Ami's Hand Transplant...

Tyr · Post by **Tyr** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 1:01 pm

...Or, How I learned to stop worrying and get with the program.

Thanks to Muninn and Lynne for showing the way and Phil from The Doll House for supplying the hands.

Ok, I have to admit defeat, Ami's hands are falling apart and there's nothing I can do to stop it. Take a look at these...

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The green colouration is my fault, I went with brass tubing with my hand mod. Should have used aluminium, but I thought the heat shrink sleeving would protect the tube. I was wrong.
Anyhow, the relentless deterioration of Ami's hands proceeded apace leading to now, you can't even call them hands anymore. So i decided that today was the day Ami was going to get her new hands.

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Old hand and new hand. I have a hot knife attachment for my solder station so that was the way i was going to go. The ty-wrap marks the cut line to keep it straight (mostly).
I opted to keep as much of Ami's original arm as I could and more by luck than judgement the cut coincided with the tube end. this helped in my assessing the amount of TPE to remove from the new hands. I wanted to keep quite a bit for repair work. Ami's old hand came off easily and I had to use the jam nut from it on the new hand, No problem. I took a bit of advice from Muninn and extended the screw by about 5mm for luck. I trimmed the new hand in stages to get to the right length, it took 3 cuts no rushing here. There was a slight issue with the new hand tho', Ami's wrist measured 5.25" around the circumference, the new hand was 5.875", so a bit of a mismatch. I solved this by making a longitudinal incision in Ami's inner, wrist and cut out a triangle. This enabled me to match up the pair.

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After making sure that the skeletal work was good and tight, I proceeded to glue her hand together in small stages using Indigo 20's Cold Fusion Magick Elixir. I was going to finish the job with a hot iron. I finished up with a measurement of 15.25" from the crook of the elbow to the tip of the longest finger.

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Ami admiring her new hand. You may be able to see the longitudinal cut here.

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here she is, all buttoned up.

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A better view of the wrist cuts.

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Post-Op kip.

Cheers,

Tyr and Ami.

Tyr · Post by **Tyr** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 1:25 pm

Some additional stuff...

The following photos are not pretty, I'm convinced oiling Ami has caused this.

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This is Ami's right hand turned inside out. The green stuff is TPE 'snot' It sticks to anything and is a bugger to get off. Both her hands are full of it. It rots through to the outside.

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Here is her inner elbow right arm. These holes opened up this week from the inside.

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The only way I know to deal with this is to cut it out. The cloth wrapping around the joint is saturated in oil, it has to go.

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Inside her elbow more 'snot'. I removed as much as i can.

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Wrapped the joint with some fresh cloth and secured with tiny ty-wraps.

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Closing up that hole was a bastard. I'm not sure it'll hold to be honest, but at least I've got plenty of TPE to throw into it!

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Here's a shot of all the crap that I dug, pulled and cut out of her elbow. What a mess. I'll not be oiling her again.

Well I'm off to give her a cuddle, I hate having to do these repairs. I love my doll, so I'm going to let her know.

Cheers,

Tyr

Dollyman25442 · Post by **Dollyman25442** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 1:33 pm

Just to clarify-
You did a hand modification presumably new fingers? And you used brass piping to form the fingers? And the brass piping bled through and caused the discoloration and deterioration in the images?
Reason I ask-I've very recently done the Mannequin Fan hand replacement and while I liked the end result, I'm thinking on my next hand skeleton replacement instead of using the fingers provided in his kit, I'll go with...you guessed it, brass tubing (which is much smaller in diameter than the MF provided fingers), but if you've had a problem than your experience will push me in another direction, namely aluminum. Soooo, brass a no no for forming fingers?

