Eye Bevelers: How to Bevel Eye Wells

I ran a search, and eye bevelers don't have their own thread! We simply cannot let this travesty continue. :grin:
For anyone wondering, eye bevelers are used to enlarge the doll's eye well so that eyes sit better, or so that the doll can wear a larger size.
I've been wanting to bevel my old-fcs F-08's eyewells for awhile, as on this head mold the eyes sit very far back in the head. I plan on ordering the 18mm beveler from Miniworld http://www.miniworlddolls.com/ since Volks ones are harder to come by.

So does anyone have advice, questions, anything to say at all on this "eye-opening subect?" Hahaha Lol, eye-opening, get it? *ducks empty cans of Mr. Super Clear and dried-up bottles of Liquitex* *Winces* Tough crowd! Anyway, post away!

 

I was kinda wondering what they did. I thought you used them on the eyes themselves to make them fit a bit better... I guess I learned something new!

 

I did the exact same thing XD
I got my 18mm eye beveler from mini world~ for my F08!
I haven't used it yet [she has a bottlecap in her head, PAIN to get in, PAIN to get out] and i haven't had a day I can devote to her yet XD but i'm excited to see how yours goes too :3

 

I didn't like the eyewells in my DD1 openeyed head, sorta cut ragged, and looked not so smooth when I put eyes in her, but the 18mm beveler cleaned that up quite nicely! I think you put the round end in from the back, but instead (and don't hit me for it!) I threaded the handle through her eye socket from the back of her head and started grinding away in a circular motion. It takes some time since they are pretty fine grain, but it's a very nice finish when trying to get the eyes to fit just right.

Planning on doing that to a Hound since I hear his eyewells are pretty small...


~Margarita

 

No hitting! In fact, I think that sounds like a good way to do it!

 

I think bevelling eyewells really makes a huge difference... I bevelled my old F-8 because her eyes didn't sit well and looked really sunken. It really gave her a little spark and brought her to life. I also recently bevelled the back of my DoD Yen's eyes - before his right eye couldn't point forward. ^_^ Now he can look forward and his his eyelids are much thinner.

Soooo I recommend bevelling! Good stuff. I'll see if I can find some pictures later.

 

I have to say that using the beveller "back-to-front" is a great idea, because I found when using mine it got clogged up with dust after a while, and also it is good to be able to use the whole ball, not just one side of it.

However the eye-openings on the head I bevelled aren't big enough to accommodate the handle of the beveller. I got mine from Volks, so they might be different.

 

Wow... XD I never knew what those things were for... I just thought they were like... ball things on sticks that let you see what size fit them better... XDDD

 

Some of them are! So be careful before purchasing any, as some are just wooden, and others are sanding type.

 

Okay, here's the thing. My boy not only has slightly mismatched eyes, but the eye wells are both very different and putting they eyes in is a very difficult task.

I've read all the posts on placing eyes and such, but nothing seems to fit this situation! He looks like he has a lazy eye, and Faith is really not happy with me at the moment for making him look like that.

Does anyone have any ideas for placing eyes in crooked eyewells? Or is it just hit and miss? I would take a photo to show you all what I mean...but I don't have a camera anymore

 

That's...peculiar. The eyewells inside are crooked themselves and it's not just the shape of the eyehole (like the outside part, on the face) or the faceup that's maybe uneven? What type of doll head do you have? Perhaps other owners of the same head can give you some tips?

 

I think Armelia had the same problem with her Yen, she couldn't position his right eye straigt or something like that, I'm pretty sure she used an eye beveler to even out his eyewells.

 

I thought the same exact thing :grin:

 

There's no way I'm doing that... I know I would mess something up.

It's both the eye well and the eyes that are uneven, not just the faceup. It's not so noticeably so either. I barely even noticed until I tried to put these new eyes in. The right eye just wont sit straight because the eyewell doesn't slope the right way. I would love to take pictures to show, because I know it's hard to give advice without actually seeing the problem, but a camera is very hard for me to get again ^^;

Would perhaps a layer of eyeputty even it out in the areas that it doesn't sit right? Am I just going to have to toy around with it until I get it right? (Since there is nowhere I'm going near my boy's face with sandpaper or anything of the like.)

