Arthur's tpe doll repair thread inc. Rachel's resurrection

Post by **Tsall** » Sat Aug 17, 2019 5:55 am

In the last picture I have some problems to pay attention to her fingers.

The loosen look of the fingernails is a result of the thick cap at the end of the wires, right?

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 17, 2019 6:09 am

Hi Tsall, yes all the damage I did to Sophia's hand was with my first experiment with wire replacement last month. I had used end caps that were too big and although the wire I used (high tensile stranded steel) was as strong as you could wish for it wouldn't bend to pose the fingers as much as I had hoped plus it just wasn't stiff enough. This latest wire (3.5mm pvc coated copper stranded wire) seems to be about right and of course the smaller end caps are now a perfect fit. So with this in mind her left hand should look ok when I do it.

I'm quite happy with this latest version, embedding the ends of the wires into a short piece of brass tube before gluing into the palm plate gives the whole thing a really solid feel. I would hope that with just normal use these new fingers would last for some time, not that I would want to test but I would guess they would withstand accidentally damage from falls etc a little better.

Mr_Ducati · Post by **Mr_Ducati** » Sat Aug 17, 2019 9:58 am

Looks great Arthur! Where did you find the materials and how did you determine the length for each finger? Might have to do a little surgery on my Danae here shortly! Thanks!

Mr. Ducati

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 17, 2019 11:29 am

Hi Mr_Ducati well as our ladies have different sized hands (although some are very close) I started out drawing an outline of the hand and then working out exactly where the palm plate is in relation to the hand. Then it was just a question of measuring each finger. The other thing to consider is that with the Jinsan dolls there are at least 2 different types of palm plate that have been used in the last couple of years. Sophia had the newer plate which is located closer to the beginning of the fingers whereas the older plate is placed further back and so the wires need to be longer. I will sketch out a plan of Sophia's hand and post it here to show what I mean. As for the material, the wire is 3mm (actually 3.5) electrical copper stranded cable. The brass tubing that I use to anchor into the palm plate is 3.5mm ID, to fit the wire into the tube I remove a section of the pvc coating and glue the wire into the tube with Permatex. I discovered the tiny plastic end caps after a search on eBay and that's about it.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Sun Aug 18, 2019 7:17 am

: Pinky_Tip.jpg (147.01 KiB) Viewed 1705 times

Blurry as. Definitely need a better magnifying/holding/camera setup.
The 3D sizing around the nut is too tight (broke the plastic) & the pan head screws are a bit larger in diameter than the cap screws. Should be fairly simple to reshape them with a grinding wheel if necessary.
Still early days but it will fit into a 6.5mm diameter cavity.

Looked at some stainless tubing, kinda doubt there is anything commercially available although drilling out some 5mm OD to 4.5mm ID and squishing it into an elliptical shape might be a more durable alternative

Would still need something to cover the sharp edges, work in progress

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Sun Aug 18, 2019 10:03 pm

Had some 5mm OD Teflon tube for the printer lying around.
Whole new ball game, the stuff is flexible enough to get the metal inside it & making caps is far easier than the entire casing.
Back to the drawing board

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon Aug 19, 2019 9:56 am

This is a simple diagram to show wire measurements used with the above hand repair. This may suit several different bodies that have the later palm plate with thumb and pinkie wires on the side (earlier version were all in the top of the plate). In this case it's for an OR156H, total length of wire includes an extra 1/2" that's embedded in the plate (inside the brass tube). As the wire is, in turn, glued into the tube while the tube is glued into the plate the result is quite robust.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Mon Aug 19, 2019 11:49 am

Rachel is the latest gal to get the new finger wire treatment. When she arrived last year her right hand was pretty mashed up with a wire sticking through the back of her hand so it will be interesting to see how it looks with new wires. They are in now so just need to leave the Permatex to set...

