How to tighten the bolt on this arm joint

[JBrandt774]

Hello,

One of the arm joints came loose on my doll, but I am having trouble grabbing the bolt to tighten it. The correct sized socket to tighten the bolt is too big to go in between the metal plates and grab the bolt. I have also tried tightening it with an adjustable wrench and various different sized wrenches, particularly a 15 mm wrench, which seems to fit best, but none of them seem to be able to properly grab the bolt the tighten it. However, the space is so narrow that I have to go in sideways with the wrenches and I can't really grab the bolt as you normally would with a wrench, with the two ends having full contact with the bolt. Any advice on how to proceed with this?


Some other things I have noticed while trying to repair this arm joint is that there appears to be rust inside the hole of the second arm joint that I was instructed to unscrew to access the bolt of the other arm joint I am trying to tighten. I have brought this to the attention of the vendor, and the vendor stated it to probably be a normal occurrence for many doll skeletons. Is this really the case?

Other than that, when unscrewing that arm joint, three washers came out, but according to the manufacturer, that arm joint is screwed down with only two washers. I am not sure where the third washer came from and where to install it when reattaching the arm joints together(I didn't really have time to look where they were located I was surprised by them and didn't want them falling inside of the doll though this may have been an unnecessary precaution on my part).

Moreover, I am concerned about what orientation the plates should be in when tightening the bolt in question as it has round edges on one end and more curved edges on the other end.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

[Rock13]

Hello JBrandt774. Sorry you're having trouble with your doll... you will be able to upload the images once you have 5 posts on the forum.

[seagull]

Assuming you're talking about the elbow?

And what would the age of a doll?

I also have skeleton bits lying around with no sign of rust and I don't remember any posts about arms having rust problems, could be wrong though

Reply to each question separately & there's your 5 posts

[JBrandt774]

Hello JBrandt774. Sorry you're having trouble with your doll... you will be able to upload the images once you have 5 posts on the forum.

Thanks for letting me know.

[JBrandt774]

Assuming you're talking about the elbow?

And what would the age of a doll?

I also have skeleton bits lying around with no sign of rust and I don't remember any posts about arms having rust problems, could be wrong though

Reply to each question separately & there's your 5 posts

Thanks for the reply, and I apologize for not being more clear on the bolt location. It's located towards the side of the shoulder, so it's a shoulder joint or the shoulder joint(I am not sure if there's more than one shoulder joint).

The doll is more than 5 months old.

Rust appears to be showing inside of the tube hole of the arm joint that connects to the shoulder joint.

[seagull]

Wow! At less than a year (guestimate), would not expect rust in the shoulders

Link to skeletons
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=131075

[JBrandt774]

Wow! At less than a year (guestimate), would not expect rust in the shoulders

Link to skeletons
viewtopic.php?f=87&t=131075

Well, the vendor is claiming that many of the skeletons probably look like this before being produced. I have attached a blurry shot I took from my endoscope. However, despite it being blurry, you could still see what appears to be rust inside of the tube hole though maybe it might be something else, which I hope is the case.

[seagull]

One more post and you will be able to put up pics

The skeleton tubing is thin walled stainless with hinging etc. welded to the ends but the fittings are usually high strength steel which can rust in wet or damp conditions

[JBrandt774]

One more post and you will be able to put up pics

The skeleton tubing is thin walled stainless with hinging etc. welded to the ends but the fittings are usually high strength steel which can rust in wet or damp conditions

Thanks for the information. Would the part of the tube that connects to the shoulder joint via the screw be considered a fitting?

[JBrandt774]

Here are the pics I linked to in the first post:

Shoulder Joint Bolt(b).jpg (144.07 KiB) Viewed 341 times

Plate Orientation Curved Edge(b).jpg (142.71 KiB) Viewed 341 times

[seagull]

Ah! The terms Fixtures and fittings get used by me without regard to accuracy of the English language

I use Fixture for anything permanently part of the skeleton and Fittings to the Bolt, Nut and Washers
Although when a bolt or nut is tack welded to the skeleton brackets/lugs/etc. it becomes a bit tricky

[JBrandt774]

Okay, I have tried accessing the bolt with these wrenches:

1. 15 mm angle open head end wrench
2. 15 mm 45 degree offset box wrench
3. 15 mm super thin wrench, 3mm thin

None of these worked out for me. I have contacted the vendor and manufacturer again about this and they are incapable of giving me any instruction or guidance on this apparently(the vendor essentially said I was on my own). I really don't understand why it's so complicated to provide instruction on this. I have already scoured all the relevant threads in the repair forum on here and really can't find a similar situation to mine. I am not really handy with wrenches or this type of stuff, so it's not common sense for me.

I was thinking this type of repair is similar to repairs people make on vehicles. Can someone point me to some reading or instructional material I could use to apply to my situation or just tell me how I can access this bolt or what I may be doing wrong? Thank you.

[HappyWabbit]

Hi to me it looks like a bolt head in your picture which has no room to turn perhaps on the other side of the bolt you can tighten the nut ? If they haven’t tack welded the nut in place. You might mention the brand of doll you have there are many members who work on dolls a lot. Good luck

[JBrandt774]

Hi to me it looks like a bolt head in your picture which has no room to turn perhaps on the other side of the bolt you can tighten the nut ? If they haven’t tack welded the nut in place. You might mention the brand of doll you have there are many members who work on dolls a lot. Good luck

Thanks for the reply. It's an Elsa babe doll with the 148 cm body type. I am not sure if the nut is tack welded in place, but I don't think there is any way to access that nut. The bolt goes straight into some tubular shaped piece with what appears to be washers sandwiched in between the bolt and this tubular piece. It's unlike the arm joint, which had a bolt and nut I was able to remove to disconnect it from the shoulder joint. I have pictures of this sent to me by the vendor, but I am not certain if I have permission to attach them here.

[narasinha]

Thanks for the reply. It's an Elsa babe doll with the 148 cm body type. I am not sure if the nut is tack welded in place, but I don't think there is any way to access that nut. The bolt goes straight into some tubular shaped piece with what appears to be washers sandwiched in between the bolt and this tubular piece. It's unlike the arm joint, which had a bolt and nut I was able to remove to disconnect it from the shoulder joint. I have pictures of this sent to me by the vendor, but I am not certain if I have permission to attach them here.

I also don't think that you can turn the bolt. The side plates are there for preventing it to turn. Maybe the whole thing is screwed into the tubular piece when the skeleton is built.