Dollyman25442 · Post by **Dollyman25442** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 1:35 pm

Btw, this product

https://www.harborfreight.com/130-watt- ... cUQAvD_BwE

Has gone a long way in making large precise incisions for me and using the flat side as a smoothing tool, hiding those incisions.
Fyi

Tyr · Post by **Tyr** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:16 pm

Hi Dollyman25442, If I were to make a palm plate with fingers again I'd definitely go with aluminium This time I just had brass hanging around. I thought it'd be ok inside plastic sheathing but it bled out.

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Here they are before fitting.

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Here are the same parts that I took out today. Even inside the heat shrink the tubes are discoloured. It seems to travel along the moisture lines The green goo is TPE soaked in baby oil stained by the brass. Capillary action probably.

Tyr

DG · Post by DG » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:29 pm

Wow! Excellent job on the hand transplant, but yuck about the gross stuff. How often had you oiled her?

Tyr · Post by **Tyr** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 2:49 pm

Hi Docsgirl82, I don't remember honestly, but it would have been every 3/4 months or so maybe for 2 1/2 to 3 years. That was a proper oil and allow her to soak in. Now I only use oil on dirty patches and never near the joints or hands. she has problems in her shoulder joints and left arm too. But I'll let them blow out before I tackle them.

Tyr

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 3:26 pm

Hey Tyr, glad to see you got Ami's hands sorted.

It still amazes me the crazy amount of corrosion with the brass. I never would have expected such a thing to happen.
I think that's a testimonial to just how much moisture this TPE absorbs and holds.
I switched over to printed finger parts after seeing this with Panther68's doll only after a month installed...

Dollyman25442 · Post by **Dollyman25442** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 3:44 pm

Boy am I glad I saw this thread! Aluminum it'll be!

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:06 pm

Dollyman25442 wrote:Boy am I glad I saw this thread! Aluminum it'll be!

Hey D, you can get the same size tubing in aluminum (5/32") but be aware it's soft and gets bent super easy.

Tyr · Post by **Tyr** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 4:16 pm

Hi MF, I knew something was going on, but when I opened her up I just couldn't believe the mess.

Her original hands are totally ruined, I hop that the new ones will last longer. They seem to be bonded to the TPE really well. Which could make a palm plate transplant problematical. With luck I won't have to find out.

I like your palm plate mod too, I hope they're as successful as the eyes.

Tyr

Dollyman25442 · Post by **Dollyman25442** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:06 pm

MannequinFan wrote:
Dollyman25442 wrote:Boy am I glad I saw this thread! Aluminum it'll be!
Hey D, you can get the same size tubing in aluminum (5/32") but be aware it's soft and gets bent super easy.

Hmmm. even in the really short lengths we'd be using? If so, I wonder if filling with epoxy would stiffen them up?

Dollyman25442 · Post by **Dollyman25442** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:06 pm

MannequinFan wrote:
Dollyman25442 wrote:Boy am I glad I saw this thread! Aluminum it'll be!
Hey D, you can get the same size tubing in aluminum (5/32") but be aware it's soft and gets bent super easy.

Oh, and would that be OD or ID?

MannequinFan · Post by **MannequinFan** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:15 pm

Dollyman25442 wrote:
MannequinFan wrote:
Dollyman25442 wrote:Boy am I glad I saw this thread! Aluminum it'll be!
Hey D, you can get the same size tubing in aluminum (5/32") but be aware it's soft and gets bent super easy.
Oh, and would that be OD or ID?

That's OD. The ID is about 1/8" - just a hair bigger than the wire.
It's made by K&S...
https://www.hobbylobby.com/Crafts-Hobbi ... 22/p/21778

scooter_ca · Post by **scooter_ca** » Wed Apr 08, 2020 5:29 pm

I had my own, fortunately minor issue with brass.
Many miniature dolls wear a brass ankle bracelet to hide the seam where the foot attaches.
Just for fun, I slipped the bracelet on my TPE Daria's ring finger.
After a few days I noticed a green discoloration start to form under the ring.
Even after a lot of cleaning and many days, it has not faded all that much.
Bottom line.... brass and TPE do not mix.

Thanks,
scooter