Shoulder and Hip socket repairs

I made an entry into another thread in another section about this and it was suggested that I also post it here. Apologies for taking a few extra days to post it up here.

 

 

When I received Niimi Haruka, I noticed that the joints on her DDIIIDy body moved differently from the DDS and DDIII bodies I'd handled up to this point, so I disassembled her and was surprised to find that Volks had implemented some changes to the joints. Here are pictures of what I found:

 

Shoulder pegs:

 

 

 

Hip pegs:

 

 

Hip Sockets compared to DDS/DDIII (DDIIIDy left, DDS/III right)

 

 

This gave me an idea. I've been working on repairing my Momo's (Moe 2nd) shoulders and hips for a while now, and had thought that maybe a slotted groove would help alleviate some of the pressure buildup in the joint sockets. Seeing that Volks had done this, I decided to try it on my Momo. Utilizing a Dremel 4000 rotary tool, along with a number 426 cutting disc, proceeded to cut my own slotted grooves into the shoulder and hip pegs. I used a drill bit with it for the zip tie + epoxy method discussed in previous threads by such esteemed members of this board as PlasticFantastic, baldylox, and others. I got the idea for the hip socket fix from a post from XOHimitsuOX, although mine is nowhere near as nice looking.

 

Shoulder peg slot with socket fix:

 

Hip peg slot showing the socket's crack:

 

Hip socket cracks:

 

Hip socket repairs, zip ties and epoxy:

 

 

Once the epoxy finishes curing, Momo should be back in one piece again. As of this posting, the epoxy has another 2 hours to finish curing.

Nice to see that the zip tie method works on the legs too!!! I need to do this with Amber's DDS. Is it hard to get the leg component apart in order to do this? The addition of the epoxy is definitely a good idea, we went out to buy a finer tip set for our dremel so that we can add in the notches onto our DDS and DDIII.

 

Thanks for re-posting this here. It's a great addition on to the zipties!

Nice to see that the zip tie method works on the legs too!!! I need to do this with Amber's DDS. Is it hard to get the leg component apart in order to do this? The addition of the epoxy is definitely a good idea, we went out to buy a finer tip set for our dremel so that we can add in the notches onto our DDS and DDIII.

 

Thanks for re-posting this here. It's a great addition on to the zipties!

 

Getting the hip joint parts out of the legs was the hardest part, I don't have a hair dryer, so it took quite a bit of effort to manipulate the parts out. Once they were out of the vinyl it was easy to work on the fix. The lower torso skeleton parts are quite easy to take out for the purpose of putting the grooves into the hip pegs though.

 

I look forward to seeing how clean and nice your peg grooves come out. If your shoulder fixes are any indicator, the pegs should be gorgeous.

Thank you so much for sharing your repairs and details with us! It's really good to know that fixes can and do work on these issues.

 

Not to sound stupid but these repairs were all done on the first runs of a DD3 or DDS correct? Your new DDdy3 body didn't have the cracking issues due to the implementation of these new slots/grooves in the shoulder and hip pegs right? Just clearing that up for myself, that's all.

 

I'm wondering if these new grooves and thicker shoulder and hip tubes have been implemented into the new Sabers being shipped out of Volks US now? I'll have to take mine apart and check when she arrives next week to make sure. Even if she does have these new grooves/slots, I think I may sand the pegs a little anyways for smoother operation.

 

Thanks again for sharing these great photos and info with us!

 

 

 

Billy

Nice to see that you have fixed your girl

P.S. The cute underwear was distracting me from looking the changes they made

Nice to see that you have fixed your girl

P.S. The cute underwear was distracting me from looking the changes they made

I had this issue too! Those pantsu are ADORABLE.

 

RaveOfNightmares, where did you find them?

Thank you so much for sharing your repairs and details with us! It's really good to know that fixes can and do work on these issues.

 

Not to sound stupid but these repairs were all done on the first runs of a DD3 or DDS correct? Your new DDdy3 body didn't have the cracking issues due to the implementation of these new slots/grooves in the shoulder and hip pegs right? Just clearing that up for myself, that's all.

 

I'm wondering if these new grooves and thicker shoulder and hip tubes have been implemented into the new Sabers being shipped out of Volks US now? I'll have to take mine apart and check when she arrives next week to make sure. Even if she does have these new grooves/slots, I think I may sand the pegs a little anyways for smoother operation.

 

Thanks again for sharing these great photos and info with us!

 

 

 

Billy

 

These were all done on my Momo (Moe 2nd DDIII), her shoulders and hips were cracked so badly that they would no longer stay in place. My Akina (DDS Akira) had 1 cracked shoulder and both cracked hips. I gave her the grooves and fixed the 1 shoulder. So far her joints seem to work better even though I haven't fixed the hip sockets yet.

