Bob the Pleo Forums
Pleo Stuff => Pleo Problems => Topic started by: aibo7m3 on December 24, 2015, 02:40:02 PM
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Hey everyone! I decided to open up the pink RB that I got to check out her vertebrae, and man, they are horrible. Glad I didn't run her more like this or serious damage could have been done to the cables. I was expecting one or two broken vertebrae, but nope. Three of the vertebrae are completely shattered into four pieces each and one vertebra is snapped in two. :o Without the structure provided by the ones in front of it, the furthest back little vertebra has slid forward quite a bit.
Here's a picture:
I think in theory it's still repairable, it would just take a lot of work. Definitely don't want to give up on this Pleo as she's still in hatchling stage and her cables are okay. Could someone who has done a vertebra repair before give me some advice on how to tackle this? Is it okay if the vertebrae become glued to the white cord down the center or would this hinder neck movement/cause breakage?
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to fix the vertebrae you will need to detach all the neck cables from the head of the pleo and unthread teh wires to free up the vertebrae. this removes any tention that may pull the vertebrae out of alignment while your trying to do the repair. you then need to piece each one back together as best you can, apply superglue or some other very strong glue to the joins. It is preferable not to glue them down to the white core of the neck as this will hinder the movement of the head and neck. I used very small rubber bands to support my joins and hold the pieces together to allow the glue to set once the glue is perfectly set then you can rethread the wires back through the holes and slot them back into the head. Be careful when you remove the wires from the head not to remove the little mettal clamps from the ends as these will keep the wires back in place when your finished and without them you will need to replace your wires as you will have to tie the ends into place around the head join instead.
An alternative and much stronger repair would be if you could get someone to 3D pring you some replacement vertebrae. Due to the tension the wires put on the vertebrae a repaired one my not hold up tot he test of time. Pickle my RB who had a broken vertebrae I repaired about 1 year ago and the vertebrae pieces are now loose again. The rubber bands are still holding it together in the right shape so I think maybe just the glue has given out and will need to try to find something stronger to glue it with.
Hope that helps :)
Do a bit of searching throught he forums as I have done a couple of neck repairs that had vertebrae that were broken. You may be able to find some pics and some video instructions if your lucky. I no longer have accesss to the computer that has all those pics and videos on as it died.
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Alright, thanks for the advice! Due to the amount of work involved in the repair, I think I'll be putting it off until March when I'll have the time to really tackle it. How would I go about removing the wires from the head/how are they held in place?
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You will need a pair of small pointy nosed pliers. You can just grab the end and pull toward the head then once you get a little bit of movement you can pull upwards as well and you should be able to get the clip end free from the slot it sits in then the cable will slid out - there is a small slit in the plastic at the join of the neck to the head that is just wide enough for the cable to slot through but not wide enough for the clip on the end of the cable.