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The Care & Feeding of Weapons, Electrical: Part 2
by Michael Mergens
BASIC REPAIRS
Before you get started on repairs, you want a clear workspace where you can lay the weapon out horizontally, as well as having a vise handy that you can hold the weapon over the edge of the table. To work on the weapon horizontally the ubiquitous Duct Tape or masking tape comes in handy. No, don’t tape the weapon to the table, instead put the tape roll on its side and rest the bell guard edge in the middle of it. This will keep it from rolling around while you work on it. Also, a small block of wood with a V-groove in it helps lift the point off the table and keeps it from sliding around.
When you are working on the tip, place the small magnetic strip under it and use it to hold the screws, tip and spring. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to find the small screws in carpeting and springs are round and roll, too. Remember Murphy’s Law. A tool or part dropped will roll to the most inaccessible spot! Either that or it will land where it can do the most damage (also known as the Law of Selective Gravity).
FOIL
If you do not get a light when you test (or if the light doesn’t go off when you depress the tip), first try twisting the tip. Sometimes the spring will pop out of the little plastic cup on the inside of the barrel. If that doesn’t do it, check the connection at the body cord connection. Is it still good? Wiggle it. Still good? If the light does not come on the problem will most likely lie in the wire. Remove the tip tape from around the barrel and remove the screws. Careful you don’t shoot the tip across the room!
Take your Ohmmeter and set it to the lowest ohm reading (0-20 ohms, normally) place one probe down the barrel to contact the center of the bottom of the barrel (this is the end contact of the wire). Holding it there, place the other probe on the small pin connector at the other end. If the wire is good, you should get a reading of about, or less than 1 ohm (if the circuit is open, the resistance is infinity (not futile), or the needle is pegged to the right. To check if the ohmmeter is working, touch the two probes together. The needle should go to the left). If the wire is bad you need to go to the advanced repair section and replace the wire. If you place the probe in the barrel against the barrel, while still touching the small diameter connector, and there is resistance, then the wire is grounding out against the blade somewhere. Again, the wire will have to be replaced.
When you have the tip disassembled, it is a good idea to clean it out occasionally. To do that, take a small piece of fine sandpaper and roll it up so that it will fit in the barrel and lightly sand the sides of the barrel. Then take a Q-tip dipped in Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA or rubbing alcohol) and rub it down. Repeat until there is no dirt on the Q-tip. Then take a dry Q-tip and wipe the inside of the barrel again. Look at your tip and make sure there is no dirt or corrosion on it, either. WARNING: DO NOT USE ACETONE. The cup is made of plastic and acetone will eat it up and, well, skip to the replacing of wire section.
If the spring will not hold up the weight, replace it by disassembling the tip and putting in a new one. Make sure you have the same diameter and length (there are currently four (4) different ones out there!) spring as the one that you are replacing! If not, it won’t seat in the cup properly and will ground out against the side of the barrel. Reassemble the tip and check the weight. There are ways to adjust the spring that involves heating it to remove some of the temper or cutting it shorter, but this is more of an art than science and not recommended (by mere mortals, that is. This is in the realm of professionals!)
If the wire is broken at the body cord connector, take a razor blade and gently cut through the spaghetti cord about ⅜ to ½ inch down from the break and remove if from the wire. Be most careful not to cut the wire! Strip the insulation from the wire (if you are using German wires, scrape the wire with a sharp knife blade to remove any clear varnish coating)(they obviously did this to screw with the French!) and reconnect it. One way to do this is to lay the wire along the bell guard and either gently scrape it off with a razor blade or if you are in a hurry, scrape it over the edge of your guard (assuming you have a well loved weapon and the edge of the guard is dinged up). Be careful in reconnecting the wire. The nut needs to be snug, not tractor tight (i.e.; need three men and a boy with a 4’ cheater pipe to get it loose!)
