Argh!!!! Tip help!

[Purple Fencer]

Ok, this is irritating...

Just rewired a foil...brand new German point & wire. Tests good on my weight tester...land onthe other guy...get correct colored light.

Take a beat...off target. Everything's tight and nothing's damaged or crushed. Only thing I could think of was that the wire was broken and being intermittent, but I can't tell.

I suppose I could try and resolder the end cap like Dan DeChanie showed me last weekend (however, it's already mounted...but I have a fairly narrow solvering iron), but if anyone else has other suggestions...

[veeco]

Originally posted by Purple Fencer
Ok, this is irritating...

Just rewired a foil...brand new German point & wire. Tests good on my weight tester...land onthe other guy...get correct colored light.

Take a beat...off target. Everything's tight and nothing's damaged or crushed. Only thing I could think of was that the wire was broken and being intermittent, but I can't tell.

I suppose I could try and resolder the end cap like Dan DeChanie showed me last weekend (however, it's already mounted...but I have a fairly narrow solvering iron), but if anyone else has other suggestions...

Loose bodycord??

[sallearmourer]

it doesn't take much heat to melt the plastic cup.

Might as well rewire but check the inside of the barrel for hairine crack.


Tim

[Purple Fencer]

Originally posted by sallearmourer
it doesn't take much heat to melt the plastic cup.

Might as well rewire but check the inside of the barrel for hairine crack.


Tim

Tim, I don't think the barell's cracked...I try to check for them, but I'll look again. My soldering iron tip is narrow enough, I think, to not damage the cup. If I have to rewire anyway, there's no harm in trying.

Veeco..we thought of that. Different body cord, same prob. Different weapon, no prob -- so it's in the weapon I'd just done.

I forgot to mention that it sometimes went off taret if I spun the tip...I wasn't depressing it, tho'

[mifencer]

It looks like it's time to re-wire with a good wire this time. What happens when you bend the blade? Does it go white? If so, time to get the acetone out and re-wire (as I'm sure you know). If it doesn't go white then it might be bodycord or the socket plugs are loose.

[Greg Z.]

I just did that earlier this week. I had two foils all rewired, checked out, torture tested at home. First one went out after 5 minutes and second one after three points.
One just had a broken wire the other is a mystery, but I suspect the problem was at the junction of the bottom of the cup. This can sometimes result from setting it too rough when rewiring?
I used to try and fix it but it's just easier to rewire it.

I had a question. How does a hairline crack in the barrel give you a white light. I can see if it makes the barrel come loose but otherwise I don't know?
Greg Z.

[Greg Z.]

Just reviewed posts. Goes off target(white light) when you spin the tip, try sanding the ends of the spring with very fine grit sand paper 240 or finer, check the bottom of the cup(look for gunk), clean end of tip, (end that contacts spring) and make sure that this end does not spin freely it should be tight(you have new tip so it's probably not the prob).
I always give the ends of the spring a little roughing up whenever I remove the tip.
Hope that helps.
Greg Z.

[Purple Fencer]

Well...there was no crack in the barrel...I got my iron heated up and (hopefulle) soldered the connection. it appears to work. Hooked it up to a scoring box, bent the blade (no response). Whaked it with another foil...still stable.


Thanks for the input!

[Puppet Master]

With intermittent breaks it can somtimes be a loose barrel, w/o it being cracked. You can test it by tightening the barrel and see if that fixes it. However with the tip turning it sounds like a wire break. Do you bend the blade during or after you wire it? Maybe you bent it too much...

[neevel]

A hairline crack can expand just enough at the instant of a beat to cause the contact between the barrel and blade to be broken, but then contract back so that everything seems good and tight when the weapon is at rest (think of a high-speed photo of how a baseball or golf ball elastically deforms right at the moment of impact).

Good advice on sanding the spring to clean up any dirt or corrosion on the tip and spring. I worked on a weapon at a tournament today that had been producing white lights with beats on strip. When I checked it on the ohmmeter, it was showing about 150 ohms, jumping up higher whenever it was beat. Sanding the spring and cleaning out the tip brought it back down to a perfectly functional ~1.2 ohms. I also make sanding the spring S.O.P. whenver I take apart a point.

Re: bending the blade--
The purpose of the bend (in addition to help seat the wire in the groove) is to pretension the wire so that it will be less likely to break (esp. at the solder joint in the cup). Gluing a blade unbent will make it more likely to break when flexed. The recommendations of one vendor notwithstanding, all of the people I know armoring at the national level glue blades bent (though an excessive bend can also cause problems).

-Dave