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Waifu surgery
Dec. 16th, 2018 06:26 pmLately, while going through a few boxes here and there, I found one with some plastic figures, which was opportune because I recently got a Detolf from Ikea for the express purpose of putting figures on display. What I found was less than ideal.
I know that some plastics can get brittle over time, and I know that some things just weren't going to survive the move from last year, but this wasn't cool. No point in moping now. Time to put on my enginerding hat and see what I can do to fix this.
The original plan was to just put a bit of glue on there and hope for the best, but the way this figure is, all of the weight goes onto that one foot, and it broke at the thinnest point. The figure only weighs a few ounces but leverage can be a jerk sometimes. Glue isn't going to be enough. Maybe 2-part epoxy will be enough, maybe it won't. This will need some reinforcement, and modification to that end.
There are only a couple tiny screws holding the figure to the base. That's easy. The main mounting point goes about 1/3 the way through the foot, so I made it go the whole way and into the leg with a 1/16" drill bit. I picked that size because it already fit into the mounting hole without chewing up the threads. That and I didn't want to remove any more material than necessary.
What helped was the two parts still mated, so I could put the foot back on and drill enough to make the holes line up. Why drill all the way through? So I could use a small piece of 16ga steel wire for actual support.
Steel wire was chosen because it's rigid enough to support the figure, while having just enough flex in case I needed to make any adjustments (which I did). That and I had a spool of it on hand.
As a sidenote, I used the kind of drill bits that can mount in a 1/4" hex drive, such as an electric screwdriver. I wanted something that could go low and slow, because I was holding the pieces together by hand while drilling and it doesn't take much effort to drill through plastic. Cuz if you're going to be stupid, be smart about it. That's the difference between a professional idiot and an amateur idiot.
The test fit went well, and it seems to be holding. But is it good enough?
Huh. Well I'll be damned. That worked way better than I thought it would. I can pick up the figure by the body, and the foot and base stay with it. This is with the steel wire, no glue or epoxy.
It's still a little loose at the break. Luckily this figure is just for display and not to be handled often. It looks good enough, so I'll leave this alone for now without gluing it.
Another mitigating factor is that it looks like the foot and body were originally two separate castings, with a peg going into the foot, and the peg broke inside the foot. I'm guessing they have that peg for easier assembly at the factory. That way they could put the mounting holes in the feet and attach the base without stressing the rest of the figure, then once the base and foot were assembled, they could stick the main body on and stuff it in the packaging.
Anywho that's a thing I did this weekend.
I know that some plastics can get brittle over time, and I know that some things just weren't going to survive the move from last year, but this wasn't cool. No point in moping now. Time to put on my enginerding hat and see what I can do to fix this.
The original plan was to just put a bit of glue on there and hope for the best, but the way this figure is, all of the weight goes onto that one foot, and it broke at the thinnest point. The figure only weighs a few ounces but leverage can be a jerk sometimes. Glue isn't going to be enough. Maybe 2-part epoxy will be enough, maybe it won't. This will need some reinforcement, and modification to that end.
There are only a couple tiny screws holding the figure to the base. That's easy. The main mounting point goes about 1/3 the way through the foot, so I made it go the whole way and into the leg with a 1/16" drill bit. I picked that size because it already fit into the mounting hole without chewing up the threads. That and I didn't want to remove any more material than necessary.
What helped was the two parts still mated, so I could put the foot back on and drill enough to make the holes line up. Why drill all the way through? So I could use a small piece of 16ga steel wire for actual support.
Steel wire was chosen because it's rigid enough to support the figure, while having just enough flex in case I needed to make any adjustments (which I did). That and I had a spool of it on hand.
As a sidenote, I used the kind of drill bits that can mount in a 1/4" hex drive, such as an electric screwdriver. I wanted something that could go low and slow, because I was holding the pieces together by hand while drilling and it doesn't take much effort to drill through plastic. Cuz if you're going to be stupid, be smart about it. That's the difference between a professional idiot and an amateur idiot.
The test fit went well, and it seems to be holding. But is it good enough?
Huh. Well I'll be damned. That worked way better than I thought it would. I can pick up the figure by the body, and the foot and base stay with it. This is with the steel wire, no glue or epoxy.
It's still a little loose at the break. Luckily this figure is just for display and not to be handled often. It looks good enough, so I'll leave this alone for now without gluing it.
Another mitigating factor is that it looks like the foot and body were originally two separate castings, with a peg going into the foot, and the peg broke inside the foot. I'm guessing they have that peg for easier assembly at the factory. That way they could put the mounting holes in the feet and attach the base without stressing the rest of the figure, then once the base and foot were assembled, they could stick the main body on and stuff it in the packaging.
Anywho that's a thing I did this weekend.