 

The Dy III body has no cracks at all. Those grooves seem to alleviate the joint issue very well. It seems like they may have made the pegs a hair slimmer as well, as they have a slight weight loading issue.

 

I really hope the new Sabers come with the upgrades of the Dy III.

 

Nice to see that you have fixed your girl

P.S. The cute underwear was distracting me from looking the changes they made

 

Even though it's not really possible to tell that it's Mio in the picture, she still refused to go without pantsu.

 

Nice to see that you have fixed your girl

P.S. The cute underwear was distracting me from looking the changes they made

I had this issue too! Those pantsu are ADORABLE.

 

RaveOfNightmares, where did you find them?

 

I picked them up in one of my big orders from Coolcat. There are more pics in my thread from a while back in the New Arrivals section, which are also on my flickr in my Coolcat DD Clothes set.

http://us.sk-coolcat.com/front/bin/ptdetail.phtml?Part=yd31

 

And please, call me Jack.

 

-Jack

I don't know if it's just the angle but in that 2nd photo it looks like the slots are definitely doing their job to reduce the outer diameter of the peg.

 

I received my replacement shoulder/leg sockets from Volks today but I don't dare put them back together before I find someone to borrow a dremel from.

I don't know if it's just the angle but in that 2nd photo it looks like the slots are definitely doing their job to reduce the outer diameter of the peg.

 

I received my replacement shoulder/leg sockets from Volks today but I don't dare put them back together before I find someone to borrow a dremel from.

 

It's the angle of the shot. The slots aren't there so much for diameter reduction as they are for the relief of pressure buildup due to friction and thermal expansion.

 

Oddly enough, the DDII joints had compensation for this built in, in the form of the various notches and multiple surface diameters of the joint pegs.

 

If we had any engineers in here, they could likely explain it far better than I can.

I don't know if it's just the angle but in that 2nd photo it looks like the slots are definitely doing their job to reduce the outer diameter of the peg.

 

I received my replacement shoulder/leg sockets from Volks today but I don't dare put them back together before I find someone to borrow a dremel from.

 

It's the angle of the shot. The slots aren't there so much for diameter reduction as they are for the relief of pressure buildup due to friction and thermal expansion.

 

Oddly enough, the DDII joints had compensation for this built in, in the form of the various notches and multiple surface diameters of the joint pegs.

 

If we had any engineers in here, they could likely explain it far better than I can.

 

Oh, there's engineers around. We're just lazy~

 

I'm probably one of the ones that SHOULD know this best because this is mechanical engineering and polymers. And I really did love learning about polymers... But I'm rusty because I've been working in engineering sales since I graduated!

 

I'll take a stab, and I'm sure I'll be corrected by one of the others if I stab incorrectly.

 

Most materials will expand as their temperature increases, friction generates heat (this is the whole "energy cannot be destroys it only transfers forms thing you learned about in high school). Now, the inner frame of the DD is made of PVC and ABS. ABS is a stronger plastic but it's brittle, PVC is more ductile and it's easier to work with.

 

If we look at the nature of the breaks our dolls are getting, there's no discoloration, just a hairline fracture that grows into a full crack - which means there's very little deformation prior to failure. If you bend something like a credit card or a plastic toy and then bend it back into shape again the colour of the plastic lightens - and the bond strength weakens because you've applied work to the plastic (you've heated it by bending it (energy transfer) and caused the bonds between the plastic to break - but there's enough elasticity that the component stays intact and can still function!) This makes me think that the shoulder assembly is mostly ABS, because it simply cracks (like glass, which is also very brittle).

 

My thoughts are the friction is causing heat expansion of the peg and the shoulder socket does not offer any "give" so over time the shoulder socket weakens from all the stress of the joint and a stress fracture occurs at the weakest point - and it just fails.

 

I have a chart I found that compares some materials of different properties to each other, this is a pretty common chart that we use for materials:

 

Now think of these examples only relative to what i've classified them as, not each other. Because ABS is not stronger than copper, but copper is more ductile than it is strong.

High strength, low ductility, and low toughness is the properties of ABS, it's stronger, but it's not very bendy, and it's not overly tough, cos it's plastic, not like metal. (Cement would also be a good example in this category)

High strength, high ductility, and high toughness would be something like steel. It's very strong, it responds well to deformation (cold and hot working) and it's very tough (it's what your car's frame is made from!)

Low strength, high ductility, low toughness would be something like... copper wire or gold. These materials are easily deformed without breaking and can be bent back into shape.

 

 

I think I rambled. I'm sorry if it's not explained well! It's hard to organise this all in my mind and explain it ;_;

has anyone checked some of the new dp27 releases for the dddy revisions yet. very curious if volks implmented the improvements yet