Can a broken wrist be fixed?

DollLyfe · Post by **DollLyfe** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:28 am

My doll Jennifer's left wrist broke today and I don't know how. Both wrists became loose shortly after using her and today it seemed fine during playtime. I left her sitting on the bed with her arms up of course. When I came back a while later, she tilted over toward her left side but her hand wasn't touching anything, however the wrist is floppy like a fish now and I can hear a crunching noise when I move it. I've seen posts in the forum about using a wrist brace. Is that my only option or is this repairable?

katiesBoyfriend · Post by **katiesBoyfriend** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 6:47 am

DollLyfe wrote:My doll Jennifer's left wrist broke today and I don't know how. Both wrists became loose shortly after using her and today it seemed fine during playtime. I left her sitting on the bed with her arms up of course. When I came back a while later, she tilted over toward her left side but her hand wasn't touching anything, however the wrist is floppy like a fish now and I can hear a crunching noise when I move it. I've seen posts in the forum about using a wrist brace. Is that my only option or is this repairable?

It depends on how that wrist is held together. If it's like what my RealDoll has, it's a matter of tightening a threaded fastener, an easy job.

If, however, the wrist joint consisted of wire, that could turn out to be messy. How that's repaired will depend on what's left over after the break. One of my dolls was like that and, after repairing her wrists several times, I decided I'd had enough and she's now retired in storage.

Dollarhyde · Post by **Dollarhyde** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 12:43 pm

It really depends on if your doll is TPE or Platinum Silicone... from the sound of it, floppy like a fish sounds more like TPE. So I am going to base this on the TPE model. The majority of the TPE dolls use a hand/finger plate, where the wires are attached to a plate which allows wrist and fingers to be moved. Unlike platinum silicone where the wrist joint is attached via a bolt to a hand plate.

The crunching sound is the wires rubbing against the plate. You are going to need to open up her wrist and hand to do the operation. I would suggest making it look more natural to operate on her from the palm lines. You will need to clean out the hand plate by cleaning out the glue which was originally holding the wires. You can accomplish this by using a small drill to clean out the glue holding the wires. Then remove the finger wires... these are going to be wrapped with gauze to allow the TPE to stick to the wires so they will be a bit of a challenge to remove.

After all, is said and done this is the time you can upgrade her finger wires with something a little more stout rather than copper. I generally use galvanized wire which is thicker and is more stout. Get some construction glue and fill up the hand plate then insert the wires. Don't worry about trimming the wires yet let the adhesive set up first which will take several hours to cure. After the curing time, you might want to get some shrink wrap and put them on the end of the wires so it's less sharp. Insert the wires into their proper fingers and then close her up my preferred method is a hot knife method but for many, they use the cold fusion method or solvent method.

DollLyfe · Post by **DollLyfe** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 1:48 pm

Yes she is a TPE doll. It feels like there's only wires for her hand. I can feel wires all the way up to the wrist, there is no hand plate. I just noticed the wire protruding from her pinky finger on the right hand. I'm not to keen on cutting into her since I don't have the proper equipment to perform such a repair so it seems that a wrist brace is my best option at this point. I figured that I would end up having to replace her body eventually but it's only been a few weeks since I took delivery of her, such a disappointment. Don't order from Esdoll.

Dollarhyde · Post by **Dollarhyde** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 2:50 pm

I don't know if you can really call it on a doll company but ALL dolls within the TPE category suffer from finger pokes and broken wrists due to the copper wire all the Chinese Doll Makers use. They all use a plate with the wires attached to allow the for wrist and finger movement. The hands on all Chinese Made dolls suffer from the same issue so it really does not matter who the maker is.

You might want to contact ESDoll to see if there was a warranty with your doll.

Mr Franz · Post by **Mr Franz** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 3:27 pm

Not all TPE dolls have wire wrists. My WM has wire fingers that attach to a hand/palm plate which is bolted to the wrist. Similar to the photo below. I've also seen dolls, mostly older models and knock offs with no palm plate and no wrist or ankle joint at all. Only wires sticking out of the arm and leg tubes.

DollLyfe · Post by **DollLyfe** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:04 pm

Mr Franz wrote:Not all TPE dolls have wire wrists. My WM has wire fingers that attach to a hand/palm plate which is bolted to the wrist. Similar to the photo below. I've also seen dolls, mostly older models and knock offs with no palm plate and no wrist or ankle joint at all. Only wires sticking out of the arm and leg tubes.

She definitely doesn't have a hand plate. I can feel the wires all the way to the forearm. I'm not really sure how they attach.

Dollarhyde · Post by **Dollarhyde** » Mon Aug 12, 2019 5:40 pm

As Franz has pointed out some are as shown with a hand plate with a joint for the wrist but all have the plate that you see welded to the forearm probably close to the wrist... if you squeeze around the area you will find a flat plate it might be small since they are just sticking wires into it. As I indicated earlier the crunching sound you are hearing is the broken copper wires rubbing against one another.

Franz the hand plates separate from the wrist is what WM uses but not ALL companies use this format. The early 6Ye models did not have a separate hand plate. The newer models may not have that but it's not a norm across the board for every manufacturer out there.