Xylene what I need for surgery?

[MourningWood]

Slicing open various spots on my doll to tighten and repair. After searching on this forum I read Xylene is a good solvent to seal up the incisions. I don’t want to order TPE glue online and saw my hardware store sells Xylene. Will this be sufficient enough or do I need something else?


Also someone posted “if you are brave enough use xylene”, what did they mean by that?

Thanks

[RevJack]

Xylene is like a chain saw to TPE. I can drip it in one spot and dissolve a hole.
Go to Amazon and get a can of the 3M Tape Primer.

Screenshot_20230420_150440_Amazon Shopping.jpg (697.46 KiB) Viewed 268 times

Don't get anything else, no bullshit "TPE Glue" no little bottles of what someone PROMISES is 3M Tape Primer, nothing made by a Chinese company the looks like 3M, kinda.

The 3M Primer you can apply directly to TPE without endangering it. Remember, these are SOLVENTS, there is no such thing as a TPE "glue". Only solvents.
So it dissolves what it touches before it dries, so coat each surface with a thin coat, and press the two together. They have to remain gently pressed together untill the solvent gasses off (dries).

AND, you need to practice on some spare tpe before you do it for real. Research the maintenance forum for 3M repairs, very very few of us use Xylene, and not straight onto TPE.

Reverend Jack

[Wheezer]

Slicing open various spots on my doll to tighten and repair. After searching on this forum I read Xylene is a good solvent to seal up the incisions. I don’t want to order TPE glue online and saw my hardware store sells Xylene. Will this be sufficient enough or do I need something else?


Also someone posted “if you are brave enough use xylene”, what did they mean by that?

Thanks

A safer alternative than pure xylene is 3M 94 primer. See the info HERE (viewtopic.php?t=131728)
Many folks have been using it and getting good results.
Pure xylene is a hotter than 3M 94 and if you are not careful can get out of hand quickly. Just use care.

With any chemical bond on a TPE doll, the final bond quality really gets down to surface prep.
Also chemical bonding works best with a tight and well fitting wound.
So use care and don't hack away when you are opening her up for repair work.

Another method of wound sealing is to use heat.
Good tools are temperature controlled soldering irons, certain small craft irons and similar tools.
They all melt the TPE together for a good final result.

With either method, practice a bit first, be careful and go slow.

Cheers!
... W ...

[Khaossinua]

Xylene is a bad idea. It is too dangerous for TPE and its chemical odor lasts too long. I tried to fix the doll with xylene, but she ended up almost losing left arm. The smell lasted for a whole month, although I keep the doll in the attic of the garage.

[seagull]

Khaos: Saddened to learn of your experience but added it to my resource as a permanent reminder to avoid Xylene unless you've gained an extensive knowledge and skill in using this stuff

[setevoltas]

Xylene is what you need for destruction. Just don't. Get 3M 94.

[Pumpster]

It's a bit tricky to use xylene. Pure xylene doesn't necessarily bond TPE surfaces very well and very thin TPE "filler" mix would work better. But the thicker the mix the worse it bonds. When I used xylene for repairs I used to treat surfaces to be bonded with pure xylene and then added a bit of very thick TPE paste made of spare TPE and xylene. But mileage may vary and final result propably isn't as strong as original if subjected to a lot of streching. Also xylene has very slow evaporation rate. For example water has evaporation rate of 0.36 and xylene 0.6. Acetone has 11.6 so xylene barely evaporates twice as fast as water and smell takes a while to go away. 3M primer is pretty expensive but I read it works a lot better and faster, haven't tried it myself.