Sabre Sockets

[Fencergrl]

I know someone must carry these, and I suspect our friendly f-net armourers will know.

My students seem to lose the nuts & receptacles for the 2-prong sockets. It seems a waste to buy the bracket as well since it's still attached to the weapon.

Where can I find these parts? I have enclosed a picture for your viewing enjoyment. I have arrows pointing to the items needed (essentially everything but the bracket).

Craig... do carry these and don't list them separately in your online catalogue?

[Purple Fencer]

Originally Posted by Fencergrl

I know someone must carry these, and I suspect our friendly f-net armourers will know.

My students seem to lose the nuts & receptacles for the 2-prong sockets. It seems a waste to buy the bracket as well since it's still attached to the weapon.

Where can I find these parts? I have enclosed a picture for your viewing enjoyment. I have arrows pointing to the items needed (essentially everything but the bracket).

Craig... do carry these and don't list them separately in your online catalogue?

I don't know of anyone who carries the separate parts...you have to get your kids used to the idea of maintenance...throw an 8mm wrench on the hex nut and a screwdriver on top, crank until tight.

[CvilleFencer]

Go with a three prong socket. The cords don't break and the sockets don't fly apart. Plus you can use one cord for all three weapons!

[Fencergrl]

LOL... that would make things easier except I'm far too lazy to change the sockets on 30-40 weapons.

As for the kids and maintenance.... Ha! If half of them don't notice when the socket is missing (thus the reason their plug won't go into their weapon) then I doubt if they will notice loose nuts.

I've got a couple of local suppliers (one who deals direct with the manufacturer trying to hunt up some). Worse case scenerio... I end up paying $3.10 CDN for the whole thing rather than something like $1. The real annoying thing is that I mostly need the small one. Most are only missing one and usually the same on all of them.

I might add some split washers or locktite to see if I can get everything to hold together better. Advice would be appreciated.

Also if my guy comes through for me, and if anyone else wants this part shoot me a PM & I'll mail you out some.

[SJCFU#2]

You might also try contacting Leon Paul or Uhlmann and asking about them directly. I don't see many small parts listed on their web sites any more but I know that they used to list individual individual sockets and nuts.

The other option would be find a local machine shop that could bore through the some bolts for you (probably easier to do with brass screws than hardened steel). If all you are interested in is smaller sockets for saber then you might even be able to get away with using larger size bolts that completely fill the hole in the bracket, rather than rely on a metallic spacer.

edit: I also see some listed on FWF's web site (look under "guards and accessories")

[Mergs]

Another suggestion would be to put thread lock on them. In the case of saber sockets, I'd go with Locktite Red since you don't have to take them apart to rewire them.

[brtech]

AF often has the parts, as does American Fencers. I have bought them from Uhlman direct, or Langenkamp. You should realize that, like cars, buying parts is more expensive than buying the whole thing, so if you need most of the parts you are better off buying the entire bracket and taking it apart for parts. My experience is like yours: the small socket gets lost. So my kit has several small sockets and the plastic rings.

I think Merg's idea of using red locktite on a saber socket is a good one.

[Inquartata]

Absolute will sell you just about any part. I have even bought just the tiny screws that hold the retention clip onto the Uhlmann/Allstar-type body cord plugs...

Buy in person at a tournament if you can, shipping tiny bits like that probably would make it cost-prohibitive.

[Fencergrl]

Thanks for all the advice.