E.I.C (Easy Izzy Crane)

[angelah]

Any heavy weight on carpet will not move very well unless it has wide wheels and large ones at that. It is far better to use a flat bottomed static stand like this if all rooms are carpeted.
In my house the downstairs floors are wood panelled so a stand with small wheels would work fine.

A well made stand and good craftsmanship, well done, wish I knew somebody who could do that sort of work.

angelah

[lvveedub]

Flash - especially liked your use of the flat strap! nice touch feeding it through the rectangular tube.. bravo!

[FlashGordoll]

Thanks angelah and lvveedub, .

For me there are more reasons to not have wheels:
1: Elle pointed out that winching her up at a very slight angle would pull the stand towards her, (so they would have proved more of a hindrance than anything else).

2: Also my office chair on wheels has just over 2 inches of clearance between its base and the bottom of the wheels, if I had wheels on the stand the office chair wouldn't be able to dock under the stand (the box section is 2 inch) this would have rendered the stand difficult or at worst useless for what it was intended for.

3: Another point to make is not all doll stands have wheels, they are intended as stands for storage and to aid dressing, because my doll is suspended from the top of the head and not from the back of the head, it means the height of the stand is a lot taller than usual (6 FT), if you tried to wheel poor 47KG Izzy around attached to a stand she would be swaying about and probably hurting herself.

4: The rooms in my house are not big enough to wheel her around anyway, even if I had hard floors it would still be pointless.

Advantages:
Doll owners here will understand the need for a stand with a heavy doll. Trying to dress the lower half of a heavy doll lying down is very difficult, (especially getting clothing over her bum)! It also helps with cleaning the doll, as you can get to her whole body no problem. Another advantage is when she's on her stand she takes up a lot less room, plus the other point I made earlier about giving her bum a rest (not good to leave a heavy doll lying down all the time).

Flash - especially liked your use of the flat strap! nice touch feeding it through the rectangular tube.. bravo!

That was an important consideration, I'm glad you noticed! The belt material is extremely strong and slides effortlessly over the 2 X s/steel bars with no noise. If I'd used wire cable it would have made the build more complicated because roller/pulleys would have had to be used, the winch was the cheapest part of this build!

A well made stand and good craftsmanship, well done, wish I knew somebody who could do that sort of work.
angelah

angelah, any metal worker/fabricator could make something similar for you. But I have to warn you s/steel is very expensive and the type of welding I use (TIG) is also very time consuming and expensive. I think I easily spent 2.5 days building it, so it would have cost a lot of money. But it will outlast even me!

It would be far easier to reproduce it in mild steel and MIG weld, it could then be painted afterwards. G. in the UK does sell stands if your interested, when you get your doll. (I noticed your location sais Wales).

Regards, Flash.

[FlashGordoll]

MD Stand Mk II

This is just an update of a 2nd stand a member on UKLDF wanted me to make for his MD and other doll not to be named, its slightly different from the original because he wanted the longest part 'fold-able' for easier storage. Other than that the original has worked flawlessly over the years so didn't see any reason to change this 2nd one that much.

. Same dimensions
. Fold-able upright
. Steel instead of s/steel (50mm box section)
. Mig welded
. Painted in 2 pack satin black

Dimensions:
Total height = 186cm (floor to highest point)
Width of base (view from front or back) = 56cm
Length of base (view from side measured from bottom) = 64 cm
Hinge point (measured from floor upwards) = 94.5 cm

Materials used:
50mm steel box section
10mm s/steel round bar (for winch web gliding)
8 of M8 s/steel nuts and bolts
1 of M10 bolt and nut s/steel
25 X 25mm X 3mm steel angle section
40 X 80mm X 4mm steel box section (for top winch webbing guide)
1 X heavy duty winch (webbing type)

I'm not offering to make these for anyone but posting it just to give anyone else with metal working skills out there ideas on building a stand. If anyone wants to copy it feel free.

Its built especially for heavy dolls, the winch idea has been used by many others before me. I chose the webbing type of winch because its easier to use as it glides over the welded in round bar.

In its testing unfinished stage:

Fold-able top section:




Fold-able top section simply bolts onto the base with 4 X M8 bolts (nuts are welded to the underside of the 25 X 25mm angle section).






The hinge point has 2 X M8 bolts at the front for security, the welded angle section supports the weight as it buts up perfectly when the hinge is closed in the upright position.


The mounting plate for the winch has 2 X M8 bolts and 1 X M10 bolt welded on the inside. These simply slide through the mounting holes on the upright so nuts can be spun on. A butt pad screws onto the M10 thread.








The round bar welded to the front and back of the webbing guide is s/steel, the reasoning for this is the webbing will wear the paint of. Its position in such a way that the webbing will only contact the round bar under tension:


Weight testing:

Tested roughly up to 58KG easy peezy, it probably would have done double that weight.




Finishing:

Shot blasted it and spray painted it with 2 pack satin black via HVLP to give it a reasonable finish. Alternatively anyone could simply sand the rust off and brush paint with a metal paint.









A happy fellow members doll :