Binding re-attachment

What's the consensus on the best adhesive to reattach a piece of loose binding?

My Unicorn & Mustang F5 mandolin has a small piece of binding coming off of the headstock on the bass side, the little curve just above the neck. Is Duco cement the best way to reattach it these days or should I use something else/more modern? what's the best way to deal with squeeze-out? Oil varnish finish (and a heck of a great mandolin).

Thanks,

Larry

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Permalink Reply by Frank Ford on July 14, 2011 at 10:42pm

I find medium viscosity cyanoacrylate a bit less destructive to finish, but it still "eats" everywhere it touches. Regular Titebond can hold remarkably well if there's not a lot of tension on the binding. I reglued the entire back binding on this 1923 mandolin back in 1971 using Titebond, and it's still holding nicely:

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Permalink Reply by Ian Barker on July 17, 2011 at 2:58am

I would suspect that whatever was used for binding in 1923 is probably more Titebond-friendly than today's ABS (if that's what your binding is). Based on my (limited) experience I'd go for Duco, and mask either side of the binding channel. It sets up pretty quick so I don't find much sqeeze-out. Once dry you can level the binding of any glue by scraping with a fine blade, the glue thickness should give you a bit of leeway to do this.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Kolb on July 17, 2011 at 7:44am

One of the nice things (if there is one) about reattaching old binding is that there are usually millions of "micro-fibers" of old wood still adhering to the old binding, which makes the reglue almost wood-to-wood.

Titebond should be fine, as would hot hide glue. If the inside of the binding has been somehow cleaned, then it's probably a Duco job.

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Permalink Reply by LARRY KLOSE on July 20, 2011 at 8:35pm

Binding is ivroid celluloid with a black stripe. It has been unsuccessfully reattached once, but I think that was unsuccessful because of trying to float thin cyano into the space without removing the loose section from the mandolin. I'll take it off this time and clean it up before reattaching.

Or maybe I'll just drop it off at Gryphon when I'm in Palo Alto next month.

Good repair people make a lot of money from those of us that try to do it ourselves... .

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Larry