Too Tight or Too Loose? Even tension? Getting it right!

So I don't understand how to tell if the doll is strung correctly, is there a certain method? I just want Ginger to stand up

HELP! Everything is too tight I can't take off her hands, feet or head .

 

Ok, maybe this is stupid question. Or maybe I m in wrong thread. But I really dont know what to do.

So my question is: How do I know if my doll stringing is too tight or too loose? When I try to pose my man in standing he make bow to me :-D If I m very carefull he can stand. But he makes bows all the time.

So I dont know if his stringing is too tight or loose. He is Dragondoll Uncle.

Thank you for your sugestions

 

Take his torso in one hand, and his thigh in the other. Pull on the thigh - if it comes out relatively easily and you can pull it out more than 4-5cm then he's definitely loose. If you can't pull it out at all (you'll have to pull strongly either way) then he could be too tight. Is he pulling up his knees when in your hand? Is he snapping up his arms? These are also signs of him being too tight.

 

It's mostly personal preference, combined with the doll's engineering. Some people prefer dolls loose, some prefer them tight. Some dolls can be perfectly strung but still have joints that won't stay where you want without sueding (knees are especially bad for this). If he's standing but tipping over at the waist, he could be too loose, or it could be sculpt related. I'd try tightening him, and maybe sueding if the tightening doesn't help.

 

So I tried that. And I dont need much effort to pull. I can easy pull it 2- 3 cm.
When he is in my hand his legs going up like L

 

I have a Souldoll (strung tightly with rope, I like to say) and am (yes, still) in the process of restringing her. I'm still playing around with various elastic sizes and tensions. Her arms are a complete mystery to me... tight or loose (I can pull a great deal currently), her arms will snap down to her side, then her lower arms/hands will fly up. How I can tell it is looser is that she's no longer slapping her face but her shoulders at this point.

For preference, I am thinking more I like it tight (but not as tight as SD originally had her, frankly I do not know if I could achieve that), and I think as well I am going to try sueding her shoulder joints to see if this helps her slapping at all. My fear of handling her has rapidly disappeared lol!

 

Help! I just gotten my first BJD and she doesn't sit on her own...I think she was strung too loose...I heard Iple House Strung their dolls loose when shipping...but I already restrung her but still she did not sit at all T__T. She does stand but her knees sometimes give up and curl...Her legs is still kinda floppy...do you think I have to restring her?

 

Hi, I've been having trouble trying to restring my doll for the first time ( I needed to take her apart to paint her nails and slight body blushing), and was hoping someone would be able to give me some tips? I tried starting with my doll's legs, but once I get one leg done, it ends up being way tighter than the other leg (I think the elastic moves and becomes uneven) and I can't figure out how to fix it without taking her completely apart again. I think part of the problem is that the elastic is fairly short, and she was strung pretty tight when I got her; I'm contemplating just getting a new length of elastic, but I don't want to unless I absolutely have to because she's new. I'm not really sure what I'm doing wrong

EDIT: nm, I figured out what I did wrong ^_^;; just took a little trial and error lol

 

I have no idea if my doll's kicky. I posted this elsewhere, but this seems more appropriate.

Her knee likes to go back if I move it, even a little - which gets annoying when I'm trying to do something with her. Haven't been kicked yet, since I guess I'm used to it doing that.

Is that kicky? Her thigh and feet are just fine in terms of posing, too.

 

I just got my Doll Family Female and she has now been restrung several times, her legs are great but her arms keep flopping back down to her sides, after talking to one of my friends whose doll always does great poses with outstretched arms she told me that she puts a little eye putty under the arm pits and it helps hold them in a position where she can still move them around. plus because her dolls wear clothes it never shows. hope this helps I'm going to try it as soon as I get home.

 

Hi there,

I restrung my doll for the first time yesterday. He has been blushed from head to toe, so his matte finish makes him much stiffer when it comes to posing. One concern of mine is if he's strung too tight. How do I know if he's strung too tight for his resin body to handle? I don't want him to break by being too tight. Would that be possible? At the moment I can still stretch either leg and get about less than an half inch/or cm worth of more stretch from the elastic... I wouldn't want him super loose or tight.

 

A doll is string too tight when you pull out her/his hands or feet and you barely can see the elastic string. You always have to be able to see some centimeters of the strings cause when you want to change her/his hands or unassemble your doll you have to be able to put something between the elastic and the wrist or the ankle like a ribbon, a pencil or some forceps/tweezers. Or mayke you want to take her/ his head off. In any case you have to be able to pull the s-hook without so much effort cause you can not only damage the doll, but also your fingers and wrists (yeah, that has happened to me a couple of times).

My Skiya and the legs of my Chiwoo Elf were so damn tight that you barely can see the elastic. Actually that scared me a lot so I added some ribbon to the end of the strings to make them longer while I get some new elastics for them.

