Krazy glue on wire

[Skittles the Dark]

I was rewiring my blade today, and what ended up happening at the end was that I got krazy glue on the end of the wire that is supposed to connect to the socket, and I was just wondering if I should be worried that I got krazy glue on the wire, because now I cannot string in the spaghetti tubing.

[stillchris]

I was rewiring my blade today, and what ended up happening at the end was that I got krazy glue on the end of the wire that is supposed to connect to the socket, and I was just wondering if I should be worried that I got krazy glue on the wire, because now I cannot string in the spaghetti tubing.

Just use a solvent, acetone or whatever to dissolve the glue. It will not hurt the wire and if the covering is damaged, who cares, it is covered by the spaghetti tubing.

[Wetmelon]

+1

Man acetone is great. It has so many uses! You can even dope race tires with it

[Skittles the Dark]

Just use a solvent, acetone or whatever to dissolve the glue. It will not hurt the wire and if the covering is damaged, who cares, it is covered by the spaghetti tubing.

Thanks, I went ahead and did that and now I have a functioning blade! I think. I need to go test it now.

[brtech]

I'm glad you rescued your wiring job. Now we ask: how do you get glue on the wire?

The usual culprit is too much glue.

After you put the blade in the bending chain, and make sure the wire is sitting at the bottom of the groove, start at the top of the blade, holding the tip up and the tang down. Put ONE DROP of glue 1/2" or so from the barrel. Watch the glue run down the blade. You can notice the insulation of the wire turning darker where it absorbs the glue.

When it stops, put another drop an inch or so farther up the blade from that point and watch it run down. It should only take 3 drops or so to get to more than half way down the blade. When it the last drop stops running, turn the blade over and hold it by the chain with both the barrel and the tang up, and the center of the blade down for ~15 seconds. If this is a foil, you can then wipe off any excess glue on the surface of the blade with a paper towel.

Then hold the tang up and the tip down. Put ONE DROP of glue 3/4" inch from the end of the tang shoulder. It will wick up a bit, leaving about 1/2" unglued. Watch the drop run down. Put ONE DROP an inch or so up the blade and watch it run down. It should only take 3 drops or so to go past the point where the glue from the other end stopped.

Turn the blade over again and hold by the chain with the tip and the tang up and the center of the blade down for ~15 seconds. You can wipe off any glue on the surface of the blade with a paper towel. Examine the glue job carefully, making sure that the insulation is saturated with glue. It would be unusual to find any unglued spots if you followed these directions.

Put the chain around a table end, or something else that lets the center of the blade hang down. Let it set up maybe 2-3 minutes for most thin,fast CAs. Then you can take the chain off, and assemble the weapon, although you would be best to let the glue dry for at least 15 minutes before you use it.

[Purple Fencer]

I'm glad you rescued your wiring job. Now we ask: how do you get glue on the wire?

The usual culprit is too much glue.

After you put the blade in the bending chain, and make sure the wire is sitting at the bottom of the groove, start at the top of the blade, holding the tip up and the tang down. Put ONE DROP of glue 1/2" or so from the barrel. Watch the glue run down the blade. You can notice the insulation of the wire turning darker where it absorbs the glue.

When it stops, put another drop an inch or so farther up the blade from that point and watch it run down. It should only take 3 drops or so to get to more than half way down the blade. When it the last drop stops running, turn the blade over and hold it by the chain with both the barrel and the tang up, and the center of the blade down for ~15 seconds. If this is a foil, you can then wipe off any excess glue on the surface of the blade with a paper towel.

Then hold the tang up and the tip down. Put ONE DROP of glue 3/4" inch from the end of the tang shoulder. It will wick up a bit, leaving about 1/2" unglued. Watch the drop run down. Put ONE DROP an inch or so up the blade and watch it run down. It should only take 3 drops or so to go past the point where the glue from the other end stopped.

Turn the blade over again and hold by the chain with the tip and the tang up and the center of the blade down for ~15 seconds. You can wipe off any glue on the surface of the blade with a paper towel. Examine the glue job carefully, making sure that the insulation is saturated with glue. It would be unusual to find any unglued spots if you followed these directions.