 

The plain wooden ones are designed to have stockings or similar fabric pulled over them (and secured with an elastic band) to bevel the eyes in greenware porcelain dolls.
The ones that have a grit finish - were also designed to be used on porcelain dolls.. just wet and in the soft fired greenware stage.
"Master eye bevellers" are the grit ones. You can also get lots of odd little shapes to help sand and modify.

 

Hi-
Does anyone know of a tutorial concerning eye beveling, or how one would enlarge a doll's eyes by other methods?
Has anyone done this and is it difficult?
Thanks

 

I don't know of a tutorial but i saw another thread about Beveling;

http://www.denofangels.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=31755

Id be too nervous to try somthing like that becasue im clumsy with things like that ops:

Hope you find somthing!

 

I bought a pair of the old style Souldoll eyes (which I know the sizes run large in). The pupil looks like it would probably be ok size-wise but the eye itself is so large it won't even fit into either of my boys eyewells. The closest I can get it is about 1/2" away from the eye opening. Can the eyes be sanded down around the sides to make them smaller? Has anyone tried this?
As far as I know they are acrylic eyes. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. I really love the color and I want to be able to use them!
Thanks!

 

If you don't mind that they can't be resold if you sand them down (i.e., if you're not goingto just DIE if they get messed up), it is possible to sand down eyes (I did it for a Unoa Light).

I used a dremel to get them down to the proper size -- it was a lot of work, but those are also REALLY small fiddly eyes!!

Good luck

-- Andi

 

Thanks!!
My husband has a dremel he uses all the time. Maybe I can get him to do it for me. :grin:

 

depending on the doll and the size, you could also bevel the doll's eye wells larger. miniworld dolls carries eyebevelers and I used them to open Hound's eye wells to 18 instead of 14. It helps a LOT not just for eye wear but also for posing eyes.

 

i did the same with my msd, i cut down 22mm to fit in his eye wells

 

batchix Thank for the suggestion!!
I'm probably too chicken to actually attempt it though. My Amos has these molded "sockets" in his head and there would be a TON of resin to sand/scrape away to open them any. I've never seen anything like this on a BJD before. His eyes are a killer to get in even when they do actaully fit. ops:

otepoti May I ask how you did it? I think that's what I will end up doing as well. Did you sand them or use a dremel?

 

O_o....? That's odd.... I've never heard of that either... The only dolls I've seen with sockets were vinyl... Which Amos is NOT. *blinks* Do you have pictures? *is really curious now*

 

I am currently at work but I will definitly get some pictures as soon as I get home. Hopefully that'll help because it's hard to describe what I mean. ops:
I'll have pics up by around 6 or so! :grin:

 

I did a search on "eye bevelers," and I didn't come up with any basics, so can you please help me out?

I'm thinking that I should hollow out Sardonix' [sleeping LE elf Lishe's] eyewells so that her eyes aren't so far back in her head.

1. What size beveler do I get? The size that the eyewells already are or the size that I want them to be?

2. How do I use it? Is it a manual tool? Or can I attach it to my rotary tool/Dremel?

Thank you.

--MW

 

I used 18mm and a 20mm beveler, but mostly the 18mm. It goes very quick manually, so I wouldnt use a dremel. I think I got a set from tallina's/ antina.
Basically they look like lollipps, covered in sand paper.

 

I have an 18mm. I used it in my Hound and I think that's about as far as they'll go-Hound's eyewells are like 14mm? they're really small. :3 For your Lishe, I'd say use a 20mm since i think Lishe's default is 18? Unfortunately it is a manual tool. I haven't figured out how to attach it to my dremel, but I think it would make my life easier if it did. I can't wait to see your boy when he's a hound! I was so sad when you sold him. XD

I picked up mine at miniworld dolls for really cheap btw~ they have a minimum order of $10, but I filled up on nice eyelashes and some moderately priced eyes.

 

Dremel goes to fast, you risk slipping and sanding the wrong spot, or grinding away too much.

I have a 16mm bevel for MSD heads, pretty much you need the bevel of the size of eye you will put in the head. Keep in mind the shape of the eyes when they are inside the head, while you could bevel a large well in a mini head, you couldnt fit a pair of very large eyes inside (hope that makes sense)

Wooden eye sizers are nice too, they help you measure the size of the original well, and you can check your progress easily (I used them a lot when I was opening the eyes on a sleeping head, to see how much to thin the eye lid!)

