First attempts at tpe repairs with a hot air rework station

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 8:13 am

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has seen his tpe gal get the odd abrasion or tear during the past few months. Certainly during the long heat wave here in the UK I have found a few cases of minor tears around joints where I have left one of my gals limbs at an angle or where the tpe is otherwise under tension. Last year I didn't have any issues but this year a couple of my gals suffered a few of these pesky 'injuries' which I could have no doubt avoided if I had stepped up their baby oil treatments and kept an eye on how they were posed over prolonged periods. Anyway, to get to the point, encouraged by Mishka's excellent video of his performing a few repairs using hot air, I got myself an SMD hot air rework station and tried it for the first time this morning. First I did a quick and simple repair on Sophia's right wrist and was so pleased with the result I moved quickly on to Shuri who had suffered the worse case of tpe separation on her left elbow. Now, I had previously tried to improve this with some tiny amounts of super glue on a cocktail stick being careful not to get any on the surface area but it was pretty fruitless as there were dozens of tiny holes. I suspect, (unless someone can put me straight) that much darker tpe skin colour may have a lower melting point. Shuri got the damage to her elbow about 6 weeks after arrival, so it couldn't have been purely a lack of oil and I noticed today that the tpe on the elbow was workable at around 75c. In any event I will learn from this, ie pay more attention to elbows, knees etc and apply Vaseline a bit more frequently, (with Shuri anyway). Ok, to the repair itself. I cleaned the elbow area well with baby oil, then carefully heated it up with the rework station, checking the temp with an infrared gauge. I could see the tpe soften and so then gently patted the area with a piece of oil soaked cloth, (as Mishka did in his video). After a minute or so I applied a little powder and, hey presto, it looks loads better! There are a couple of really tiny pin prick holes which I'm guessing are down to where I applied superglue, in any case this has been a very encouraging start! Please see before and after pics of Shuri's elbow...

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:09 am

Arthur1960, that repair looks really good.

I just watched Mishka's video where he demonstated the heat gun use.
I think I'll probable have to do some repairs like this on my Tiffany at some point.

Do you have a link to the particular SMD hot air rework station you bought?
Does it have the IR temperature sensor built in?

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:39 am

Hi djcdoll, thanks, yes I'm really pleased with the 2 I've done so far. That one on Shuri's elbow was probably the worse and now it looks nice and smooth. The work station I got was this one:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 1966004104

I was lucky enough to find an eBay seller with a sale on so got mine for just £19.99 although the average price seems to be around the £28 mark. It doesn't have a built in IR temp sensor so I got a separate one like in Mishka's video, here it is:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2874550078

I paid £7 for the IR temp gun. I started out slow, with the lowest heat and air setting but with confidence will turn it up a little. The heat gun in Mishka's video got the tpe hot a lot quicker. I suspect that one of these hot air things should be a must have for all tpe doll owners!

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:44 am

Arthur1960 wrote:Hi djcdoll, thanks, yes I'm really pleased with the 2 I've done so far. That one on Shuri's elbow was probably the worse and now it looks nice and smooth. The work station I got was this one:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 1966004104

I was lucky enough to find an eBay seller with a sale on so got mine for just £19.99 although the average price seems to be around the £28 mark. It doesn't have a built in IR temp sensor so I got a separate one like in Mishka's video, here it is:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre ... 2874550078

I paid £7 for the IR temp gun. I started out slow, with the lowest heat and air setting but with confidence will turn it up a little. The heat gun in Mishka's video got the tpe hot a lot quicker. I suspect that one of these hot air things should be a must have for all tpe doll owners!

Hi Arthur1960,
Thanks for the quick reply.
I think I make have a heat gun somewhere so I'll have to have a hunt around first to see if I do have one.
I'll get the IR temp gun though as it looks good and is cheap too.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:48 am

I suspect that with a hotter heat gun you would have to be very careful, in Mishka's video he just has it in front of the tpe for a few seconds whereas the lower heat of my work station was a little slower but then again I was being cautious! I did have a mask on but things didn't get so hot that any vapour/smoke was given off.

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:50 am

Arthur1960 wrote:I suspect that with a hotter heat gun you would have to be very careful, in Mishka's video he just has it in front of the tpe for a few seconds whereas the lower heat of my work station was a little slower but then again I was being cautious!

I agree.