Put the chain around a table end, or something else that lets the center of the blade hang down. Let it set up maybe 2-3 minutes for most thin,fast CAs. Then you can take the chain off, and assemble the weapon, although you would be best to let the glue dry for at least 15 minutes before you use it.

You could also do a variant of that if you use a chemical accelerator like I do.

After laying the wire, pulling it tight, and taping it down, glue about 1 inch down at each end (I use a screwdriver to push the wire down into the groove for the couple of seconds it takes the accelerator to do its job).

Then bend the blade and apply as normal (not TOO much glue, in any case). I've found that the residue of the accelerator generally sets whatever glue runs over the previously set sections.

[brtech]

Hmmm. I'm not sure I like the idea of gluing the ends of the wires before you put it under tension. What do you think you are getting out of that?

I would say that you are probably encouraging the wire to move after you glue it by tensioning after gluing. Even with an accelerent, the glue hasn't reached anywhere near the full bond strength in a couple of seconds.

Now, putting some accelerent down at the ends to "freeze" any glue that rolls by has some merit.


BTW, if you have a somewhat recalcitrant wire, that just won't stay down even after tensioning, you can use a screwdriver to hold it down a second or so, where it will stay, but you can remove the screwdriver.

[Purple Fencer]

Hmmm. I'm not sure I like the idea of gluing the ends of the wires before you put it under tension. What do you think you are getting out of that?

I was having a lot of trouble with glue running onto the tang before I got the accelerator onto it...but after thinking about it now, I suppose I could apply the accelerator after bending the blade and then do the glue...

BTW, if you have a somewhat recalcitrant wire, that just won't stay down even after tensioning, you can use a screwdriver to hold it down a second or so, where it will stay, but you can remove the screwdriver.

That's exactly what I do....very helpful on Vniti epees (since the groove at the shoulder end is really shallow) and LP folded epees.

[brtech]

I was having a lot of trouble with glue running onto the tang before I got the accelerator onto it...but after thinking about it now, I suppose I could apply the accelerator after bending the blade and then do the glue...

This is a sign of haste to me. If you put ONE DROP of glue and watch it drip down, you can follow its progress. You can even control the speed by adjusting the angle of the blade as you hold it. You shouldn't be letting glue roll down anywhere near the tang: as soon as the glue gets past half way from the barrel end, STOP, turn the blade over (hold it by the chain and keep the middle of the blade lowest) and wait 10 seconds or so. After that, nothing should be dripping. Then start at the tang end and work towards the center, controlling the drip, using ONE DROP of glue, until it gets past the half way point.

It should be easy to see where the glue is dripping: the insulation on the wire turns dark as it absorbs the glue. Watch its progress, control its rate, and you will always know where the glue is going.

Now I will tell you how Kathy rewired an Epee in a HURRY, on the strip, in Antalya World Championships a couple weeks ago. She ripped the old wire out, ran her razor blade up and down maybe 3 times. Stuffed the wire in the barrel, tightened the it and yanked the wire straight and wrapped it. She is now maybe 2 minutes into the job. She chained it, put a drop of glue on the barrel end, held the blade down and dropped a drop of water on the barrel. Water is a very effective accelerant. Then she did the same with the tang end. Then she ran the glue bottle down really fast (she has done this before), and got maybe 80% of the wire covered. She spot fixed the rest. She waited no more than 10 seconds with the blade down chain up and then started re-assembling. Total rewire time, maybe 5 or 6 minutes.

I did a couple of foil rewires on strip, but I used a torch to get the wire out, cleaned it off well with the knife, and did a fairly careful glue job. Took me at least 10 minutes, and foils are usually much faster than epees because you don't have to futz with the shims, and one wire is easier than two. When we weren't in a hurry, we used a Dremel to clean the groove, and took our time to get a really good glue job, neat assembly etc.

[Purple Fencer]

This is a sign of haste to me. If you put ONE DROP of glue and watch it drip down, you can follow its progress.

