We can rebuild her. New MF hand plates and wires.

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Sat Feb 27, 2021 6:30 pm

Trick700, Thanks!
I do think I'll wait for MF to post to Shapeways.

BTW, Amber is stunning!

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Sat Feb 27, 2021 6:42 pm

Regarding the wrist, that looks like it might be a big project.
Looks like it's kind of a reverse clevis with the clevis being on the palm plate instead of on the arm?

Yes. Correct. The Clevis is on the palm plate, which is just a piece of heavier gauge sheet metal that has been bent to shape.
The ID of the joint on the plate is 1/4 " so the McMasster-Carr Clevis should work.

I was thinking of getting some plate stock and fabricating a clevis. But if I can order the parts I'll do that.

Wouldn't it be okay to shorten the threaded rod by 1/4"?

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Sat Feb 27, 2021 7:34 pm

Strider wrote:Wouldn't it be okay to shorten the threaded rod by 1/4"?

The threaded rod is not the limiting factor. I can only recess the clevis about 3/16" without getting into the thumb connection.
I guess you could cut some off the end of the clevis, but it would be kind of a pain and might weaken the connection.
There is a lot of stress on this connection, especially if the joints are stiff.

Regarding Shapeways...
I'm not sure I want to make the D4E version available to the public yet on Shapeways until we see if this works. You have kind of a special situation.

If you want to be the tester for this I can send you the links privately. The reason I prefer Sculpteo is that I've personally ordered samples from them and I know their level of quality. I have not ordered samples from Shapeways as yet so I can't 100% guarantee they are the same quality.

Post by **Rock13** » Sat Feb 27, 2021 7:36 pm

Strider wrote:Regarding the wrist, that looks like it might be a big project.

Without a doubt. I tried to restore my doll's hands by making new wires with stronger stuff and although initially it was a structural success, the palms and the back of one of her hands was a mess. Although epoxy'd into the palm plate, several of the wires came loose and started poking out of her wrists. I just ordered a set of MF's skeletal fingers w/palm plates and will try again. However, her skin will require patching and restoration. So fucking bummed about that, a lot can go wrong, but it must be done so I will just have to gather up my balls and go with it.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Sat Feb 27, 2021 10:29 pm

Found the perfect clevis for the D4E application. These have a 6mm male bolt.
The jaw width is 6mm so slightly less than 1/4" (0.23).

Zinc plated steel (#551-106)...
https://www.wdscomponents.com/en-us/mal ... 48/v-15923

Stainless steel (#851-106)...
https://www.wdscomponents.com/en-us/sta ... 431/p-2149

The company (WDS) is in UK. The clevises are cheap but 20 bucks shipping to U.S.
I haven't been able to find a U.S. company that sells these.

Notching the clevis into the plate 3/16" would get the hand pretty close to the right length. Only about 1/8" off.

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Sun Feb 28, 2021 3:27 pm

MF, thank you for researching this all out!
Sounds like a plan. 1/8 " longer should be fine.
However, if Sculpteo make a better product I will go through them.
To be clear, will I be notching the palm plates out when I get them? I have no problem doing that.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Sun Feb 28, 2021 4:13 pm

Strider wrote:
To be clear, will I be notching the palm plates out when I get them? I have no problem doing that.

No, I will make that modification in the parts. It will be a custom plate for D4E.
I'll PM you the Sculpteo links when they are ready to go.
If everything goes well (hopefully it will) then I'll make it publicly available.

Let us know if you have any problems ordering the clevises from WDS.

Azphxguy · Post by **Azphxguy** » Sun Feb 28, 2021 4:40 pm

Thanks for sharing all this. It's inspiring knowing that it's possible to repair our dolls and it doesn't look too terribly hard. I have an old doll that needs 2 new hands. Someday I will attempt this.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Sun Feb 28, 2021 5:07 pm

Azphxguy wrote:Thanks for sharing all this. It's inspiring knowing that it's possible to repair our dolls and it doesn't look too terribly hard. I have an old doll that needs 2 new hands. Someday I will attempt this.

YW Azphxguy. FYI, here's a couple of threads by TDF members showing their installation process...