Try to do that, to pull out the feet or hands of your boy, cause it's not the same than strech the leg from the hip or knee, that way you always will get to see more the strings.

 

A doll strung too tight can also be 'kicky', so the legs will not stay straight. They normally don't stand very well or at all, a bit of a balancing act really, and poses cannot be held. As the above poster said, you should be able to pull out a couple of cms on the arms and feet to see the elastic.

 

I have a DIM "lescha" that is so kicky that she curls up in a fetal position constantly. People have told me she was strung too tight; too loose; needed to be felted; needed to be hot glued;needed pipe cleaners; etc. Finally someone (not me, I'm brand new) noticed that her legs do not fit into her torso. It looks like her legs are too small for her body. There is a big space and she cannot be fixed. This is the first doll I got in Nov. 2010, my first BJD. I guess I'll have to buy a new body. puglynne

 

Ok, a lot has happened since I last posted:

She's been restrung - twice. Helped her arms a little (but nowhere near significantly), but her knees were still bad. I accidentally strung her legs too loosely the first time, and it was ridiculously noticeable. Her legs hung out of the sockets. Fixed that the second time, and cut the excess elastic Dollmore tends to have in their dolls.

Just last night, I hot-glue sueded her - I have no idea why I waited to do this, because it was extremely easy, as well as fool-proof for the most part. Glue too little? Add more. Glue too much? Just take it out.

Fixed the arms tremendously. Fantastic. But I think her knees are just going to be that way forever. I've discovered that this isn't 'kicky'. Well, it is in some way, but I found out what real kicky was when I was stringing her, and her leg magically went up to do the Captain Morgan pose.

 

Personally I'd say, if you can pull parts to see strings between joints (especially major ones), it's too loose, and if you can't pull enough to switch minor parts (hands etc.) it's too tight. But as mentioned it's preference one how tight or loose you'd go for. As long as poses hold decent or it's not so tight that you can't take it apart, it's within decent range. Either way with time and use, the strings are going to be more loose. Having some needle nose pliers that have a lock or the forceps can help greatly when restringing dolls.

 

How can you tell if your BJD is too tight or too loose? My first BJD, I think it too loose; he doesn't like to hold poses or stand up he just falls over. But I took him to someone who has more experience with BJD's and she said he seemed too tight. Any ways to tell and how to fix it? Sorry I am a newbie for forgive me for my ignorance.

 

It's okay! We all had to learn at some point. ^_^
I can usually tell if the elastic is too loose is if there is a lot of give when a joint is pulled out. Like if you were to pull on the leg and it easily pulls out quite a ways from the body, then it's too loose. If there is barely any give at all, then it's too tight. They tend to be 'kicky' if the elastic is strung tight. (I've actually had to cut elastic from one company because the elastic was so tight I couldn't restring the doll without taking my fingers off.)
If your friend is willing, they might be able to help you restring your doll. See where the knots are and adjust accordingly. But don't cut any elastic off until you are sure of where you want them.

 

Thank you very much, that is actually very helpful. She actually lives far away from me, so I guess I will have to restring him myself

 

Restringing isn't as hard as it sounds. The first time is nerve wracking, but these guys are tougher than they look. Just look up "Restringing Tutorial" in the searchbox, lots of tutorials with different methods will pop up. One of them is bound to give you the info that you need.

 

Search for coolcat on ebay - she has high quality string, and it's cheap! 3.5mm would be a good thickness for him, I think =)

You'll also want to get a stringing tool and a head puller, and possibly a pair of cheap hemostats, they make the process easier. The first time I did it though, I just used a bit of copper wire, a pair of pliers, and a pencil ;P

 

It is really difficult to tell the diffrence.

My leeke art body seemed too tight, her legs snapped up often and her head swirled around on her neck, so I thought I'd loosen the knot a little and relieve some of the tension.

Now she can't stand, her legs still kick, her head still swivels and now her torso flip flops around.
Raaaar!

So now, I'm gonna tighten her up! Tighter than before! See how that works.

 

I've recently strung my own doll, and am worried about the elastic being even down both legs... I hope I've got the elastic even . I'm wondering whether its possible to have the elastic too tight one on side and too loose on the other, or does it somehow even up?

 

I don't think it's possible for it to be lopsideded...Even if the loops are uneven the tension will make it even. The only time I think it can be lopsided is if you strung the wrong leg on the wrong calf or something. (Happened to me. Poor Avalon was my test drive dummy for restringing. XD)

 

Good, thank you! I'm pretty sure I got the right side/left side right (thanks to a very thoughtful seller!) but it seemed to me one of her legs/feet was tighter than the other... I was hoping posing her, etc would help even it out . I tried stretching her, strung, and adjusting the foot hook until it felt more even to me...

