First attempts at tpe repairs with a hot air rework station

RGC_0767 · Post by **RGC_0767** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:25 pm

Arthur1960 wrote:Heres a pic of one of the repairs I did today of Shuri's right ear lobe. The lobe had completely perforated after a clip on ear ring had pressed through the lobe during the hot weather. Now there is just the faint sign of a depression there which all my gals have anyway. The beauty of the rework station is that using a small nozzel and with a lower temp and medium air flow you can get close to a small area like this without affecting the surrounding tpe.

You could even add a bit of TPE there for added durability, hiding that even further.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:43 pm

Thanks, yes you're right but I'm pretty happy with that and the other lobe looks perfect, I shall have to get her another style of ear ring that doesn't grip so tightly!

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:37 am

So this morning I decided to have a go at Sophia's elbows. I had noticed a few weeks ago that during the heatwave we had here in the UK the tpe on both her elbows had begun to separate. This was no doubt due to my having extended her baby oiling period so the tpe may have been a bit 'dry' plus I had left her elbows flexed slightly and then we had temps of over 30c in the house for a few weeks. Well I've learned a few lessons but thanks to a little hot air this should be a straightforward fix. First I tackled the right elbow which was the worse with the tears being about 2mm deep in places. So here are a couple of before and after pics...

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 5:53 am

Flexing the elbow does show some slight wrinkles which I'm happy with as it just makes the elbow look more realistic! However doing this first one it did occur to me that I might do the other one slightly differently. Obviously when heating tpe it must be in a relaxed state hence the arm was straight when I heated the elbow however the beauty of the rework station is that with a moderate heat seating and small nozzel you have the ability to direct the heat quite nicely. So with the left elbow I started heating with the elbow ever so slightly flexed and then as the tpe began to soften I moved it into its relaxed (straight) position. This enabled the tpe to soften deeper in the cracks and then with the heat still being applied the surface area smoothed nicely. Finishing off with an oil soaked cloth gave a nice finish which was neater than the first one. The first pic is the right elbow flexed after work and the next two pics are before and after shots of the left elbow which now looks perfectly normal. I'm not trying to teach my grandmother how to suck eggs here but I'm just genuinely, pleasantly surprised at the results so far and I'm sure there must be other doll owners out there with these type of injuries and not sure what's best to do to fix them!

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 6:18 am

Those are excellent repairs Arthur1960. You can hardly tell where the problems were.

Gives me some confidence that these minor "injuries" can be easily fixed.

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 6:27 am

Thanks djcdoll, I'm very happy so far, obviously the more I use the hot air rework station the more confident I get. In most cases the tpe is soft enough to work with when it gets to around 75c going up to 100c then it will clearly be very soft which would be necessary for any 'filling' jobs but for these small tears it seems to work well at a slightly lower temp. Clearly the risk can be that you only seal the top layer of tpe if a cut is deep, in which case, if possible, you need to work from deeper in the cut and work outwards which is kind of what I did with Sophia's left elbow and it does look better for it.

djcdoll · Post by **djcdoll** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 6:35 am

Looks like you're becoming an expert at it now.
Just a thought, maybe you could earn some pocket money repairing minor skin faults on TPE dolls for TDF members that live in your area, bit like a hospital burns unit!
You could call it "Arthur's Doll Hospital" !!

I wonder if we could use this heat gun method to repair cuts to hands?
I need to fix the broken fingers on Tiffany at some point so will need to cut into her palms to get access to the crappy wires etc.
Do you think the hand/palm cuts could be closed up using the heat gun method?

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 6:53 am

Yes I think it would work if you were careful and patient but I think the hot air guns would be too hot, with the rework station you can control things better and with the smallest nozzel I can imagine that you could get into the cut to soften the tpe and then keep doing it a bit at a time till it's closed up. I may well try this myself at some point with Sarah's hands. They aren't too bad as I think it's only 3 fingers that have broken wires after 2 years but the fingers are a bit floppy so don't hold a pose so well, inevitably they will need some stiffer wires inserted. I like the idea of a doll hospital! I would certainly be up for that as I have always liked to fix things anyway! I'm sure if I stick up a sign at the front of the house saying 'Doll Hospital' I would soon get some attention! Actually I had the idea the other day of clearing out one of my sheds and doing it up as a place to do such work on my own dolls (and anyone else's) I could stick in a couch and make it into a little Doll Clinic! I might even make a start on that soon as I do like a good project to get my teeth stuck into!

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 7:22 am

djcdoll wrote:Looks like you're becoming an expert at it now.
Just a thought, maybe you could earn some pocket money repairing minor skin faults on TPE dolls for TDF members that live in your area, bit like a hospital burns unit!
You could call it "Arthur's Doll Hospital" !!

I wonder if we could use this heat gun method to repair cuts to hands?
I need to fix the broken fingers on Tiffany at some point so will need to cut into her palms to get access to the crappy wires etc.
Do you think the hand/palm cuts could be closed up using the heat gun method?

I've just remembered that I think DD27 may have used a hot air device to repair his Kianna's hands after surgery?

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 10:38 am

Ok, this afternoon it was nipple time! 2 of my gals had 'flaky nipple syndrome', namely, Sarah and Sophia, so it was time to do something about it. This time around I forgot to take the before hand pics but I'm sure most of you have seen this particular 'condition', anyway, these are are a few after repair pics, the nipples look shiny as they have just had a coat of Vaseline after having a bit of colour added...

Tybalt · Post by **Tybalt** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 10:54 am

Info on the hot air station please like where to buy.

Fantastic Plastic · Post by **Fantastic Plastic** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 11:25 am

I bought one of these over a year ago, these are on the work benches of TPE doll shops for good reason.
I’ve also seen full size heat guns being used to flow the entire dolls surface as well.
With a proper set of tools, care and skill set, a TPE doll could theoretically last a lifetime.
Good work!
It’s satisfying isn’t it?
As you start repairing your doll(s), you’ll find that they will become more distinct and one of a kind.
For instance, just look at Maxine’s nipples!

: B39D206C-AABA-4C92-83E0-43AD35977E44.jpeg (1.88 MiB) Viewed 640 times

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 12:12 pm

Ha ha, yes Maxine's nipples are indeed impressive! They could have your eye out of You're not careful! Tybalt I got the rework station off eBay. If you do a search for SMD Hot Air rework station you should find it ok. Here in the UK the average price right now is around £28 but I got lucky and got the same model on sale for just £19.99! Like Fantastic Plastic said you can see more or less the same model rework station on the benches in the factories and I bet it's what they use for smoothing the seams as well as setting the makeup etc.

This is the one I have:

Anung Un Rama · Post by **Anung Un Rama** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 8:56 pm

great work Arthur.

Glad to see you guys are embracing what we a passing on.

Why should the Chinese factories and agents be the only ones who can fix our TPE gals.

They should not. But remember to heed the heath and safety advisories we also post when passing on TPE hot work instruction and techniques, and master technique on a test piece first.

Anung

Arthur1960 · Post by **Arthur1960** » Sat Aug 25, 2018 9:06 pm

Thanks for the reminder re safety Anung, I should have made mention of the fact that I use a mask when I'm working and have a fan on behind me to blow any fumes away. I'm currently thinking of converting a shed into a doll clinic as it would have better ventilation.