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Well once again. I wrote a whole deal and when I went to submit it made my login in again and I lost what I wrote.
Hmmmm
I'm on my phone guess that's the problem

So a friend asked me to repair this Mandolin so I'm just asking for some suggestions on the best way to proceed.
The back has
come loose and is maybe twisted a bit.
I presume I need to humidity then remove the back and assess. Trying to push down and glue and clamp as is may not work as it's so tight. And the back overhangs the rim on one side for some reason....

I know some of you have done this kind of work so any help is greatly appreciated.
Best way to remove the back without too much disturbing the finish?
Thanks all

Kevin

More pics

More pics

I''d start by judiciously prying with a thin blade and see how far that got. With luck, it will be sufficient.

If your luck tends to be like mine though, the back will stay stuck, so you'll need to move on to Plan B and apply some heat. You can apply a clothes iron to edge just ahead of where you''re prying. Keep an eye on the finish so you don't scorch it.

Oh yeah -the sides will distort when you take off the back so the back won't fit when you go to reinstall it. You may need to build a mold you can use to force the sides to the proper shape.

Hmmm using a mold is a novel idea I hadn't come up with that. I'm guessing it will take a little heat. I have a mini iron I use for this purpose. I know the back needs to come off so I'll go after that first. Thanks

having repaired a few of these. I found that you can reglue them tite bond did well and used tape . May sound funny but did the lower end then reglued the upper. Saved having to make a mold. I used a few C clamps and taped between them

John are you saying to pull the back off and the reglue?

What I do is reglue the loose area use a clamp at a few points to get the back aligned and then use tape .
Tite bond or fish glue both work. As long as the rest of the back is solid no need to tear it off.

Sounds good. The back that's loose is pretty stiff. Probably dry. Seems to take much pressure to try and close. Would humidifying it help possibly make it more flexable?

most likely it is what it is.