I am still a little intimidated by these beautiful dolls, even though I've got a few of them! - I am comfortable sewing, dressing, and basically posing them, but their joints and inner workings still scare me just a little bit, as I'm afraid to "do the wrong thing"!

 

When I restrung my feeple60 it ended up being tighter on one side. I pulled her apart and noticed it was longer on one side from when I strung the first leg. What I did after I put her back together a second time was to pull the elastic for the second leg pretty far to try and even it out on the inside otherwise I would've ended up with a floppy leg. It worked too.

 

XD It's perfectly normal. I still got my one MSD but his jointing scares me to no end..But after re-stringing him it wasn't so hard...For me I had to watch a tutorial on how to restring the exact doll I had because I was so nervous...But with the second time it wasn't so bad. I'm happy he's tight because he holds his poses better especially with his feet for me I want them to be super tight.

 

You can get around this problem by stringing each leg on a separate loop of elastic. That's what I do. You can cut the two lengths of elastic to the same length and tie the knots so that both loops got the same size, too. That way, the legs will be evenly strung. I'm really not a big fan of the "fold one large loop of elastic over the S-hook and string both legs on it" method ...

 

Khell is right--using separate lengths of elastic for each leg is one sure way to solve this problem, as long as you use the same amount of tension on both legs.

I *am* fond of using a single length for both legs, but that only started working for me after I bought a second pair of hemostats (scissor clamps). I use one pair to hold the free ends of the elastic secure above the waist joint when I start to string the legs. Then I even up the two loops that poke out of the thigh openings, and clamp the other hemostat on one of the loops to hold it in place while I work on the first leg.

It's all trial and error--my first several restringing jobs were awful, and I'm not nearly as good at restringing some dolls as others (*koffkoff Dollshe koffkoff*). But if you take your time and work over a carpeted floor and/or a table with a thick towel spread on it (to cushion any pieces that slip out of your hands), you'll get the feel of it before long. Don't worry; your dolls are tougher than they want you to think they are!

 

It's entirely possible for a doll's legs to be lopsided. Poor Ces had a 'knee injury' (the elastic had worn in one leg and not the other) and one knee would give out every now and again and make him fall over.

 

I hope this is the right place, I have a bit of a problem with restringing. First time i've ever had to do it is when the doll came in pieces, so i've put him together with the string that was pre-tired. Which would have been fine, but it's still to loose? He can't stand or sit and his knees just buckle even if i'm holding him up. My question is this, is there a specific measurement for restringing? I've tried to restring him and after the 5th time of adjusting him and restringing him I just gave up. I thought maybe the string was a little loose, but it doesn't seem to be a problem? So, basically, in a nut shell, is there a guideline of how long the string has to be going through their middle and legs? Any help would be helpful

 

Measurement for restringing - Not that I know of, because it depends on the elastic. Some dolls do better with looser stringing while others need to be very tight.
Have you tried sueding the joints? That can help a lot, It gives friction in the joints to help them stayed posed. Look in customization search sueding that should help if you think the elastic is tight enough.
Hope that helps.

 

It all depends on the doll itself, the elastic, and the owner's preferences, honestly. Some like their dolls tighter, others floppier and more "cuddly." Generally, if you can pull on a limb and expose more than an inch of elastic, however, the doll is too loose. (The one I'm working on right now was stretching a good solid 6-8"!) Give a leg a tug, and if you're exposing a large amount of elastic, tie a new knot and try again. Additionally, since we don't know what type of doll you actually have, check around for further information on improving mobility for that line. Most will benefit from sueding, but sometimes there may be other tricks to help them along.

 

Thank you both for the great advice, i'll do a little more digging and try to get it right

 

A rule of thumb is that if your doll uses two strings (one from the head to each leg), you use a length of string the height of your doll plus 3cm (for the knot). If the doll uses one string to both legs, twice the height plus 3 cm. Keep in mind that this is just a jumping off point--some string stretches more or less then others. You may want to start out with that amount, then adjust as needed to suit your preferences

 

Thank you for the helpful thread! My girl's strung too tight. She hit me when I was fixing her sweater! I've never had a doll flail at me before so I'll try loosening it. I'd rather have a floppy doll than an angry one.

 

Well I restrung my new Celine today. It definitely solved her kickiness, but it didn't fix her head. She still either looks down or up, but straight on at you doesn't work very well. She just snaps her head up. Any ideas why? Older posts mention stuff about the head not moving right, but I couldn't figure out what the fix was.
I tried 4-5 times with the knot for her legs in different parts of her torso, but it didn't help.

 

I just got a soom amphibel and she stands like a champ....but flops when she sits...I'm thinking she just needs to be sueded...I think her joints are a little too slick? Has anyone else had this issue with Soom Super Gems?