If the barrel is loose, take the vise grips and lock it around the barrel snuggly (again, not too tight, you don’t want to make the barrel egg-shaped) or use a wrench if the bottom of the barrel has flats for this purpose. Take the small crescent wrench and close it around the thin part of the blade about 2” below the barrel, loosen it slightly (about a ¼ turn) and then tighten the barrel. Again, be careful about how much you tighten it or you’ll find yourself in that nasty section about rewiring the blade.
Reassemble the tip by securing the weapon in a vertical orientation (tip up, klutz). Drop in the spring and then put the tip in. Align the holes in the small copper collar of the tip with holes in the barrel (if for some reason you are using German tips, there are no holes, just a groove. The screws and springs are also different so don’t mix them up! Best advice is to make sure you use only one kind of tip German or French. As history has shown us, they don’t coexist well.) Be sure that once you snug them down the tip moves freely. Sometimes screws get mixed up at the manufacturers and they are a bit long. This will cause them to bind against the central post of tip. Test to make sure you have a good connection. Twist the tip to make sure everything is seated.
Replacing the tape is easily done in either orientation. First cut a strip about 3 ⅝” long. Lay it along the wide side of the blade aligning the side of the tape and blade. The end should be about ½” from the top of the barrel and not covering the screws. Fold the tape over the edge of the blade and smooth it down. Repeat all around the blade. Next cut a piece of either the same color tape or contrasting color about 1 to ½” long and wrap it around the barrel aligning the edge of the tape with the top of the barrel, BUT keep it away from the edge. You should see a sliver (1/64 to 1/32”) of the top of the barrel. This will prevent the tape from interfering with the travel of the tip. Smooth it around the barrel.
If the wire has popped out of the groove, take the wiring chain and place one cup over the tip and the other over the end of the grip (if you are using French grips, you might consider removing the grip and placing the cup over the end of the tang.). Shorten the chain where the wire lays back in the groove (usually a really good bend of about 14” if you were to place the weapon like you to check it for legal bends) and with the guard down, and the wire pushed back into the groove, run some super-glue into the area where the wire came out. It is important that the glue runs away from the tip or else you end up gluing all the bits of the tip together. On the other hand, don’t put so much on that it runs all the way to the guard, either. Refer to wire replacing section (again) if this happens.
You may also want to occasionally run a piece of rolled up fine sandpaper in the connector holes and clean them with IPA.
EPEE
The repair techniques for epee again closely parallel those of foil. The tip, however, is a bit more complicated, although removal is the same (take out the screws and don’t shoot the tip across the room!).
If the 1.5mm shim will not fit in between the barrel and tip, you might consider filing down the end of the barrel till it does. Again, this is a bit tricky, but then it just might be a burr that is holding it up, so it’s a good immediate fix. If not, then you need to replace the tip. Or, God forbid, the barrel (ah, yes! And we are back to that nasty rewiring section, again.).
If with the 0.5mm shim between the barrel and tip the light goes off, the contact spring (the itty-bitty one on the end of the tip) will need to be shortened. Also, sometimes if the wire is good, the spring may need to be lengthened. It is adjusted by twisting it left or right (lengthen or shorten). Hook up the weapon and without putting the screws back in, test it until it just barely does NOT go off with the shim in.
When cleaning the barrel, make sure the contacts on the end of the wire (there are two) are clean. To do this, take a small pencil eraser and lightly buff the ends. Clean with IPA.
After reassembling the tip make sure the TWO screws are in place. Check the travel of the tip. It should be smooth. If not, check the grooves the screws travel in. Look for burrs that may be causing them to catch. Carefully remove the burrs.
Follow the other foil related repairs for the wire, connector and tip.
TROUBLESHOOTING
Ok. So now you show up to strip with your shinny new weapons and functional body cords. And you start fencing (for the sake of discussion, we’ll start off with foil). After a particularly rough exchange the off-target light starts continuously going off. Crap. Here are the steps to take to find out what the problem is. Before you do anything, though, make sure the Referee is right there with you as you go through the troubleshooting process. You should really make him/her do it. Because if you find the fault and not the Referee, and if the annulment of a point is involved, you have just invalidated any possibility of it being thrown out.
