.

[Purple Fencer]

Fortunately, the reel spring shooting out hasn't happened to me...yet (law of averages says it will one day! I'll remember to duck!), probably beuase I tend to be very tentative if I have an idea of what can go wrong.

most of my repairs are limited t the fencer's gear, so my mistakes have been putting the wires in the wrong pins on body cords, breaking the blade wire while stretching, etc.

My time will come, I know!

[mrbiggs]

I was fixing a floor cord.

Actually fixing the thing was easy, but the cord had a slightly odd design that made it nearly impossible to get the cords and prongs back into the ends.

After a good half hour of work, I finally got it all together. Just to be sure, I tested it. I had switched the A and C lines.

All of a sudden, it became very clear why I was having so much trouble putting it together.

[El Chucko]

I was re-wiring a club member's epee blade. It had a TERRIBLE upward bend in the foible (his technique leaves much to be desired). I told myself to just re-wire it, and leave the bend alone, but I couldn't resist . . .

SNAP!

Cost of new blade: $50
learning to only do what is asked: priceless

[fencerbill]

I still have an old Uhlmann upright (similar to a Leon Paul) in pieces in the cellar.

Not uncommon at all to have a Leon Paul spring come out when you take them apart. When the grease gets caked with dirt top spring center fitting will stick to the spool while the case sticks to the spindle. If I think they are that dirty I take the back off. At least the springs are still confined within case and cover.

If the spring breaks at either end, you have to take the cover off and take the apring out of the case. I like to do it while it is inside a plastic bag so everthing stays contained. Then I sweep the floor and try to clean the spring with paint thinner on a paper towel while I take the spring out of the plastic bag.

If I have to clean all 3 springs, my hands cramp up before I can get them all back into their cases.

Most recently, it took me a little while to figure out that the wire to the rotary center contact was shorted to the spool by a metal sliver near rhe small contact strip.

[fencerbill]

Originally Posted by El Chucko

I was re-wiring a club member's epee blade. It had a TERRIBLE upward bend in the foible (his technique leaves much to be desired). I told myself to just re-wire it, and leave the bend alone, but I couldn't resist . . .

SNAP!

Cost of new blade: $50
learning to only do what is asked: priceless

If people ask me to bend a blade I tell them "Give me a dollar, If you do, and it breaks, I pay for it. If you don't, and it breaks, I'm sorry."

Sort of like insurance. Hopefully I will have collected enough to pay for a blade when I finally have to pay for one.

[Smyles]

Originally Posted by El Chucko

I told myself to just re-wire it, and leave the bend alone, but I couldn't resist . . .
SNAP!

Hope you tried to fix the bend before wasting a new wire... and your time!

[El Chucko]

Originally Posted by Smyles

Hope you tried to fix the bend before wasting a new wire... and your time!

Yeah, I always do rust-removal, cleaning, and straightening before I start a re-wire.

Of course, I probably learned that lesson the hard way too, I just don't remember. (Maybe I pushed that painful memory into my deep subconscious.)

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by El Chucko

Yeah, I always do rust-removal, cleaning, and straightening before I start a re-wire.

Of course, I probably learned that lesson the hard way too, I just don't remember. (Maybe I pushed that painful memory into my deep subconscious.)

That's ok...hypnotherapy can bring that right out!

[KD5MDK]

That's the fanciest name for Guiness I've ever heard...

[remise]

I was rewiring foils at my club for an upcoming tournament. I had settled into this 'drone' mindset where I had an assembly line running. An hour or so later, someone brought by a couple of epees. I had mindlessly rewired them, then taped the ends as you would in foil. Doh!

[DHCJr]

I don't think Craig allows that much room to go over all of my mistakes over the years. Let me just do my first and one that was last weekend. The first time I opened a Uhlmann Upright, I then took it to Dan in a canvas bag a VERY LARGE canvas bag.

Last weekend a fencer brought up a Foil that would not work any more after their coach taped up the weapon, but it was working before. I took off the tape, but before I tried loosening the barrel (maybe the coach tightened it) I took off the handle and found no pinched wire. I took out the tip and loosened the barrel a little, still nothing. I finally found it. The spagetti went all the way to the connector, but after that they had a little extra wire. I kept on looking at the connector, but never saw it for too long.

[Monash_Armourer]

Originally Posted by DHCJr

I don't think Craig allows that much room to go over all of my mistakes over the years. Let me just do my first and one that was last weekend. The first time I opened a Uhlmann Upright, I then took it to Dan in a canvas bag a VERY LARGE canvas bag.

I currently have 5 of those reels in my possession, 2 of them in pieces from an attempt to fix them from a previous ckub armourer. They're kind of just sitting there waiting for me, taunting me...

I'm really not looking forward to when I get round to fixing them...

[KD5MDK]

Not anywhere near the same scale, but once I was assembling a bunch of dry sabre for a class and put one of the blades on backwards. Really doesn't matter any, but still embarrassing.

[twisterfencing]

All great stories:

Here is another bobo!

Epee: rewired the thing. Was a left handed fencer. Was ready to wire the connector, ran the wires through the hole on the connector and wired up the "b" and "c" terminal posts. For some reason; I just could not get the darn thing to work????

I searched and searched this weapon to discover what I did wrong. Only when I went to disassemble the thing is when I noticed what I did. Such a dufus!

Gary Spruill

[fatfencer]

could there be?

I found them all. My ex-coach had to tell me like 6 times "this is a, b and c" and he walked away and each time i still f'd it up!!!! Fixiing an Uhlmann wire...

No wonder he's my ex coach...I think I gave him an ulcer.


Fatfencer

PS: I still can't look at a bodycord without feeling stupid. Maybe thats why I'm into seethru color coded wires. Even I can't screw that up.....yet!

[Joe biebel]

I did a "repair" against my better judgement, while refereeing. A bad blade bend for a newbie that had no idea how to proceed. They asked me to fix (straighten) it. I took the weapon and went to the edge of the strip, explaining as I went though the steps of bending it. I barely got started when "snap!" broken blade. There were of course snickers and a gasp from the owner. I looked at the fencer and said, "it could have been worse", she said, "how?"
I said, "it could have been my blade".

[Morion]

Fortunately I haven't wandered into the wonderful world of reel repair yet. Two blunders that I have done are:

1. Pop out the old contact from the barrel, procede with the rewire and discover upon completion that I had only popped out the contact and not the plastic cup. Now the tip won't fit.

2. Just procede with my standard French tip rewire only to discover upon completion that it was a German barrel and now nothing is going to work!

The worst part is that I have made that second mistake multiple times! The French tip is the standard for our club beginners and I keep forgetting to check!

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by Morion

Fortunately I haven't wandered into the wonderful world of reel repair yet. Two blunders that I have done are:

1. Pop out the old contact from the barrel, procede with the rewire and discover upon completion that I had only popped out the contact and not the plastic cup. Now the tip won't fit.

2. Just procede with my standard French tip rewire only to discover upon completion that it was a German barrel and now nothing is going to work!

The worst part is that I have made that second mistake multiple times! The French tip is the standard for our club beginners and I keep forgetting to check!

Here's a hint Since FWF has a tip that fits German barrels, but with a French style collar)...the collar on the french is brass...on the german, slver.