That works with a really aqueous glue, but what I use is a little thicker...it doesn't run that way.

'Course, my application technique has changed a little over the years, so I doubt I'm putting as much glue on now as I was in 2002.

[Mergs]

'Course, my application technique has changed a little over the years, so I doubt I'm putting as much glue on now as I was in 2002.

What? You mean your buying it in quart bottles now, instead of gallons?

[Purple Fencer]

What? You mean your buying it in quart bottles now, instead of gallons?

1 liter instead of 2....we ARE a metric sport, after all...

[TodG]

So is there any store brand of CA that's nice and runny? I tried Locktite CA to fix a foil and the glue was far too thick to run along the wire - not at all like the stuff I get from FdN.

[brtech]

Most Hobby stores have the right stuff. You want "thin" and "fast".
The brand that I like is Zap (the pink bottle is the thin and fast version).

I have some Loctite that is pretty good, although not as thin as Zap. Maybe you could look around for the thin/fast version of Loctite.

[TodG]

Thanks. Believe it or not, there is no hobby store in Helena.

[Chafunkta]

Now I will tell you how Kathy rewired an Epee in a HURRY, on the strip, in Antalya World Championships a couple weeks ago. She ripped the old wire out, ran her razor blade up and down maybe 3 times. Stuffed the wire in the barrel, tightened the it and yanked the wire straight and wrapped it. She is now maybe 2 minutes into the job. She chained it, put a drop of glue on the barrel end, held the blade down and dropped a drop of water on the barrel. Water is a very effective accelerant. Then she did the same with the tang end. Then she ran the glue bottle down really fast (she has done this before), and got maybe 80% of the wire covered. She spot fixed the rest. She waited no more than 10 seconds with the blade down chain up and then started re-assembling. Total rewire time, maybe 5 or 6 minutes.

Now I need to see a video with this.

[Purple Fencer]

Now I will tell you how Kathy rewired an Epee in a HURRY, on the strip, in Antalya World Championships a couple weeks ago. She ripped the old wire out, ran her razor blade up and down maybe 3 times. Stuffed the wire in the barrel, tightened the it and yanked the wire straight and wrapped it. She is now maybe 2 minutes into the job. She chained it, put a drop of glue on the barrel end, held the blade down and dropped a drop of water on the barrel. Water is a very effective accelerant. Then she did the same with the tang end. Then she ran the glue bottle down really fast (she has done this before), and got maybe 80% of the wire covered. She spot fixed the rest. She waited no more than 10 seconds with the blade down chain up and then started re-assembling. Total rewire time, maybe 5 or 6 minutes.

I've done it in 10 at a tourney for someone who only had one weapon....but I had the advantage of a clean blade from inventory and the tip I grabbed happened to have the contact spring at the correct length...so the event you describe is even more impressive.

It's easier to do a speed rewire with epee, tho....much easier to pull the wire out of that V channel than the groove on a foil.

[JacoKierkegaard]

Tip for those using the thicker-than-optimal Loctite CA glue: Apply glue to a section of a couple inches, then go back and use the tip of the bottle to spread the glue out further while simultaneously making sure it's just at the bottom of the groove. I still wind up having the glue a little thicker than ideal with this method, but much better than by just having it sit in the groove.

[Mergs]

Or you can do what we used to do with the thick glues, like Pliobond, which was called bottom gluing. Run a bead of glue down the blade and then lay the wire in, secure it, and then bend the blade to let it dry. Additionally, you put glue on your fingers and ran it down the wire to 'wet' the fiber covering. Messy. CAs are MUCH easier!

[jjefferies]

Hmmm. I'm not sure I like the idea of gluing the ends of the wires before you put it under tension. What do you think you are getting out of that?

I glue the wire closest to the points for maybe an inch while holding it tight. After drying I pull the wires tight into the groove (epee) and holding the wire down glue for an inch toward the handle end and the lowest point. Now having the wire tacked into place at each end I apply a bend for tension and glue the rest. The wire at the tang end can go up as well as down again so I do it last and by pressing it down with a small screw driver. Only about an inch or so.