Take the body cord out of the weapon socket and place the edge of the guard between the pins, twist so that the two pins contact the guard. If the light goes off, then there is something wrong with the weapon. Normally, if the weapon is bad, you replace it with one of your back up weapons. Down to your last one? Bummer. Perhaps the situation is salvageable.
As we did when checking out our weapon before the tournament, start at the tip. Make sure you still have one. Did it fly out? Is your blade broken? Pretty obvious stuff. If you still have it, twist it to make sure the tip isn’t stuck. You can also place the blade on the floor (next to the strip, not on the strip) put your foot on the blade about 12” from the tip and flick the tip against the floor to see if that will dislodge the tip. Works sometimes, but not always. Mostly it makes a lot of noise and looks like you have some magical technique. Check to see if the barrel has come loose. As a last resort, switch weapons with your opponent. If his light goes off, then the weapon is truly dead, borrow another one and take the Yellow Card like a man.
If the weapon is good, and the light stays on, then the next thing to do is check the body cord. Partially pull the cord out of the reel socket (but making sure they are still making a connection) and take the blade or a small screwdriver or other piece of metal and short across the pins. If the light persists on going off, the problem is either the reel or floor cord. Now it is the Referee’s problem. To confirm this, unplug the floor cord from the machine and plug your body cord into the machine and reconnect your weapon. If the light goes off, then it is either one of those two items. To check, switch the floor cords. If the problem switches sides, that is your opponent’s light starts going off, then it is the floor cord. If your light goes off, then it is the reel. You can also do this by doing the same thing as you did with the reel to body cord connection and short across them.
If during a bout you get spurious off-target lights, check the barrel for being loose, stuck tip, loose handle, or loose connection. Sometimes the body cord connection will be a bit loose in the socket. If this is the case, take your small screwdriver and spread the small metal pieces out. Or just lick the pins and stick it back in (in foil, lick them one at a time. If you lick them both, you’ll get a mild shock!). This is a quick, temporary fix. If that doesn’t work, replace the body cord. A final option is to check to see if your handle is tight. A loose handle will cause intermittent opens in the circuit, too.
How about the situation where you just KNOW you hit your opponent in a valid spot, mostly because he’s on his knees rubbing the spot where you hit him, babbling something about really going to be bruised in the morning, and you get an off-target light. First thing to look for is if the alligator clip is still attached to his lame`. If not reconnect it. If it is, ask to touch your opponents lame` in another spot, if it tests valid then there is a possibility that the place you hit was dead. In that case, let the Referee take your tip and test the area where you think it landed (in this case, pretty easy to find since he was rubbing it! And you want to let the Referee do it, because you know that sumbitch’s gotta hurt and you don’t want to add insult to injury!). If it tests valid and several other points around it do too, and the Referee can’t recreate the fault, fencing continues. If he can recreate the fault, then the opponent has to replace their lame`.
If however, you continue to get an off-target when you touch the lame`, start tracing the problem back to the box, starting with the body cord. At the reel to body cord connection, pull the body cord out far enough to keep contact but far enough to let your tip be able to contact the prong closest to the center prong. Push the tip so that you get a light. If it is valid, then the opponent’s body cord is bad. If not, then it is either the reel or the floor cord.
Epee will not give you the kind of warning that something is wrong with is as foil will. If you suspect something is wrong, ask for a halt; present your tip to the Referee. The Referee will check the weapon by first checking to see that the wires at your connector are still in good shape, see if you are still plugged in and finally depressing the tip. If the weapon is dead, replace it. Don’t spend much time messing with it. If the next one is dead, then begin tracing the problem back to the box as you did in foil.
Care & Feeding, Part 1
Care & Feeding, Part 3-Conclusion
Fencing Articles: Table of Contents
Gulf Coast Division: The Rogue Site
Gulf Coast Division Fencing Discussion Forums
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