Magnets: Glueing and Removing Magnets - extracting, reinserting, reversed polarity

Quetz: Elmer's glue probably won't hold very long but it can be removed very safely with plain, cool water. It's water based so soaking the dried glue turns it back to liquid glue. Plus it's so resin safe you can just peel it off even if you dipped a whole leg in it.



Kitkaze: I should have said putting the piece with the magnet stuck in it in really hot water will not hurt the magnet. You dip the piece for seconds in not quite boiling water. You don't let it sit in there for 15 minutes or longer which is what it takes to demagnetize a magnet. So under normal care the magnets will be fine. Dyeing a doll is different than removing a magnet. I think I've been a bit confusing by using "boiling" to refer to hot-but-not-quite-boiling water because it's easier to type repeatedly. I did put in parenthesis that it should not be boiling. I also recommend freezing over any other method and I would probably use "boiling" as a last resort. Past entries in this thread have all the info needed to remove magnets safely and many people have had success with removing magnets with hot water.

 

I've tried the suggestions I've seen on other posts in the form but I'm really worried because of where the glue is that I've messed up bigtime.

Yes, I put magnets the wrong way in the tail of my Soom Smokey Onocentaur. One magnet is so deep in the hole on his rear I don't know how I'd get that out. I actually BROKE my X-Acto knife blade trying to pry the magnet out of the tail half after trying to run hot water over it multiple times. It's an embarrassing mess. The magnet is just too good a fit for the hole in the tail for me to get any leverage.

I know getting upset about this is helpless, but at this point I'd kill for a doll friend I could send it to to try and fix it because I feel like I'm just going to make things worse with my newbie failure.

 

Soak the affected area in a container with warm to hot water + 70% rubbing alcohol. You want more water then alcohol, but the amount depends on how much water you have (probably no more then 1/4 of the container should be alcohol, when the water starts to look "swirly" you're good). I always use a covered container to keep the temperature in for a bit longer.

I have totally removed a lot of super glued stuff this way. Leave it in there for a few hours (I left mine for about 6 and at some point all the metal stuff fell out into the container.)

I soaked a new head of mine today like that, it had a lot of various glues in the eye wells, and I took it out of the container, poked at the glue and it pretty much just fell out into the sink.

 

So, unfortunately I have no rubbing alcohol and it's early in the morning with me having work tomorrow.

Do you think waiting will make it less effective?

 

I had this problem previously with one of my dolls which was previously modded by another owner. I tried putting it into the freezer for a day with no avail of prying it out. But what finally worked was when I went into a hobby shop, told them I needed a non oil base super glue remover that would be safe to resin, it worked and finally came out.

 

Man, every dream I had last night was about fixing this doll. Not a good sleep.

I left the tail in the freezer overnight and unfortunately it's still stuck tight. I have work today so I can't purchase any remover or rubbing alcohol but you'd better believe I will at my first chance.

 

I have the exact same problem with a magnet stuck the wrong way.

I definitely want to try that but I also got no rubbing alcohol at hand. Someone told me benzine could also be good at dissolving glue - worth a try with this method or a no-go?

 

I had this exact same problem with my Kivi's tail (her tail and then her ear magnets super glued themselves to each other...)

What I did, I tried soaking her tail in acetone and it softened the resin but wasn't able to get the glue out but by scraping around the hole of the tail a little I was able to work out a small groove. The tail went into the freezer for almost a day and I used a pair of needle nose pliers and was able with a really good tug to pop it out. I know that I wouldn't have been able to get the needle nose pliers in if I hadn't created that bit of groove with the acetone experimentation.

Her tail still lies flat and is fine.

 

No, it should still be fine. Just make sure to rinse it off when you're done, then wait a day or two to let it dry before you try to put the magnet in again.

 

I went on a spree and removed all the magnets from all of my dolls/parts so I could make all parts interchangeable.
I simply boiled the parts, using a slotted spoon to keep them off the bottom of the pan. Works like a charm on all types of glue.
And it doesn't hurt the resin.

 

Hot water has always worked for me, and if a magnet is down a bit in a hole I use another mag to pull it up (I have a lot laying around, though--I buy them at Woodcraft). The hot water makes it easy and doesn't hurt anything, if it's really gluey I will clear as much as I can with an exacto first--I use Gorilla Glue and that can get gloppy. Good luck!