 

Just curious what does this tool do for SD

 

I have no idea, I've never seen that before.

 

It's an eye beveler. You use it to sand away a bit of resin on the inside of your doll's head so that eyes can fit in it better.
You can make larger sized eyes fit in etc.

 

Thank you. I noticed there are small gaps between my doll's face and eyes. it might caused by uneven resin or maybe I just did a bad job on eye installation. I don't know how much eye putty should I use to make her eyes stable. (I used all came with the doll) They looked nice when I just set them up, but her eyes always 'move' a little bit after a while. >_<

 

Today my 16mm Dollmore eyes arrived in the mail for my Dream of Doll Too. The color is really nice, but they are high domes, which I did not expect. And in being so, they don't fit well. As the dome will touch the molding of the eye socket, the rest of the eye has a gap where it would normal touch the resin. It makes his eyes look sunken and dark and it clearly doesn't look right.

What should I do to overcome this problem? I really like the color of the eyes and I don't feel much like spending 60 dollars on a pair of enchanted eyes which are the closest to the brightness and color.

I thought about the eye beveler, but I'm not quite sure how those work- would they make the problem worse? Please help.

 

I used an eye beveller on my Too and the results were great! DOD dolls do have a rather thick layer of resin around the eyelids. Try using a 16mm eye beveller to deepen the entire eyewell, and if you still need a little extra room for the high domes, you can carefully bevel the center of the eyelid with a 12 or 14mm beveller. Just make sure to stop often and check your progress, because resin sands surprisingly quickly, and sometimes you'll only need to apply pressure to the top or bottom of the eyewell to get the perfect fit.

 

Thank you so much! I kept thinking "this is such a waste.." I'm glad something can be done. ^_^

 

urgh, i have the same problem with hunter. the eye beveller on volksusa will work right?

 

There are a few doll sculpts I love but for their deep set eyes. I'm thinking, for example, of many DoC heads where there seems to be a thick resin shelf in the eyelid. Another one is the Narae Butterfly faceplate. Is there a way to sand the eye holes maybe from the inside so that the eyes fit closer to the face?

 

It's called bezeling, I think. Volks sells the tools but only in certain sizes. Someone else would have to tell you if this would actually get the effect you wanted. ^_^;

 

Eye beveling isn't that hard, it just takes a while. I know several doll companies and other places do sell the proper tools in various sizes (basically a round, abrasive ball on a stick)
There should also be several tutorials and threads with tips around in this section of the forum. Good luck!

 

Thanks for the tip.

 

Volks sells the eye bevellers in sizes that correspond to eye sizes, 14mm, 16mm, 18mm. Any good doll supply company that provides supplies to porcelain doll makers will also sell them. You want medium and fine grain, if you can find it. As long as the doll has eye wells, it's worth a shot.

You can also scoop out excess resin from an eye well (particularly from dreaming heads, where there sometimes is a flat backing of resin) with a tool I found out about here, called a linoleum cutter. They usually have a big wooden handle and interchangeable cutting heads that provide a variety of widths of a scoop-shaped cut. But it isn't even that way, and could use beveling at the end.

 

i have a buddydoll kuggi, and i bought drop rop eyes but there is a gap between the head and the eye socket. they dont fit right. i do have silcon eyes that fit but i like the other eyes. i have never done any kind of mods at all so im nervous about it, but could i sand the socket out a bit? what would be the best way of doing this? i have a dremel but have no idea what bits i would use either. or if sanding would be better?

 

I've seen some dollshops on the net that sell a sanding ball on a stick kinda thing, for modding eyesockets. But I can't remember which, it may have been dollmore.

 

Dollmore has eye bevellers that are basically, like the poster above said, abrasive balls on a stick. They probably should work very well for smoothing the eyewells out with.

- Mel

 

For fitting eyes, use a beveler. A dremel would be much too um... severe (not quite the right word but...) of a tool to use, after all they are power tools and thus can be more dangerous to use because mistakes are made much quicker due to the speed they spin.

