Found first time problem with epee for me

[twisterfencing]

NAC B this weekend in Dallas.

Had a Canadian fencer come to me and asked me to rewire his epee. No problem, yet asked what was wrong with it? He told me that it was grounding out. OK I said to myself, blade has a wire touching somewhere or 3 prong "C" connector had a problem.

I broke the weapon down, pulled the wire out, dressed the blade, and rewired it. Re-assembled it and the darn thing was still giving off a b-c short???

Here is what I did:
Broke the weapon back down to just blade and wires and tip. Tested and still showing a b-c short.
Poped the tip out and tested just the wires ( A&B) with an addition connection to the blade (c) line. No short now? What the heck?

Now I am getting stumped here.

Started breaking it down in my head:

(A) line is good, (B) line is good, no breakes in the barrel, ????? Tested the "C" line on the 3 prong connecter,,all good!

Inspected the insulation on the wires, still all good. Checked guard, I used micro insulation and is not even touching the guard. Grip "V" notch has tons of clearance???

Major stumped here!

Know that I own a Dan D Universal box and will identify BC shorts quickly and just cannot find the problem.

I just by chance grabed the tip and grabed my mag glass to inspect. Running from the base of the tip (from the bottom to top)to the head, there was a really super small micro crack that ran the full body of the tip.

I put in a new FWF epee tip and the bc short went away.

Moral to this story:
It pays to start at the tip and work your way down. I assumbed something and was totally wrong.

Handed the weapon back to the fencer and went on the finish in the top 16.

Gary Spruill

[Craig]

Good story Gary - Thanks for sharing.

The more "war stories" like these I read, the more I learn.

Craig

[Purple Fencer]

I must be tired...I can't picture the fault in my head....detailed explanation please?

[SJCFU#2]

I must be tired...I can't picture the fault in my head....detailed explanation please?

I'm guessing here, but it's possible that as the barrel was screwed onto the end of the bladed the crack in the barrel was forced apart, leaving more room at the bottom of the barrel. Given that the short went away when Gery removed the tip, it sounds like this extra room allowed the plastic base to move about and possibly sit a little lower in the barrel (especially when pressed upon by the weight spring). Most likely one of the contacts ended up touching the end of the blade, creating the short.

I saw a similar problem once with a club weapon (looked fine when everything was taken apart, but developed a B-C short as soon as the tip was assembled). Once I finally realized that it was always the same blade (things were constantly being swapped around on club weapons, making individual blades difficult to track), I filed down the cone at the end of the blade so it wouldn't extend much beyond the threads, then rewired it for what was by then probably the fourth time.

[twisterfencing]

Sam,

No crack in the barrel, the tip itself was cracked from the bottom to top of the shaft.

The tip itself was the cause of the grounding issue.

Gary Spruill

I must be tired...I can't picture the fault in my head....detailed explanation please?

[Rick Shellhouse]

Sam,

No crack in the barrel, the tip itself was cracked from the bottom to top of the shaft.

The tip itself was the cause of the grounding issue.

Gary Spruill

And this is why I fall to my knees screaming Im not worthy...cause I would have just ditched the whole tip barrel and all

R

[yeoldearmourer]

I had a foil that was driveing me up the to the point that I ask Ted to look at it and it was fine on test boxes. Everytime he hook up white light finally after the third rewire. I when though the whole thing with a mag glass and found a hairline crack on the thead inside of the barrell new barrell no more white lights. The funny thing about this we both wack the blade and everythings only when it was on a machine the problem showed up. It took me about a hour to find the problem. That why I dont have any hair left

[Purple Fencer]

Sam,

No crack in the barrel, the tip itself was cracked from the bottom to top of the shaft.

The tip itself was the cause of the grounding issue.

Gary Spruill

You'll have to explain why that was causing a short....I;m still not seeing it.