 

Yay! Boiling water did the trick. The magnet didn't pop out, but it softened the resin temporarily so I could get tweezers in there and pull it out. Excellent! I then used the tweezers to readjust the resin before it cooled so it's maintained its circular shape.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions.

 

I'm helping a friend fix some problems to her doll, and when I took him apart to clean, I found out that the foil encasing his head magnets was falling off!! This leaves the raw iron exposed, and rust-formation aside, iron filings have begun leaking out and sticking to the other magnets.

He's got 6 magnets in his headback+faceplate: 2 main big magnets in the middle of the top part of his head, and another 2 on each side of his jaw. It's the jaw magnets that have begun falling apart. One of them seems sound, but I want to remove it because it's not sitting flush and might be why the headback and faceplate aren't flush together either. The other 3 jaw magnets are all flaking off their coatings.

I managed to get one of the magnets out using a combination of nailpolish remover + my Soom Sard's incredibly strong magnets (actually, a whole stack of flat Soom magnets), but the other 2 refuse to budge. As 2 of those 3 magnets are in the faceplate, with a full faceup, I'm a little leery of the freezer and hairdryer methods I've read about in this thread. Would those methods be safe for a faceupped head? Are there other methods you might recommend?


Random note: Each time I try my Soom magnets on the flaked-off-coating magnets, I see little specks of iron filings coming off, which also worries me about trying some of the stuff I've read about.

 

I have the same probem, I need removing a magnet inside my doll´s right foot (lati cat paw), as it was glued in the wrong direction. Instead of attracted the foot/paw, it is repeling it! What should I do to take it out? I need help :O

 

I can give a big thumbs up to this tip. It's a method I stumbled across a while back on another forum. I've used it several times & its worked for me 100% of the time when I've wanted to remove and / or re-position magnets & I've had no damage to resin at all...much safer than trying acetone, for example (which doesn't really work at all, BTW, and DOES cause damage to resin).

 

You are certainly not the first and won't be the last to do this!

I waited and waited for my (then) grail doll...a Soom Kivi. Looks like a lot of folks did the same thing I did with her pretty little ears. She was my very first Soom and I was so in love with her. I instantly super glued her magnets in backwards. I should have read the forum first instead of trying to remove them myself. I wound up having to purchase ANOTHER faced up head because I ruined that one digging into it with an ice pick. Needless to say I learned my lesson! Expensively but at least learned. Hot water is great!

 

I wonder if anyone would answer this thread since it's a couple months old, but I'm planning to do this to a headcap to pop out a magnet I glued in the wrong way - would it loosen the company headplate any though? I'd like to avoid that, obviously.

 

Also, how good is the rubbing alcohol for the resin? I thought it sometimes ate away at the resin....?

 

Rubbing alcohol won't eat the resin, acetone if resin is soaking in it eventually will soften the resin but putting a bit on a q-tip and touching it to the glue will loosen the glue up enough to pry the magnet out.

I'm not a huge fan of boiling as you can end up softening the resin (causing it to loose its shape) if the water is to hot and the magnets (if they aren't of decent quality) can end up loosing their charge and not hold as well.

Also I know this topic has been covered before, try a quick search, what you need will come up.

 

Just thought I'd add my share of having experience on removing a magnet glued in the wrong way - I tried the boiling method today and it worked like a charm!

My situation: Superglued magnet into a headcap the wrong way, then left the cap as it was for three weeks because busy/didn't want to be hasty. After reading through this thread and taking a chance I decided to go with boiling. What I did was place the cap in a sieve, let it dip in a pot of water heated just up until there are small bubbles starting to float up, and leave it in that heated water for 10 minutes (less, actually!). The resin wasn't soft when I took the cap out, but then again I didn't mess about with it to see if the heat softened the resin, I just went straight to using the strongest magnet I had and the magnet popped out without a fuss!

It was really that easy (for someone who can't normally repair things to save her life) and not as dangerous as some people cautioned in this thread - though of course ymmv, but I'm personally proud to be another one to recommend boiling. And to answer my own question, nope, boiling doesn't loosen the headcap (Crobidoll 2012 though, to be specific.)

