Doll hand wire alternatives

[Vampalin]

So my dolls hands lasted all of a second, so i just removed the wires and springs to experiment with alternatives and found something better.
Its called hanging wire, its basically braided stainless steel wire used for hanging up paintings or wall ornaments.

One issue is that the wires can come loose and poke through the TPE, so i used some construction adhesive called liquid nails to seal the tips to the fingers, and used some liquid nails to secure the wires to the wrist tube.

Being braided wire i also used the xylene trick and melted some tpe, i used an oil syringe to inject the tpe into the hands and let it set, and that seems to work better.

Anyone have other ideas?

[Maviarab]

Welcome Vampalin.

There are various threads in the different mfr sections and also in Inventor's corner dealing with the age old problematic issue of hands and finger wires. A quick search function should yield you a few results to look through.

[Muninn]

Couple of good ideas there, Vampalin. Like said, there's quite a few posts on TDF that will also provide some food for thought.

One of the big issues with the Jinsan hands is that the weak point is where the wires attach to the palm - the wires bend there repeatedly until they eventually break. I'm going to experiment with some (slightly modified) mini universal joints that will join directly to the palm. This might just reduce the stresses on the wires and stop breaking.

[Vampalin]

Yes i had an idea about some kind of hand plate that the wires would attach to and have bolts coming out of, similar to the standing feet bolts and have that attached to a ball joint or pivot joint, then to the wrists.

She could be propped up on her hands for doggy or even do a hand stand if they were strong enough, i find the elbows tear after a while.

[Slew]

Hi Vampalin, welcome. Great ideas. In case you haven't seen it, I have an old topic with tons of banter and ideas about this stuff: https://www.dollforum.com/forum/viewtop ... 87&t=80556 I was trying to persuade MFRs to re-think their designs, but it veered into a DIY thread, which was great.

[RainKing]

I have wondered, and have not tried myself yet, but if you can wrap the fingers in some cotton string like "Kite string" or cotton thread, and then possibly wet it with Xylene, OR better yet a little diluted TPE glue, I bet you could make the inner fingers stick to the finger wires like they were from the factory, and that will keep them from "rolling" on the wire and also may help with pokes.

I used something called QuickSteel to make my Anti-Poke Technology™ for Eva. I also used some Tag wire that is supposed to be malleable mild steel I glued them in with the LocTite Urethane 3x construction adhesive, but since she is a WM with palm plates, sadly not even a month later the wires broke at the palm plate exit due to unknown stress factors, (as in still scratching my head) As I thought the Urethane would be a little stress dampener since it hardens but stays a little rubbery.

Cotton string Idea, i got after seeing this SM doll finger set up:

SM 138cm hand.jpg (178.66 KiB) Viewed 999 times

Kindly note the string as with yours possibly is "braided in the wire twist to absorb TPE when liquidy"

Also, My fix:
Note this is my diagram for a palm plate style

fingerfix 2.jpg (69.96 KiB) Viewed 999 times

The palm plates (I need to install these still, Had to get these on the black market from WM from China.) Note the windows for the thumb and pinky have to be cut, plus the plate is extra long so it may have to be cut to fit as well.

palm plates1.jpg (146.77 KiB) Viewed 999 times

Palm plate from factory:

Finger 3.jpg (140.18 KiB) Viewed 999 times

Sorry I know this does not apply, but if you ever get a gal with plates u get an idea.

Sounds like you did a great repair there. I hope it holds up for you. I have heard of other materials being used. I just fear that a Palm plate style is so easy to break b/c of the sharp edges on exit and the amount of stress that is put in that one spot unintentionally.

Cheers!
RainKing

[Vampalin]

I was looking more at some kind of stainless steel hand kit we could make or buy and install ourselves.