I know this is a common problem and wrist surgery threads have been posted before, but the ones I have seen involve making large incisions across the wrist, which leave large areas to glue shut and large scars.
Even Phoenix Studios recommended that I cut across the wrist so that both sides of the bolt could be accessed.
They sent me some free adhesive. Thanks Phoenix Studios!
I thought it would be much better to operate by cutting the seams as minimally as possible to minimize and hide scaring, not to mention that my past experience with realdoll adhesive, the more adhesive you use the more likely it is to crack and need to be re-glued in the future.
I found one photo of the Boy Toy wrist cut open that was helpful, it shows a phillips head screw (+) on the pinky finger side of the wrist. I could not see the bolt and screw on the opposite side in the photo.
I asked, but Phoenix Studios did not supply photos of the skeleton.
So, I started with the pinky finger side of the wrist. At this point I was hoping they were (+) head screws on both sides. Pressing hard with my thumb I could easily feel the bolt head.
So once the screw head is located, I take a phillips (+) head screw driver:
And use it to puncture the dolls skin above the screw head that I had felt:
As long as you are close you can move the screwdriver around slightly due to the stretchyness of the skin, and I was able to seat the screwdriver into the (+) head screw on my first attempt.
I tried to tighten the 'screw' at this point, it would turn easily but not tighten up. So I knew it was either a bolt, or a damaged screw
Now I could withdraw the screwdriver and work on the other side.
Using the same technique I could feel the bolt protruding on the other side. It was notably larger than the pinky finger side of the wrist. So I knew it was likely the bolt threads and nut, not a screw. This meant a slight incision would be required.
I punctured the skin with the screwdriver over the bolt anyway, and as expected I could not locate a (+) screw head.
So next I made a very small incision directly over the bolt using a small utility knife. The goal was to keep the incision as small as possible yet see what was inside.
So I made an incision about 1/4 to 3/8 inch long. I could then look inside:
Next I stretch the incision gently with my fingers and insert an 11/32 socket:
The silicone stretches around the socket so there was no need to make the incision any larger. Now I carefully re-insert the screwdriver on the opposite side, through the puncture that I made previously:
And then I tighten the nut up. It takes less that 1/8 of a turn to get the wrist to approximately the same tightness as the other wrist.
Now I remove the tools, and you can see the incision and the puncture spring closed on their own and are very minimal:
Now I spread the wounds a bit and clean them:
Finally I spread the wounds apart and put a dab of realdoll adhesive in each one:
Then wipe off the excess adhesive:
Wait for the adhesive to dry. And I'm done!
Here Sarah holds her repaired wrist up, you can barely see the small puncture scar. The scars are barely there, and hard to capture with my crappy camera:
I hope someone finds this useful!