 

I accidentally glued a magnet in backwards, in my new( Carina EID Iplehouse) dolls head, the other day with superglue. After much internal debate, and some really interesting tips from this site, I removed it by the following method. I took pure acetone and dabbed it on using a pipe cleaner, then used the thin wire part of a needle threader and dipped it in more acetone and put it into the tiny crack between the magnet and the hole it sat in, moving it in a circular motion. It took many, many repetitions of this, but I eventually managed to remove it with the help of a large strong magnet. The needle threader wire was the only thing I could find that was thin enough and rigid enough to fit into the miniscule space, so I really recommend this, though I wonder if a cat's whisker might also work? Any way, if you try this, acetone is nasty stuff so be sure to wash it off with lots of soap and water. There was not even the slightest scratch on the resin, no damage done whatsoever. It is a perfectly safe method, all it needs is a little patience

 

rosalynmouse, I have also done something similar in the past but would recommend the boiling method as much more preferable as by comparison it is relatively quick and, unlike with acetone, there is a lot less potential damage to the resin, both imediately and long term.

 

If the acetone is rinsed well, there should be no long term risk to the resin. The very careful application by wire (or cat whisker!) is a good alternative to boiling when the head has a face-up. Just make sure to angle the head in such a way that the face is not downslope from an accidental drip!

 

The magnet in my doll's head came off. My mom tried to fix it by glued it back using super glue. But it's not placed correctly so there's a gap now which make the headcap won't closed entirely.

Do you know how to remove the glue?

Please help.

 

Method 1: dip the edge of the head with the magnet in boiling water until it softens, then carefully pry the magnet out. Don't let the head touch the container.

Method 2: place a cotton pad soaked in rubbing alcohol on the magnet for a while, then rub gently until the glue dissolves. Rubbing alcohol is also used to remove faceups, so be careful if your doll has one.

 

When I had to remove magnets of my dolls, like tarot said, you can use water. I boiled up some water, poured that into a small cup (I was only removing from a head cap), then let the piece hang out in the water. I let that sit while I made tea with the rest of the water~ then when I had finished, all I had to do was hold a metal spoon close to the magnets and they slid right out. However, that only happened because they were very strong magnets. If it's a weak magnet it may not come out on its own and you may need to carefully pry it out, as tarot said...

But if you're working on the face part of the head be careful about the faceup. Steam can damage a faceup.

 

I accidently glued in the magnet the wrong way around in my minifee hand and I wonder does it work using the boiling method?;__;

 

I have a leek world Florence her magnet fell out and I re glued it with superglue. well stupide me put the darn thing in backwards. I cant get it out. I have tried the freezer method but its not coming out and I let the head cap sit in there for a few hours. I am nervous about using something like boiling water or something. She does not have a face up or anything so I am not worried about that. If you can offer some help I be very grateful.

 

Stick it in the freezer wait for the glue to become brittle. Voila.

 

My impldoll cyril's wing and back magnets were falling out, so i superglued them back in. Of course, I did it wrong, so I've tried both boiling and freezing his torso to no avail. Do you guys think I should use acetone (sparingly!) and see if that works or if I should try freezing or boiling again?

 

Goodness it has been a long time since anyone posted to this thread for help but advice is what I need! My Soom Albin's (aka Elrond) hand magnet decided it wanted to come out. No problem, I will glue it back in like I have for my other dolls when magnets pop out. Now, the magnet wouldn't go into its hole when I tried to reglue it and the superglue got it stuck in the hole at a weird angle. This lead me to use the freezing, acetone, hot water tricks to get it out. Hot water soaking and patience got it out! I continued to soak the hand to make sure I got all the glue out or so I thought. I even let everything dry and relax for a whole day before I tried testing the fit again.

The magnet won't fit in the hole. I can put it in his hand slot, I can maneuver it into place, but it won't sit in it. I can put the magnet on the wrist and then put the hand over top - it holds about as well as any 2016 Soom hand magnet does (which imho is not well because carry your doll downstairs, be prepared to run back up and pick up a hand - they aren't very strong). I have even tapped it in a bit so I am sure it won't come back out...at least for now. The hand looks like it sits as well as the other hand and poses just as well (his little elastic cover bit doesn't sit snugly so it looks as good as it can).

But my question is, what should I do to make sure the magnet doesn't come back out? I can't really tap it all the way into its hole. I can't tell if it's glue that's making that impossible or if it's the shape of the resin. Should I just swap his hands out for someone else's? (I think I have an extra pair.) Or should I contact Soom? Should I just buy new ones? Any advice would be appreciated.