Over-tightening a Foil and Pinching the Wire

[Cookeit]

So...
I overtightened my foil and now the weapon grounds out on everything.
I took the grip and pad off and noticed the wire had become exposed in the middle of the spaghetti. I was stupid and tried to do a quick fix, wrapping a piece of tape around the broken spaghetti to insulate it, this worked for a short period of time (VERY short), but doesn't work anymore.

All I really need to do to fix my foil is put on a new piece of spaghetti tubing on?

[mrbiggs]

That shouldn't happen from tightening it. You should make sure in the future that the wire goes through the holes in the guard, socket, and grip.

You can try the new piece of spaghetti. If there's an uninsulated part of the wire, then that would work. From your description, I'm not sure that that's what's going on, though.

[Cookeit]

Well, the problem showed up immediately after I changed out the grip on the weapon. Perhaps the wire just wasn't correctly lined up through the guard.

[erik_blank]

This is a classic mistake of people that are just learning to work on their own weapons. As Mr. Biggs implied, the issue is most liekly not the tightening of the pommel or pommel nut, but the placement of the wire in relation to the notches in the Bell Guard, waepon socket and Handle. Because the Bell Pad sits below the handle, it is very easy to have the wire 'take a walk" on you just before tigthening the handle down. These days, I usually don't even think of connecting the wire to the socket until after I have tightened the pommel nut most of the way so that I can keep a good eye on where the wire is in relation to the handle notch.

In answer to your questoin, At best, IF the wire hasn't been crimped too much, thus weakening it to the point of immediate failure, you should be able to add another piece of spaghettie to the wire and pretend that this never happened. At worse, you will need to completely re-wire the weapon again.

Good luck!

[HDG]

Invest in clear bell pads; it helps avoid these situations. Their down side: no padding; it's a trade-off I've been fine with. Refs really like them too.

[Cookeit]

Hypothetically, what would happen if the wire breaks and is unable to reach the socket?

Could I "tie" another piece of wire on, extending the original, and wrap that entire thing (if it would fit) in spaghetti?

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by Cookeit

Hypothetically, what would happen if the wire breaks and is unable to reach the socket?

Could I "tie" another piece of wire on, extending the original, and wrap that entire thing (if it would fit) in spaghetti?

Yes. Covered previously, including with a discussion of several different techniques, why different people use their preferred option, and the flaws they see in the other methods. Quite a good thread, actually.

Not sure how easy it'll be to find using search.

-B

[oiuyt]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

Not sure how easy it'll be to find using search.

Answer: Fairly.

Epee Wires Issue

-B

[Cookeit]

Originally Posted by oiuyt

Answer: Fairly.

Epee Wires Issue

-B

Thanks, very useful thread.
I'm still in the dark about soldering.
Is it basically holding a match up to it and like welding the wire together?

[Mergs]

Originally Posted by Cookeit

Thanks, very useful thread.
I'm still in the dark about soldering.
Is it basically holding a match up to it and like welding the wire together?

Well, not quite. Welding involves melting of the base metal and fusing it with a filler material to bond the pieces together. A match isn't going to get you there. Neither will it with soldering, which involves heating the base pieces to a temperature where solder will melt and adhere to the metal. This happens at much lower temperatures than welding, but you still need to be in the 400 to 700 degree F range.

Best bet is to rewire the weapon if you continue to have problems after you put on a new piece of spaghetti.

[brtech]

Soldering is done with a soldering iron or soldering gun, not a match. For repairing a wire, an iron with a small tip is the best. If you are good, a soldering gun works fine, and the gun is really the tool you need to solder clips. As in the thread, if your spaghetti is big enough, getting a mechanical joint by twisting the wires around each other and then soldering is best, and easiest, but with most spaghetti, its hard to push the tube over a twisted, soldered joint.

Get a piece of old wire and practice a couple of times before you try it on your current weapon. Good solder joints require clean shiny wires, hot iron, rosin core flux, and, for most of us, old fashioned solder with lead. You heat the joint, not the solder, THEN add the solder so it flows on the joint and then remove the heat in such a way that the joint doesn't move until the solder hardens again. This is usually the hard part: inexperienced solderers cause the joint to move before the solder hardens and they get a bad joint. A good solder joint is smooth and shiny. A bad solder joint is dull grey and often rough.

After you solder WASH YOUR HANDS, especially if you are using solder with lead.

[remise]

Soldering is not a bad thing for any experienced fencer to learn. I was taught how to 'paint' the solder onto a broken wire. This is done with a bit of practice so that the spagetti will slip back over your new connection.

[wahrman]

Make sure the room is ventilated.

Originally Posted by brtech

After you solder WASH YOUR HANDS, especially if you are using solder with lead.

[HDG]

Originally Posted by brtech

After you solder WASH YOUR HANDS, especially if you are using solder with lead.

Originally Posted by wahrman

Make sure the room is ventilated.

Pawns of the anti-lead lobby

[Beloit Fencer of Old]

Originally Posted by brtech

After you solder WASH YOUR HANDS, especially if you are using solder with lead.

When BRTech says this, he does NOT mean wash your hands like you usually do after eating a bag of Doritos, by licking them. Use soap and running water instead.