MDD Shoulder Replacement 3D Print

Hi All,

 

It's been a while since my last dollfie repair back in April. But after coming home to this every day for a few months I finally decided to try my next repair:

 

Rena: Are my arms fixed yet?

Me: Sorry honey, not yet.

 

At first I just needed to replace the piece of plastic that plugs into the elbow but I ended up mutilating the entire joint trying to get it apart. It's a second-hand body and the parts just wouldn't come apart nicely. For those that aren't familiar with the joint, here are the parts that needed to be replaced:

 

 

The geometry is pretty complicated so I didn't know where to start which is why I put this project off for so long. The modelling work ended up working out much better/easier than I expected. After 4-5 hours with a vernier caliper I came up with a decent 3D model:

 

 

 

I submitted the model to Shapeways and picked a couple of materials to try printing it with. Some of the dimensions I went down to 0.05mm with so I wasn't sure if it would work. That was a couple weeks ago. Today the prints arrived:

 

 

The material on the right is "white strong and flexible". It is the cheapest material that Shapeways prints in and I wasn't expecting it to work out at all due to tolerance limits on the material. Shapeways has this new "print it anyway" feature that you can enable in a case like this which I selected. The material on the left is "white detail" which is more expensive but allows more detail. It has a soft and slightly rubbery feel compared to the rough feeling of the white strong & flexible.

 

Here are the parts assembled. I can't believe that I managed to do so well on the fit.

 

 

And here they are installed on Rena:

 

 

Overall they work amazingly well, although they could use a few improvements. One is that the screw hole is not large enough so I'm going to work out what it should be. Since the plastic is softer than what Volks uses the part that plugs into the shoulder socket could be a bit bigger because it currently barely supports the weight of the arm. On the upside, the part that connects to the rest of the arm provides a much snugger fit so tape isn't needed to keep the parts together.

 

Once I get everything working I'll put it on my Shapeways store so others can get a copy.

Edited September 3, 2014 by Guest

Oh wow, that's awesome! I'm happy for you and your girl now that she's all fixed up! That's very impressive how you managed to make these parts and repair her, congrats!

 

 

Billy

I have decided you're a wizard But seriously, amazing job! I know people have been asking this in you other 3D print thread, but are you thinking about designing a hand/wrist part? I really wish volks would just sell it because changing hands on my MDD is a nightmare

Wow !!!

 

Totally impressive

 

Great job.