I think I need to try and get some TPE samples or test pieces to try out first of all, to practice on first.

RGC_0767 · Post by **RGC_0767** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:43 pm

Nicely done. Can only know how we are gonna do, only if we do it

Nice Job Arthur1960

Indigo does suggest to use mineral oil as opposed to baby oil for heat work.
Baby oil has thickeners in it, mineral oil does not.
Have used both and I like mineral oil, seems to make it nice.

Possibilities are endless with repairs using heat. An art worth learning if you are a doll owner.

Samurai · Post by **Samurai** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 1:52 pm

Thats great work Arthur i used a hot spoon

which can be difficult to get to the correct temp, but this high tech stuff is the biscuit thank for the links also. need to bookmark this page for future reference

Samurai....

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon Aug 13, 2018 2:10 pm

Thanks guys, using a piece of cloth dabbed with oil was surprisingly effective in giving a nice finish, it's so simple when you think about it, thanks to Mishka for posting his very helpful video.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 9:44 am

Just a quick update on doing simple repairs using the hot air rework station. Have to say this machine is worth every penny, it's simple to use and keeping it on a lower setting and just being careful and patient gives really good results. I've just finished a few more little repairs on Shuri and am really pleased with the results so can't recommend one of this things highly enough to all tpe doll owner's. Of course, I've yet to use it on anything major but for all those minor cuts, tears, little holes etc then it's perfect!

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 9:56 am

Arthur1960 wrote:Just a quick update on doing simple repairs using the hot air rework station. Have to say this machine is worth every penny, it's simple to use and keeping it on a lower setting and just being careful and patient gives really good results. I've just finished a few more little repairs on Shuri and am really pleased with the results so can't recommend one of this things highly enough to all tpe doll owner's. Of course, I've yet to use it on anything major but for all those minor cuts, tears, little holes etc then it's perfect!

Hi Arthur1960, sounds great.

I ordered one of those IR temperature sensors off eBay. It arrived yesterday. It looks good and I checked that it works okay.

I'm nearly ready to have a go myself on Tiffany once I find my heat gun.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 10:15 am

Hi djcdoll, good luck, I would be cautious with the heat gun if it's like the one in Mishka's video as you can see that it heats the tpe up to 100c in a matter of seconds whereas with the rework station I have it set on 150c with medium air flow and it probably takes about 30 seconds to get close to maybe 75c when your can see the tpe soften which is when you can then apply the oil soaked cloth. With some small cuts and holes they just close up using a smaller nozzle so you get a nice, neat repair. I suspect that for the beginner with these repairs then the rework station is a kinder thing to use as it takes longer to get to the heat set so you're less likely to make a mistake. But if your familiar with a heat gun then I guess it will be fine although Mishka advised practicing on a test piece first where possible. In any event I'm really pleased with what I've done so far and now I'm confident of why Shuri got the few tears she did I'm hopeful that I can avoid many more such occurrences!

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 10:20 am

Arthur1960 wrote:Hi djcdoll, good luck, I would be cautious with the heat gun if it's like the one in Mishka's video as you can see that it heats the tpe up to 100c in a matter of seconds whereas with the rework station I have it set on 150c with medium air flow and it probably takes about 30 seconds to get close to maybe 75c when your can see the tpe soften which is when you can then apply the oil soaked cloth. With some small cuts and holes they just close up using a smaller nozzle so you get a nice, neat repair. I suspect that for the beginner with these repairs then the rework station is a kinder thing to use as it takes longer to get to the heat set so you're less likely to make a mistake. But if your familiar with a heat gun then I guess it will be fine although Mishka advised practicing on a test piece first where possible. In any event I'm really pleased with what I've done so far and now I'm confident of why Shuri got the few tears she did I'm hopeful that I can avoid many more such occurrences!

I think you're right. I'll probably order one of those rework stations in a few days or so.

Dollpimp2018 · Post by **Dollpimp2018** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 10:22 am

I will order one of these heat guns to play around, thanks for the info on how to use it and the results

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:05 pm

Heres a pic of one of the repairs I did today of Shuri's right ear lobe. The lobe had completely perforated after a clip on ear ring had pressed through the lobe during the hot weather. Now there is just the faint sign of a depression there which all my gals have anyway. The beauty of the rework station is that using a small nozzel and with a lower temp and medium air flow you can get close to a small area like this without affecting the surrounding tpe.