That Disheartening Sound and Sight of a New Doll Breaking

[UpperLower]

It’s is with terrible news that my beloved brand new Irontech 167cm Ultra Soft Silicone with the bj motion has broken too soon.

No, not the bj motion. Amazingly that’s still operating fine. I just wanted to arch her back when suddenly the sound of a break occurred and her upper half flopped back.

The silicone remains in tact, but her upper half is definitely no longer connected to her lower half. In the video, you can hear the eerie grinding of metal at the break. The photo is where i presume the weld snapped.

Tonight I weep.

[The Doll Advocate]

Ooof !!!
Damn I'm so sorry to hear about this.
It's gotta suck donkey balls to have a doll that new you have to cut open to fix .
And I have no experience working on silicone dolls.
Have you tried contacting the seller?
Maybe they can warranty it?
Definitely a broken weld .

[UpperLower]

Ooof !!!
Damn I'm so sorry to hear about this.
It's gotta suck donkey balls to have a doll that new you have to cut open to fix .
And I have no experience working on silicone dolls.
Have you tried contacting the seller?
Maybe they can warranty it?
Definitely a broken weld .

I sent an email to Matt, the Irontech rep who helped me get this doll. I doubt I’ll get a response until after the weekend.

I unfortunately have 0 welding experience beyond knowing the fact that re-welding will often lead to another break. At best, I can come up with possible sturdier designs for those joints. The upper half of the doll is only supported by those 2 thin brackets housing a bolt. It’s definitely in need of better support!

I have a feeling I’m going to have to reorder this doll, hopefully under warranty or at least reduced price. I’ll send a few ideas on how to strengthen that area as well as improve other joints, but I don’t think the manufacturing team will consider it as it may increase production time & costs

[RevJack]

There are many "Broken Back" fixes in the maintenance channel. The only one I recall that involved an actual welding fix is mine. Depending on exactly what broke, and how, there are non welding alternatives that can last for years.
Do a search before you give up.

Reverend Jack

[The Doll Advocate]

What Rev jack said.
The skeletons are cheap stainless so if you weld ,
It will have to be TIG .
The good news is she's silicone and can totally take the heat from welding .
But I'm not sure how you seal her back up once done .
Don't give up ,I have a saying ,if it can be built ,it can be fixed .
Knowledge and skill is what determines the success.
We're here to help!

[UpperLower]

Very much appreciated! I’ll wait on what Matt’s reply from Irontech and see if his team has some advice. Because this doll has a robotic motor, I don’t want to damage it. That and it may be possible that this skeleton may be different than the standard 167cm skeleton since it had to be modified to support the motor.

[Stocking_Hunter]

What Rev jack said.
The skeletons are cheap stainless so if you weld ,
It will have to be TIG .
The good news is she's silicone and can totally take the heat from welding .
But I'm not sure how you seal her back up once done .
Don't give up ,I have a saying ,if it can be built ,it can be fixed .
Knowledge and skill is what determines the success.
We're here to help!

Ahh... Nope. You can scorch the silicone with just the heat from a cutoff wheel. Ask me how I know...

[seagull]

Don't have to Stocking

[ArcanePath]

What Rev jack said.
The skeletons are cheap stainless so if you weld ,
It will have to be TIG .
The good news is she's silicone and can totally take the heat from welding .
But I'm not sure how you seal her back up once done .
Don't give up ,I have a saying ,if it can be built ,it can be fixed .
Knowledge and skill is what determines the success.
We're here to help!

I MIG weld with stainless all the time. But I wouldn't put a welder anywhere near the silicone doll. I would look at a cold fix and upgrading the skeleton with extra pieces of metal bolted around the joins to give it more strength (brute force the problem with overkill) or it's likely to break again. I suspect the real problem is Chinese steel, since their industry has zero regulations on what constitutes as stainless. In the west we have strict rules to govern different grades such as 302 which states the composition of the metal structure. In China they just call whatever they make "High strength steel" whereas over here we call it Monkey metal.

[Socratus]

It’s is with terrible news that my beloved brand new Irontech 167cm Ultra Soft Silicone with the bj motion has broken too soon.

