New DDf3 hand to lower arm joint loose

I recently bought a DDf3 body to replace Alna's at the Volks Akihabara store. I'm already out of Japan when I opened it up to find that one of the hand to arm joints is very loose. Is this common? Is there some adjustability in this part? Is there any sort of warranty for a situation like this? Otherwise what is the recommended fix?

Loose in which direction? If it's the side-to-side rotation that Alna's original body didn't have, I think the new-style joints are all loose that way, at least mine are. It makes something like sword-holding pretty useless now.

Loose as in it takes little force to pull her hand out. The other one feels much tighter.

Oh, that.

If you look right at the end, there's usually a little nub that's the remnant of the molding sprue for the part. That's what typically makes these tight; on most of mine they've been so tight I've removed part of that to make them a bit less so. I bet if you compare your two you'll see the tighter one has more of a nub there.

First thing I'd suggest is try swapping them and see if it helps any because the sockets may not be identical. If that fixes it, you can remove the hands by heating them a bit with a hair dryer and swap them. If it doesn't, then you can try putting a tiny bit of epoxy on the peg to replicate that little nub. I'm not sure that will stay on it though, as I've never had to do this.

The parts of the F3 frame are supposed to be adjustable with tensioning screws. I’ve never checked the forearm joints to see if they have a screw, but you would have to pull the frame out of the vinyl to check. 

Volks has a website on the F3 frame that might show that part before you disassemble it. 

Volks does have a warranty of sorts, but it’s pretty short. I don’t recall how many days it lasts, but pretty sure it’s less than 30. 

You can buy a replacement arm, but they come in pairs.  

On 7/31/2019 at 2:19 AM, cfx said:

Loose in which direction? If it's the side-to-side rotation that Alna's original body didn't have, I think the new-style joints are all loose that way, at least mine are. It makes something like sword-holding pretty useless now.

They shouldn't be that loose. Did you check to see if you can tighten it. 

19 hours ago, Akane said:

They shouldn't be that loose. Did you check to see if you can tighten it. 

Nope, they just spin, there's nothing to tighten. It's not fun finding that out when you get to Japan and you left all your non-spinning ones on another continent.

Oops by bodolza, on Flickr

I couldn't get her to hold up the umbrella in any way 😕 

It was when you posted that picture originally I became aware of this issue. I dislike that you can only get the wrist joints without that "feature" by buying the entire arms or a body. And I don't know if that's true anymore with f3, do they still have the older wrist joints, or do they now come with these new ones?

I like to buy wrist joints for each pair of hands, so most of mine are this style unfortunately. I don't know if they're all as loose as what you've got there, but mine seem to all be.

3 minutes ago, cfx said:

It was when you posted that picture originally I became aware of this issue. I dislike that you can only get the wrist joints without that "feature" by buying the entire arms or a body. And I don't know if that's true anymore with f3, do they still have the older wrist joints, or do they now come with these new ones?

They come with the new ones. The extra movement is definitely better, I just wish they'd put some friction into the design.

That's unfortunate. I can see the extra movement being useful for some posing, but the old style is certainly better for being able to hold something.

So far I haven't found the extra part that useful because it seems like if you use it for much of a side-tilt (I don't know what else to call it) it looks weird. While real wrists move that way, they don't move very far, or at least the ones on my 60+ year old body don't lol.

16 minutes ago, cfx said:

That's unfortunate. I can see the extra movement being useful for some posing, but the old style is certainly better for being able to hold something.

Try getting the wrists replaced. Or if there is a way to tighten them. I have a DD-f3 body for my Miku and they are quite stiff. 

3 hours ago, cfx said:

While real wrists move that way, they don't move very far, or at least the ones on my 60+ year old body don't lol.

You are 60+?  I thought you was in your early teens lol 

7 hours ago, foo said:

Nope, they just spin, there's nothing to tighten. It's not fun finding that out when you get to Japan and you left all your non-spinning ones on another continent.

 

I couldn't get her to hold up the umbrella in any way 😕 

I find that the more contact the vinyl has with the ball the less the wrist spins. I went and tried spinning the wrists on my various F3, and got a variety of results.

Jeanne & Altria's wrists spin pretty freely.

Ami & Rei have more friction, but in Rei's case the hands she has on come all the way up to the ball joint.

Iori and Yayoi have more friction too, but again the hands come all the way up to the ball. If I pull the hand off the wrist join it spins like a top.

As usual, your Rin is gorgeous, and beautiful photo.

Edited August 10, 2019 by BeyondTime

On 7/30/2019 at 5:49 PM, youth said:

I recently bought a DDf3 body to replace Alna's at the Volks Akihabara store. I'm already out of Japan when I opened it up to find that one of the hand to arm joints is very loose. Is this common? Is there some adjustability in this part? Is there any sort of warranty for a situation like this? Otherwise what is the recommended fix?

I checked inside my Ami's arm, and there is an adjustment screw for the wrist part. You will probably need to heat the vinyl with a hair dryer to get it out, but once it's out you should have no problem tightening it. I would suggest tightening it very slowly, just based on my own experience with F3 a quarter turn of the screw goes a long way, and you definitely don't want to strip the threads by over tightening it.

I was also able to find this on the Volks site regarding their return policy. This is the web policy, so I am not sure how it may differ for in store purchases by overseas customers, however since the part in question is adjustable I think this policy won't apply. It's not a defect, so I don't think they will cover it as returnable.

• 1. The Customer may return the merchandise only when it is marked or damaged on delivery, when incorrect merchandise is sent, or when Volks otherwise accepts the return. The Customer may return the product or cancel the contract ( if the product cannot be returned) only when they dispatch the product for return within 14 days of the receipt.
• 2. The Customer takes the steps designated by Volks otherwise to return the product in a situation applicable to the above Article.7 paragraph 1.

Edited August 11, 2019 by BeyondTime

On 8/11/2019 at 2:07 PM, BeyondTime said:

I checked inside my Ami's arm, and there is an adjustment screw for the wrist part.

Just looked & for reference here is the adjustment. Good of Volks to have thought to include this adjustment, but bad that their assembler didn't catch this.

Edited August 13, 2019 by youth

11 hours ago, youth said:

Just looked & for reference here is the adjustment. Good of Volks to have thought to include this adjustment, but bad that their assembler didn't catch this.

Yeah, Jeanne and Altria both had loose knees and ankles. At least they can be tightened readily enough.

Edited August 13, 2019 by BeyondTime