foil problems

[cyllek]

Hi! Help please? I have four foils with the same problem and I'm kind of running low on ideas at this point. They test fine and typically work fine except sometimes I'll depress the tip and they won't go off. Out of the four blades, I think three of them are BF FIEs and the fourth is an Uhlmann. One is brand-new from PBT, and the other three have all German parts ordered recently from Blue Gauntlet. I rewired those three right before xmas, using completely new parts for the tip, barrel, screws, and springs. I even cleaned out the barrels with rubbing alcohol. The barrels say Uhlmann and the tips say Allstar.

This happened to three of the weapons in Atlanta. I had the armorers check them and my body cord, with the prognosis that all was well. Then the fourth foil malfunctioned tonight at practice.

I've been doing my own armoring for years now and I've NEVER had anything like this. Do I have compatibility problems? Am I hitting the spring at the wrong angle? Is it secretly a body cord problem? My initial theory was that the springs were not compatible with the barrels for some reason, but the PBT blade is throwing me off. I've verified as best I can on sight that all the parts are indeed German, and the ones I assembled are all from the same vendor....

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, theories, or need more information. Thank you for your help!

[Craig]

Hey there. I think you stopped by our booth - sorry we couldn't help more with that.

Things to check are to make sure that there is no grounding on the wire. Sometimes the wire can get stripped right in the barrel below the contact and the problem would only manifest itself on a hard hit.

I'll leave it to some of the others to be a bit more detailed on how you can test for the phantom gremlins.

Craig

[mrbiggs]

That's very weird, and you seem to have covered all your bases.

Did you check the insulation on the wire, both behind the guard and along the blade? If it's a small insulation break, the wire could be intermittently coming into contact with the blade. I'd recommend a visual inspection, then try bending the blade fairly far in both directions while pressing the tip and see if you can replicate the problem. (The purpose of bending the blades is to try to make any potentially unexposed part of the wire touch the blade.)

You should also make sure that there's not an extra bit of wire coming out of the socket which touches the socket itself at any point (as opposed to the actual screw it's supposed to be wrapped around) or the guard.

The other two problems I know of which will result in what you've described are conductive dust in the tip and a spring which is touching the barrel. Since you replaced the tips I doubt those, however.

When you say that you depress the point, you're doing it with your finger, and not just fencing, right?

[cyllek]

Hi Craig--yup, that was me! Thanks for remembering.

mrbiggs--thanks for the comment. As for the exposed wire on the socket, I did have a tiny piece on one. We cut it off so it wouldn't touch the body cord, but the problem still occurred. And that's not just with hitting, but with depressing the tip with my thumb or against the floor.

I'll check the insulation tonight but I can't shake the feeling that it's a tip problem. But I cleaned the barrels with rubbing alcohol and have replaced the springs recently.

I welcome any other thoughts!

[the ancient one]

A very long time ago I set a wire with Elmer's glue. It worked fine until the humidity was high, then it would effectively "short out" such that no hits were possible.

What resistance do you measure while the point is pressed?

[twisterfencing]

cyllek,

Have a ton of questions.

PM me and will figure it out if possiable.

Gary Spruill

Originally Posted by cyllek

Hi! Help please? I have four foils with the same problem and I'm kind of running low on ideas at this point. They test fine and typically work fine except sometimes I'll depress the tip and they won't go off. Out of the four blades, I think three of them are BF FIEs and the fourth is an Uhlmann. One is brand-new from PBT, and the other three have all German parts ordered recently from Blue Gauntlet. I rewired those three right before xmas, using completely new parts for the tip, barrel, screws, and springs. I even cleaned out the barrels with rubbing alcohol. The barrels say Uhlmann and the tips say Allstar.

This happened to three of the weapons in Atlanta. I had the armorers check them and my body cord, with the prognosis that all was well. Then the fourth foil malfunctioned tonight at practice.

I've been doing my own armoring for years now and I've NEVER had anything like this. Do I have compatibility problems? Am I hitting the spring at the wrong angle? Is it secretly a body cord problem? My initial theory was that the springs were not compatible with the barrels for some reason, but the PBT blade is throwing me off. I've verified as best I can on sight that all the parts are indeed German, and the ones I assembled are all from the same vendor....

Please let me know if you have any suggestions, theories, or need more information. Thank you for your help!