No, not the bj motion. Amazingly that’s still operating fine. I just wanted to arch her back when suddenly the sound of a break occurred and her upper half flopped back.

The silicone remains in tact, but her upper half is definitely no longer connected to her lower half. In the video, you can hear the eerie grinding of metal at the break. The photo is where i presume the weld snapped.

Tonight I weep.

Man, I fear this every time I sit up or straighten my doll. I hear about this way too often.

I MIG weld with stainless all the time. But I wouldn't put a welder anywhere near the silicone doll. I would look at a cold fix and upgrading the skeleton with extra pieces of metal bolted around the joins to give it more strength (brute force the problem with overkill) or it's likely to break again. I suspect the real problem is Chinese steel, since their industry has zero regulations on what constitutes as stainless. In the west we have strict rules to govern different grades such as 302 which states the composition of the metal structure. In China they just call whatever they make "High strength steel" whereas over here we call it Monkey metal.

Not only metal I bet.

I'm no expert, but I've bought enough `quality` stuff from Amazon (made in China) just to watch them break literally on cue 6 months later. 'Tested' a few identical plastic items this way. They even replaced one item - then its identical replacement broke in exactly 6 months again as I predicted to them, and they probably knew it would! I'm sure some companies do their best to produce lasting quality, but it's always a bit of a worry when getting compensation is so difficult pertaining to very expensive dolls half a world away.

[Zlamvam]

it is one helluva operation says people that actually done it.
And really not something that are supposed to happen when you actually get it good enough. But that is not even good enough. It quite simply needs to become better.
Skeletons simply needs to become better. Much better.

Seriously, if you are treating the DOll like normal, it isn´t supposed to happen at all.

[Luiskjr]

question:
how can you be sure the stainless broke?
as opposed to screw/bolt loosed and detached?

[UpperLower]

question:
how can you be sure the stainless broke?
as opposed to screw/bolt loosed and detached?

I don’t hear any rattling to suggest the nut and bolt came out.

[The Doll Advocate]

What Rev jack said.
The skeletons are cheap stainless so if you weld ,
It will have to be TIG .
The good news is she's silicone and can totally take the heat from welding .
But I'm not sure how you seal her back up once done .
Don't give up ,I have a saying ,if it can be built ,it can be fixed .
Knowledge and skill is what determines the success.
We're here to help!

Ahh... Nope. You can scorch the silicone with just the heat from a cutoff wheel. Ask me how I know...

Carbon cut off wheels throw metal and dust from the wheel when used .
Silicone is used in stove top cooking utensils.
Are you sure the scorch marks aren't really just debris from your cutting wheel?

[The Doll Advocate]

What Rev jack said.
The skeletons are cheap stainless so if you weld ,
It will have to be TIG .
The good news is she's silicone and can totally take the heat from welding .
But I'm not sure how you seal her back up once done .
Don't give up ,I have a saying ,if it can be built ,it can be fixed .
Knowledge and skill is what determines the success.
We're here to help!

I MIG weld with stainless all the time. But I wouldn't put a welder anywhere near the silicone doll. I would look at a cold fix and upgrading the skeleton with extra pieces of metal bolted around the joins to give it more strength (brute force the problem with overkill) or it's likely to break again. I suspect the real problem is Chinese steel, since their industry has zero regulations on what constitutes as stainless. In the west we have strict rules to govern different grades such as 302 which states the composition of the metal structure. In China they just call whatever they make "High strength steel" whereas over here we call it Monkey metal.

That's why I suggested Tig .
Mig would throw down alot of heat ,quick!
At least with tig you can spot tig slowly to control how much heat your dumping into the extra thin tube skeleton.
And your absolutely right , I've disposed of a few dolls and the skeletons metallurgy is NOT consistent with any stainless I've ever seen!.
And it's definitely magnetic so it's a very low grade stainless.
But it also dosent rust like mild steel either .

Back pivots on dolls are the number one failure point and I honestly think a gusset on both sides of the tabs the hip bolt goes through ,would solve it.
It would take an extra minute ,MAX , to weld in a 2inch triangular gusset .
Smh

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