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Could really use some feedback on this as I think just glueing the bridge back on is going to result in a glue failure.
This was my first bridge removal and in my haste I didn’t give the heat enough time too do it’s thing. The result is tear out. Hopefully I am able to attach an image to this post so you people can see what I’m talking about.
Basically my question is weather or not this can be cleaned up and just glued back on or do I have to take other measures such as routing a patch and leveling it to the contour of the top.

Thanks Dave



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This looks like my first bridge repair! Others with much more experience than me will probably chime in but if it was me, I'd start by squeezing glue under that part you've got the ruler in, clamp it closed with wax paper and a caul. You might also be able to get some of that wood off the bottom of the bridge and re-glue it to the top, but it looks pretty thin. If it looks like there are any really deep spots remaining from the tear out I've filled them with other thin scraps cut to fit those spots.

You can see there is a rim of finish around the footprint of the bridge, I'd consider cleaning that finish off, scribe it with an exacto knife and then use a sharp chisel to gently remove the finish. Once that's done clean the top up, I use a combination of small rectangular piece of wood (1/2" x 1/2" or so on its face) with sand paper wrapped around the square face to sand the wood, and a single sided razor blade to scrape it. Then re-glue. I've used regular tite-bond wood glue (the red bottle) it seems to work well filling any slight voids that may remain.

I always got the bottom of the bridge clean, and made the top as level as possible. Conor has it right.

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Seems a lot easier than routing a patch to fit. So than it’s ok to have some voids under the bridge as the glue will fill them???

Thanks
Dave

That looks like a Guild bridge, Guild uses a PVA glue (likely titebond) to attach their bridges. Titebond cannot and will not stick to itself very well, so you have to remove the old glue before you can reglue the bridge if you want it to hold very well for a long time.

Conor's advice is dead on the money. Don't worry about the little voids. The more glue surface you can give the bridge the better.

It should be fine. When you sand that area to prepare for glue up just be careful not to break off any of the splinters. They will glue back down in the exact spot and the glue up will be like a lamination and be plenty strong enough. There isn't any need to do a separate glue up for the splinters, just do it at the same time as you glue on the bridge.

When working in the spatula to remove the bridge did you make sure you were going with the grain? Going against the grain can cause splinters.


Also Dave, if this is a Guild bridge and you are certain that it is original and unaltered could I please get some measurements off of it?!! Thanks. See my post I just listed here in the repair section.