Quick Change fingernails?

[Dollyman25442]

I'm preparing Jolene to have here new MannequinFan articulated hands installed and using your idea I'm modifying them to accept magnets for quick release fingernails. If it works, all good. If not, no harm no foul as it won't impact the surgery outcome.

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[Technician]

This is the approach I'm taking. Based on my experiment with the TPE test piece 2 implanted magnets worked well with 2 magnets together in each nail.
I sprayed a silicone mat with silicone spray, then put a tissue down and glued pairs of magnets together allowing the tissue underneath to be saturated as well to become a cast of sorts. Then filed the edges of each pair.
To get past the problem of polarity I'm just going to do all the implants, then lay a piece of plastic wrap on the finger, put two magnets atop the plastic wrap, and glue the nail to the magnets.
That way each nail is tailored to it's finger in polarity and placement.
TPE glue from vendors is too damn expensive, I think I'm going to put a few drops of acetone on a toothpick and drop them in before I pull the tweezers out, realistically I couldn't find the insertion holes in my test piece if I tried anyway.

Dollyman25442,
From what I saw in testing I really don't think your magnets are going to have enough pull being single and on edge.
Also, the decreased surface area could allow the nail to cock and point funny directions, especially since pole alignment is going to be tricky with that arrangement.
The magnets appear to be really far back for fingernails, maybe filing a recessed flat toward the end of the bone portion of the finger and gluing the magnets onto the bone would yield a more correct orientation.
I'd encourage you to do some testing before doing the modifications.

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[Dollyman25442]

Hmmm.
I think I may abandon the magnet idea. I've got another idea much simpler, cheaper and easy to apply. Be right back. Gimme a day.

[Technician]

I just finished installation, now I'm doing up the first set of nails.
Tiny magnets are a bitch to work with, already on my second trip to the acetone can to clean the super glue off my fingers.

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[Technician]

So last night I finished, her new black toenails were still wet but her fingernails were dry. I popped her fingernails on and the first flaw in my dastardly plan cropped up, one had the magnets shifted backwards (remember I said tiny magnets are a bitch to work with?).

So I popped the fingernails on for "field testing" (one upside down) and took Bubbles to bed. This morning 4 of the fingernails were still on so 40% success. I'm going to mull this over, don't see any way to move the magnets closer to the surface without cutting.
Perhaps I can inject mineral oil and squeeze them back out once it's slippery?
At any rate there was still a level of success, 40% is better than nothing.
On a good note, her Bluetooth voicebox worked flawlessly last night.........

[Technician]

Improved and working well now. I installed the magnets about 1/8" below the surface and they hold great. I didn't leave them on in bed yet but I can shake a hand or foot silly and they stay on.
This would be a cool mod for photography buffs primarily, last night I did a (really amateur) shoot and through all the positioning only one thumbnail popped off, and that's because her hair caught it for this pose below. If you look closely it's near her right knee, lol.
I also found some better stamp/coin collection sheets to hold nails, they have little flaps over each pocket.

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[Technician]

The pockets I got initially for nail storage leave a lot to be desired. These came the other day and are MUCH better, the nails are a little harder to take out and put in but they stay in well and I've gotten good at opening them up enough to do in/out already.
Also, with 42 pockets per page they hold 2 complete sets nicely and permanent marker writes on them well.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07VQ434 ... asin_title

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[Technician]

I've been using this mod for quite a while now, Bubbles has 4 complete sets of nails. A couple do come off in the night but they're great for dressup and playtime and it's actually nice just popping them all off for sleeping and not having her nails scrape me at night.
I've got a couple more colors to do, as I make them I'm coloring a set for my 100 too. She doesn't have the mod yet but I'll be able to glue all of her magnets onto the nails in about a week since the nails are ready to go.
Sharpie marker writes well on the stamp sheets to keep each finger/toe for each doll in order.

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[DollFan789]

In your research, is there a way to make this more durable?

[Technician]

In your research, is there a way to make this more durable?

A couple will fall off in bed overnight, but for the most part it's all good. They stay on for photography and play. Honestly, I don't know that I'd want them on any better or they might be hard to remove, lol.

[DollFan789]

I figured I would bring this idea up here too. I was wondering how durable this would be with fabric dolls if one made just the nail pockets or 'nail beds' as she calls them and attached each one to each finger. In my mind this could work with toe nails too since they sell press on toenails from what I saw online.

Could this be combined with the magnetics idea too?

[Technician]

False nail kits have a bunch of sizes, I don't see why you couldn't glue one down, or drill tiny holes in one (see PCB drill bits on Amazon) and sew it on to make a plastic nail bed. The magnets could be glued to the underside of the nail that's being used as a bed.