Creaky joints

Pumpster · Post by **Pumpster** » Wed Mar 03, 2021 10:00 am

Emmie's hip joints are very creaky when I'm moving her legs back and forth. Sound is so awful that I'm afraid it disturbs my neighbors so I really want to make the sound go away. I bought syringe with a needle and attempted to inject some baby oil (she's TPE) in there in hopes that it would reach the joint and quiet it down. When squeezing the area I can hear sloshing noise so it sounds like the joint area is full of oil but joint doesn't seem to quiet down. I want to avoid cutting her open so maybe baby oil isn't very good lubricant for creaky joints? What better lubricants I could use that wouldn't damage TPE?

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Wed Mar 03, 2021 2:41 pm

TPE is a blend of an elastomer and mineral oil, it is poured at high temperature over a skeleton that has really tight joints wrapped in cloth, The tension in the joint fastenings is usually tight enough to prevent oil getting in

Injecting any oil into such a joint is probably not going to work

Try and drain as much of the oil to prevent the TPE from turning into a sponge
The noise can be reduced with surgery
Or by working the joint over a period of time until it loosens a teensy bit

My bed buddy is absolutely silent, she no longer has a skeleton, not suggesting you try that

Pumpster · Post by **Pumpster** » Wed Mar 03, 2021 3:13 pm

Yep, didn't seem to work. With her laying on the bed I moved her leg up and down to try work the oil into the joint but creaking didn't reduce one bit. I injected few milliliters only and afterwards squeezed as much of it out as I could. I suppose I'll just keep working noisy joints and hopefully they'll quiet down preferably sooner than later.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Wed Mar 03, 2021 8:12 pm

It takes a while for metal to wear just from friction but if you're patient it will get better

Pumpster · Post by **Pumpster** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:42 am

Do many dolls (or doll owners) suffer of this same problem? I don't think this is normal with stiff joints. I was just thinking that because it was cheap doll it has it's "features" like this.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:14 am

My first doll had me exclaiming Holy sh.t!
I was not expecting that degree of tightness and getting used to it took a while

Other owners choose dolls that have joint tightness options while others work their dolls for months with varying results
There are also those whose dolls loosen up so dramatically that can't be posed at all and the occasional, Crap the joint has locked up!

Brunch · Post by **Brunch** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:32 am

Baby oil is relatively thick. If I had to try something, I would use WD40, which is really thin and good for very narrow penetration. However, I don't know how it reacts with TPE over time.
My doll is also creaky as hell in her neck part. Really annoying...

Pumpster · Post by **Pumpster** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:51 am

seagull wrote:My first doll had me exclaiming Holy sh.t!
I was not expecting that degree of tightness and getting used to it took a while

Other owners choose dolls that have joint tightness options while others work their dolls for months with varying results
There are also those whose dolls loosen up so dramatically that can't be posed at all and the occasional, Crap the joint has locked up!

Joints aren't very stiff and I can easily operate them. It's just the noise that is driving me nuts and I was wondering if many stiff jointed dolls are as audible as mine is. Only hip joints are noisy and rest are quiet.

Pumpster · Post by **Pumpster** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:54 am

Brunch wrote:Baby oil is relatively thick. If I had to try something, I would use WD40, which is really thin and good for very narrow penetration. However, I don't know how it reacts with TPE over time.
My doll is also creaky as hell in her neck part. Really annoying...

Indeed, loud creaky noises make my teeth clatter. I was thinking about WD40 too from the very start but I don't know if TPE reacts badly to it so I decided to try baby oil instead.

nicvncnt · Post by **nicvncnt** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 6:38 am

I tried and failed to eliminate creaking from Sam's gooseneck with baby oil - no matter how much I poured in it never helped, so I switched to Vaseline and it worked brilliantly...took a couple of days to get the full effect but after that the creaking never came back.

Internal joints are wrapped in some sort of fabric (teflon?) so if injecting you have to make sure the needle has penetrated the fabric or the lubricant won't touch the joint. Off hand, I doubt even that would work, I think you would have to open her up and rub it directly into the joints affected.

Some creaking goes away in time as the joints loosen up....it might take a month or two but I wouldn't recommend multiple joint surgery just yet.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:09 pm

Agree with that, surgery is usually reserved for those Oh crap moments when something breaks or stops moving

Pumpster · Post by **Pumpster** » Tue May 25, 2021 7:42 am

I don't know how long it would take but hip joint creaking doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. I decided to try surgery experiment and thought about tightening her wrist joint as her hand is becoming a bit too floppy. Perhaps that would be easy enough place to start. I had brand new box cutter blade but cutting TPE was very difficult. It was like blade didn't cut at all and just pushed TPE around even if I tried to spread the spot I was cutting. It took a while to dig a hole deep enough and then I saw white gauze that was wrapped around the joint. I had to cut through that too and TPE firmly attached to the gauze wasn't making things any easier. Closing the wound was the easiest part. Phew, if it was such a massive job with thin wrist to get to the joint I'd imagine hip joint is 100x more work.

I also tested how WD40 would react with TPE by spraying a bit in hidden spot on top of her head and it seemed to be absorbed by TPE and didn't cause any immediate negative effects as far as I can see. But I'm not sure if I want to start cutting her hips open and needle injection method propably doesn't work because hinge has 2 sides that need to be lubricated and it's nearly impossible to hit just the right spot.

seagull · Post by **seagull** » Tue May 25, 2021 6:06 pm

TPE contains mineral oil, is poured at high temperature and still can't get into the joint because those bolts are torqued up really tight
Pretty sure most doll owners will tell you that tight joints get quieter and looser over time

GotDolls · Post by **GotDolls** » Tue May 25, 2021 6:38 pm

Mine's got creaky joints too. I think it's probably fairly normal. You're probably imagining the noise to be a lot louder than it really is and unless you've literally got paper-thin walls (and can therefore also hear everything your neighbours are up to) they aren't going to hear a thing.

Pumpster · Post by **Pumpster** » Sun Jun 06, 2021 3:01 pm

GotDolls wrote:Mine's got creaky joints too. I think it's probably fairly normal. You're probably imagining the noise to be a lot louder than it really is and unless you've literally got paper-thin walls (and can therefore also hear everything your neighbours are up to) they aren't going to hear a thing.

Did you see the video I attached in my 4th post? I know it may be difficult to compare but would you say that your doll has similar level of noise coming from the joints?