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Tue Aug 20, 2019 12:27 pm

Today I fitted the new finger wires back into Rachel's hand. In future the thumb brass tube segment could be set lower than the other fingers due to the placement of the palm plate (just an issue on older style plates). Otherwise the fingers now feel firm and the measurements were about right. As I mentioned before, Rachel's hands were in a poor state when she arrived so to be honest I'm impressed that I've been able to do this at all. The palm area had to have new tpe melted in as it was very weak and the old wires had left green staining which has discolored the back of the hand and the finger tips, speaking of which, if anyone has any ideas how to reshape the finger tips I would love to hear them! Still Rachel gets to pursue her fledgling modeling career, for now!

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Tue Aug 20, 2019 8:52 pm

Articulated fingers can be made with smaller dimensions e.g.

: 3mmLink.JPG (19.61 KiB) Viewed 1638 times

than what I have been working with, but need the edges rounded off to fit a Teflon tube 4mm OD x 3mm ID.
Can be done but still not as compact as the work of Arthur1960, particularly with the tiny Pinky of a Kimber mini

These small pieces are to fill the gap around a 3.5x2mm link in a 5mm Teflon tube

: Snapshot000004.jpg (114.67 KiB) Viewed 1638 times

That said, https://www.labfriend.com.au/tubing-ptf ... r-fep-1212 has a range of small diameter PTFE (Teflon) tubing. This stuff is pretty tough and, in my opinion, better than the standard coatings in the event of the wires breaking.
Unsure of how it affects the posing of hands though, have not done enough work with the stuff in this sort of situation.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:26 pm

While Laser cut finger bones might work for full scale dolls, it seems likely that smaller dolls will have chunky looking fingers.
Knowing that 2mm holes can be made in 3mm flat bar led me to try creating something out of 3mm dia brass tubing.
Needs a jig to get consistency

: Jig.JPG (49.86 KiB) Viewed 1623 times

The grey jig body is a 3D print, the blue are pieces of metal to clamp, locate and provide an anvil surface to flatten the (yellow) tube on.
Should be able to drill and tap a 2mm thread in the brass with the intent of riveting the screw ends to hold them in place.
Somewhat more involved than originally intended but this has been a learning process particularly from the cool hand repairs of Arthur1960

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Thu Aug 22, 2019 7:45 pm

Hi again seagull and thanks. Your idea of working the brass tube sounds interesting, I shall be keen to see if it works. That 3mm brass tube is fairly cheap, I've just got another 3x300mm lengths to make up some more finger wires. I find that it bonds well with the Permatex in the palm plate giving the new wire a firm anchor. Of course if you are able to flatten the ends of the tube and then rivet segments together you will have articulated finger 'bones' which will be great!

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Fri Aug 23, 2019 2:46 am

The 3mm tube flattens to 4.7mm. That can be drilled 2mm and rounded quite easily.
The maths are good, the jig execution is another matter entirely

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Sat Aug 24, 2019 12:57 am

Have 3mm Brass tube, printer, what to do?

: 4mmTips.jpg (118.92 KiB) Viewed 1591 times

and

: NuthinBroke.jpg (7.43 KiB) Viewed 1591 times

That was:

: SlicerView.JPG (31.09 KiB) Viewed 1591 times

Filament at $37.95 per Kilogram, 2 gram doesn't cost that much

The printer was a good investment, although the cheaper ones (less than a Kimber mini) have a limited life of only a few years.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Sat Aug 24, 2019 10:10 pm

Flattened 3mm Brass tube with a 2mm screw
Flat is 4mm across, can be reduced to 3mm with a bit of Dremel grinding, although it might be ok as it is.
Have to do a few more links and see how it fits in the Kimber mini Pinky.

: HingeLink01.jpg (2.01 KiB) Viewed 1579 times

Apart from an extra 2mm hole in dining room table, so far so good

: Offset.jpg (5.67 KiB) Viewed 1579 times

The offset from the centre is just under 0.5mm, not quite as accurate as I was hoping for but can print another jig base to see if it's possible to squeeze the last 0.16mm offset.