I need a little help...

so. today i found out that my dear mother was kind enough to pay off my first doll off, and have been spending time with her. Anyways, i had bought her some clothes a few weeks ago, and to get the sweater on, we had to take off her hands. when i did this, her left hand pulled out part of what i am infering is the lower arm part of the sceleton- it's stuck fast to the hand. It was rather difficult to put back in, but it's managable. Although it wount be too much of a problem for now, eventually i'll buy new hands for her, and when i do, i wont be able to change them out...

 

so does anyone have a idea on how to take this part off? I ham horrible at explaining, so i will take pictures as soon as possible.

 

thank you so much, anyone that is willing to help despite my terrible discription ablilties!

 

--Chelly

pics would be awesome ^^

 

But to change hands is difficult all the time (if this is your problem, my english isnt much good when i read explanations XD But i hope i understand it right xD)

Volks have a sheet (sometimes its in some orders) how to change some parts easier... resolution is to use a hair dryer ... But i never try that and i didnt have such a sheet anymore, maybe an other user have ^^ ...

 

(i hope i explain it right, what i have seen on it xD)

Use a hair dryer (but be careful)

the warm air makes the vinyl much movable ... and than its easier to change parts ^^ ...

Let's see.... *Grabs Yuu and yanks her hand off*

 

 

See, Yuu? That didn't hurt at all!

 

 

Yuu: "B-But my hand is gone! I think you even took my wrist off!"

 

"Just calm down, Yuu. I'll put it back! Don't worry."

 

Yuu: "A-alright..."

 

 

OK. I think what you're referring to is this:

 

 

That's the entire hand assembly on your doll. The piece comes out if you pull on just the hand alone. If you hold onto the hand joint while pulling you can prevent the whole joint from coming out.

 

 

 

You can see here that Dollfie hands are not always easily able to just pop on and off due to an intentional size difference between the hard plastic and the vinyl.

 

 

This is due to the contours on the hand to make it look like it actually extends down to the lower palm portion of the hand.

 

Like in this photo:

 

So basically: Just pull on the hand and the "ball joint" with a reasonable amount of force and don't do it in a careless manner that would be likely to break something or deform the hand. If it wont budge still, heat it with a hair dryer then do the same thing. If it still doesn't come off...then you might have some issues. (But I cant think of any reason why this would happen unless someone had the doll previously and glued the hands on or something.) There is no glue in this region on an unmodified doll.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Yuu is a stock Yukino v1. She is wearing part of the Volks Rusty Tartan Set.

Tubatime did a great photo tutorial showing you what the wrist joint on your doll is. First time I went to change my girl's hands I did the same thing, and accidentally pulled the whole wrist joint out as shown in the pictures. No problem, it went right back in place though.

 

After that, I learned to hold the wrist/ball joint with one hand, and then slowly wiggle the doll's hand up and down (parallel to the way the frame is inserted into the hand) while mildly pulling. This way the hand slowly works its way off the frame. Putting the new hand on is much easier; just takes a quick push.

 

You will want to pay attention to the orientation of the doll's frame when you take the hand off for the first time. As you can see in the photos (and when you work on your doll), one side of the "square" at the end of the frame is slightly curved in, while the other side has a square edge.

 

Your doll hand will go on with the wrist turned up or wrist turned down, but one way will give a better fit to the new hands. Match the orientation that your doll is when you take the hand off for the first time.

 

If you're having trouble with the vinyl hand you can warm it up a little to make it more pliable (more easily bendable). That's what the "hair dryer on low setting" suggestion is for. The hair dryer usually isn't needed to change out the hands, but sometimes is for more complicated doll surgeries so it is worth knowing about.

I use the hair drier to warm up the hands also. Sak-chan's default hands did take much to come off, but Fujiko's hands seem tighter around the frame. Also some of the extra hands are a little smaller in the opening size. It kinda makes changing hands hard if you don't have a hair drier on a photo shoot.

You know, I think any kind of heat will work, so when I get my Alter, I may try dunking her hand in hot water to see if that will allow it to come off easier.

Hot water will work just as well in terms of heating up vinyl and making it more pliable, but you'll want to be very careful about drying out any pieces of her that go into the water.

 

Otherwise, she'll get moldy if moisture is trapped inside. Vinyl provides a great place for mold to grow.