When I opened my Vamp Breakaway's eyes I used a beveler (which I would not suggest doing for the main sanding of opening eyes, way too much work ^^; and it gave me a very smooth and perfectly round surface on the inside. I really would recommend using one for your eye fitting troubles. Just be aware though, that it CAN be a lot of work and that sanding with a beveler goes very slowly.

 

I've used a dremel on low speed with a tiny bit, perfect for use on work with eyewells.
It worked like a dream, I had total control and it was fast. I, myself,
would recommend it. There are many tools to choose from for a dremel for
any use, and they are tiny, a perfect fit in tight little spaces like that.
Plus, you control the pressure and you can go as slow as you like.

Now, I would NOT recommend a dremel anywhere where there was fine
epoxy-putty mods applied (this can crack it), or where the resin is really thin.

On the dolls I have there was a good enough thickness of resin available for modding with a
dremel that I didn't have to worry about cracking anything or
going through.

 

I got some beautiful AOD eyes-- I think they're glass. Either that or they're paperweighted hard acrylic, but I think they're glass. Very hard and slick, shiny. Anyway, they are 16 mm. and they won't fit in my doll. They are round with the little tube sticking out the back. They are just slightly too wide to fit in my doll's head. What should I do?

I think I could either:

a) cut them in half and make half round out of them, cutting them a little further toward the pupil to make them a bit less wide; or

b) sand them down on the insides, just as they are, so they fit together and glance out the eye holes in the proper manner. In other words, sand them on their inside edges to make them fit.

I have done lots of eye modifications on acrylic eyes and on the soft acrylic eyes, but if these are glass-- are they going to shatter?

What should I do? They are beautiful soft blue/mauve/lilac eyes and the pupil comes out in a bit of a spiral, giving them a flowery look.

 

Or you could just get an eye beveler, and widen the inside of the doll's eyes so that they would fit... That would probably be easiest.

 

Thanks-- I'm not sure if there's enough room inside the head for these eyes is the problem, not the eye holes, if that's what you're talking about. But, I will check out the inside of the doll's head and see if some widening can be done there-- you are right, that would be easier by far, and on the inside of the head, won't show! Thanks!

 

Yoooo~
So, I've been very, very slowly modding an Elfdoll Reminisce Lydia head for awhile. Opening the eyes. : ] It's going awesomely. I took my time because I didn't wanna f it up. One of the eyes is partially closed for... damage purposes. 8D

ANYWAY.

The problem I'm having now is that the eye sockets aren't shallow enough. I definitely modded it to fit 16mm eyes, but they just don't go forward into the head enough. I've tried a bit of fine sandpaper... for over an hour, with almost no progress. XD It's pretty tight in there, too.

Anyone have any tips or methods you use yourself on how to get all that extra resin out of the inside of the head? Thanks so much~!! ^w^

 

It sounds like you need an eye beveler like this

http://www.dollmore.net/shop/step1.php?number=3202

Hope this helps

 

Lacking an eye beveler like mentioned above, you could always try some coarser sandpaper folded over a pencil eraser? Or a dowel, or anything of similar thickness that would fit in the tight head easier than your fingers.

 

I had no idea this existed~!!! OMG~ Thank you so much! I feel like a big 'tard now. 8'D

And now that I can SEE the tool... I might take rykaan's advice and try something like that first~~~ to make my own version.

Thanks so much for your help, guys!

 

Be... um... forewarned... Beveling by hand takes AGES. ^^;; It took me about a week to get my Breakaway's eyes right, and I was left with a very sore and cramped hand. Bevelers are great for small fixes like yours, but just be aware that it might take a lot longer than you expected to get them to the place you want them. ^___^

 

Okay so I'm pretty sure I get the whole beveling thing, but before I attack my Breakaways head I want to make sure I'm doing this right. So I just got a 18mm eye beveler, now do I just stick it in the eye and twist? Also how will I know when I'm getting close to being done? I would hate to get bevel happy and go all the way through the eye sockets lol.

Help a poor newbee girl out.. please!

 

Try holding the head up to a light source. You can sort of judge the thickness of the resin based on how translucent the eyelids are and compare it to your other dolls.

 

DEDEDE that totally makes sence!! Also the 18mm beveler is the correct one to have right?

 

I usually buy a beveler a size larger than the actual eyes I want to fit in there. You can always try the 18mm at first and buy a larger size later if the eyes you use don't fit.