Bridge removal

[John McDonald]

I need to remove the bridge on a tenor ukulele.  It was attached with titebond original.  Any suggestions would be appreciated?

Thank you

John

[Jeff Highland]

Leave it in a closed car in the sun, strung up.... no seriously , heat is the way to go with loosening the glue, depends on what resources you have available for heating the bridge and then working a palet knife under it
You will need to mask the surrounding area to avoid damaging it with heat, and monitor the temperature carefully

[John McDonald]

Thank you.

John

[Greg Mirken]

Is it loose? Misplaced? If you aren't going to reuse it, plane it off. If it has finish, heat will probably wreck that. If you need to heat it, make a mask using corrugated cardboard covered with foil and position a heatlamp 6" or so above it. Test the glue line with a thin palette knife as it heats up.

[John McDonald]

Hi Greg,

Thanks. The plane idea is the best for my purpose.

John

[Jim Bancroft]

Unless it's glued with epoxy I wouldn't plane it off. It's much simpler to just apply heat and take it off that way, even if it has finish on the bridge. It'll probably scorch the finish on the bridge some but that's not a big deal, just clean off the finish after it's off, clean up, and you could reuse the bridge.

Just apply some heavy cardboard and tin foil around the bridge to keep heat off the top, and apply a heating lamp for a short time.

Jim

[John McDonald]

Hi Jim,

Thank you. I appreciate the idea.

John

[Howard Klepper]

I often remove bridges cold and dry. It's usually not hard with good knife technique. But if I decide to heat, I use one of those mini blankets made for the purpose.

[John McDonald]

Hi HOward

Thank you. I did not know of the small mini heating blankets. Where do those come from?

John

[Howard Klepper]

LMI

[John McDonald]

HOward, Thank you.

John

[Paul Breen]

I went to a local machine shop and bought some scrap 3/4" thick aluminum flat stock. It cuts easily enough in my band saw and can be cut to whatever size I need. I put the cut block directly on a hot plate and using a bi-metallic temp gauge (like Stewmac sells) I heat it to about 300 degrees. Set the heated block of aluminum on the bridge in this case and let the heat do it's work. You can get very specific where the heat goes this way and it's less $$$ than heating blankets.

[John McDonald]

Hi Paul,

This one I like. I think I"ll practice on a couple of items before the real uke.

Thanks

John