Leather by Lee - Chandrelle...
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=127788
Djcdoll - Tiffany...
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=127705

Strider · Post by **Strider** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 6:58 pm

Hand skeletons and Clevis joints ordered.

Post by **Rock13** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:15 pm

My MF/Sculpteo fingers & thumb will be here tomorrow. I've got all of the other bits from Ace Hardware. Already had the tools. I've got to perform this surgery and patch Hadleigh's hands. Got the heat gun and infrared thermometer. Got some blocks of extra TPE. Terrified, but must get this done. This is the most daunting thing I've faced since I was on the Deepwater Horizon response staff with 1500 subordinates in 9 different zones from Texas to Florida and I was confident about that... in fact I was looking forward to it. This upcoming repair job on Hadleigh's hands, not so much. Despite all of the tutorials and comments on Mannequin Fan's thread, I'm actually pretty stressed out about it and I'm afraid that I'm gonna fuck it up.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:39 pm

Rock13 wrote:This is the most daunting thing I've faced since I was on the Deepwater Horizon response staff with 1500 subordinates in 9 different zones from Texas to Florida and I was confident about that...

LOL! Well at least you won't have to worry about destroying the ecosystem of the planet if you mess it up!

From what I've seen, the most difficult part is removing the old skeleton. The rest is comparatively easy.
The only advice I can give is take your time, don't rush, and ask questions if you are unsure about anything along the way. Several members have now done the install so hopefully you'll have help with questions if you need it.

Post by **Rock13** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:42 pm

MannequinFan wrote:
Rock13 wrote:This is the most daunting thing I've faced since I was on the Deepwater Horizon response staff with 1500 subordinates in 9 different zones from Texas to Florida and I was confident about that...
LOL! Well at least you won't have to worry about destroying the ecosystem of the planet if you mess it up!

From what I've seen, the most difficult part is removing the old skeleton. The rest is comparatively easy.
The only advice I can give is take your time, don't rush, and ask questions if you are unsure about anything along the way. Several members have now done the install so hopefully you'll have help with questions if you need it.

I'm not worried about the mechanical aspects of the job. Your instructions are clear and I have a lot of experience putting things together. The part that scares me is patching the TPE and getting it smoothed out without massive scars.

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:20 pm

MannequinFan wrote:'m not worried about the mechanical aspects of the job. Your instructions are clear and I have a lot of experience putting things together. The part that scares me is patching the TPE and getting it smoothed out without massive scars.

If you look a Dollyman's video, the incision he made is fairly small and sealed up pretty cleanly.
What's more worrisome to me is getting the TPE peeled off the old skeleton without any problems. It has to be done very carefully.

BTW, there's been a lot of discussion about using the 3M 94 tape primer for TPE repairs...
viewtopic.php?f=229&t=131728

Kaori Kusanagi · Post by **Kaori Kusanagi** » Fri Mar 05, 2021 1:00 am

MannequinFan wrote: What's more worrisome to me is getting the TPE peeled off the old skeleton without any problems. It has to be done very carefully.

You may be able to inject (slowly) mineral oil into the interface between TPE and metal to help with this. (especially if it is on a wrapped joint, where you can inject it into the wrapping, where it will then soak in and around the area, and "bleed" under the TPE around it). I discovered this possibility when doing the latter in an attempt (mostly futile) to loosen overly-stiff joints without the semi-major surgery required to loosen the bolts themselves--some of the TPE around them became disconnected from the metal tubing, near the wrapping and in some cases quite far down the tube. The oil was resorbed into the TPE over time afterward, and the TPE doesn't slip around the tube like it did at first, but it *is* still disconnected.

BTW, there's been a lot of discussion about using the 3M 94 tape primer for TPE repairs...
viewtopic.php?f=229&t=131728

Yes. So far this has worked very well for the little bit of stuff I have so far had time and energy to do. I expect that if I were to inject some into the places where the TPE is loose around the tubing, it would probably help it adhere to the tubing again, though it would probably take significant time (weeks?) to fully cure since it can't evaporate the solvent portion away directly (it has to absorb into the TPE and migrate outward instead).