The Doll Forum

what is the best way to seal up a tear or hole

hotknife? tried a soldering iron and even holding the iron right on the tpe and melting it did not make it stick together

tpe glue? never tried but heard it works (solvent)

what really works?

You won't be able to use standard glue now. You have melted a part of her skin away. Contact indigo. He posts in the doll studio france. He has a great kit for fixing our lady dolls.

Will you kindly take a picture of your doll's boo boo?
Jeff and the BCDGirls

I have only used TPE glue. My YL135 developed some tears on the top of her feet resulting from compression damage caused during shipping. So I just cleaned the tears with 90% isopropyl alcohol (acetone may have been better) and allowed time to dry before applying the glue. The glue didn't work exactly as I thought. It didn't melt the TPE like I saw in the repair videos. So I had to use a little more glue than was recommended. But after applying the glue, I bent her feet up to a 90 degree angle in order to squeeze the tears together and left them like that for a few days. Only time will tell how well my repairs will hold up. But so far, they look good.
With that being said, other damage may require different methods. Especially if there is missing material from the damaged area. This is where Indigo's new TPE paste may come in handy.

Never use acetone on tpe dolls. Only use isopropyl for cleaning tares

i tried the iron on a small piece of tpe i took out of her insides

i would never just try a repair im not familiar with on the doll herself

the tear is small on her browneye

Hmmm....OK a test run with spare material is good...the trick with the melt is to get a very small TPE molten pool happening on both sides of the bond area and ensure any filler is also molten.....you have to go layer by layer to achieve an effective and tidy repair...it is a slow process...but you start at the root of the tare and gradually melt both sides of the root into the pool and slowly join.

This forms the first root run. Then repeat the run again once the lower run has bonded..... gradually, you melt in and build ap the layers until you get to the top layer..you may need to add some material....but treat the process like tig welding...but with a soldering iron using some TPE offcuts and tweezers to introduce TPE filler material.

This is not a method that works in just one go..its gradual...and ensure you have a good scraper of even a paddle pop stick to smooth the final layer on completion when the top layer pool is pre tacky and still semi fluid...to ensure minimal trimming or dremel work to get a good top finish.

ALSO...(SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY) do the repairs outside or with forced ventilation...to prevent fume exposure.....

Now a tare in the anus will probably work with patience, but the melt material repair is harder and will require some vaso gel to supple the area up on completion.

samara78 wrote:Never use acetone on tpe dolls. Only use isopropyl for cleaning tares

Yeah I've only used alcohol. But the reason that I was wondering if it was the best thing to use was because the glue didn't seem to want to melt the TPE . So I was wondering if it was because the alcohol wasn't strong enough to clean the damaged area? Hopefully what I did will work. But what threw me off was the fact that it didn't react with the TPE in the same way that I have seen in instruction videos. In the videos, the glue seems to dissolve TPE on contact. I have also read that each blend of TPE requires it's own special glue mix. But when I mentioned this to the vendor, I was told that as long as I have a TPE doll then their glue would work. But I guess I will find out.

Any one have a diagram of a TPE skeleton like where the bolt tightening for joints are located?

Hanachash wrote:Any one have a diagram of a TPE skeleton like where the bolt tightening for joints are located?

This is a very good idea; hope someone can accommodate on this! Also a list of wrench types and sizes to go along with it would be the boss!

Hanachash wrote:Any one have a diagram of a TPE skeleton like where the bolt tightening for joints are located?

no but you can fill were they are it not hard to do i have thigh-en every joint on my katie within 2 or 3 weeks her joints were loose i dont like loose joints there one for each shoulders,elbows,hips,knees they are allen head bolts two different sizes now the hips have two the allen that lets the leg go side to side and 17 Metric nut up and down the nut is welded i used Stainless Steel lock washers that keeps the joints tighter longer the picture is her knee if this helps

here is a diagram that made

Thank you verminator x, this will be very useful. One question; are all the allen bolts the same size and what size is that? OK; I may have slipped in a second question! But thank you for your diagram, again I am sure it will come in handy for a lot of people!

[quote="CrazyCajun"]Thank you verminator x, this will be very useful. One question; are all the allen bolts the same size and what size is that? OK; I may have slipped in a second question! But thank you for your diagram, again I am sure it will come in handy for a lot of people![/quote=




the for the hips,knees,back,shoulders are 8mm not sure on the elbows maybe 5 or 6 mm