Years ago I found some rare Edison 2-minute B series opera cylinders
at a flea market.  They had been sitting in the hot sun all day in
their boxes.  When we got home I eagerly stuck one of the still warm
cylinders on the cold mandrel of my cylinder phonograph.  After playing
the record, to my horror the cylinder was stuck fast to the mandrel,
it would not budge.

After agonizing for sometime on how to save this record it dawned on
me that the best approach would be to gently heat the record.  Since
the record was black it would soak up more radiant energy than the
mandrel.  Also the wax cylinder has a greater coefficient of expansion
than the mandrel.

A desk lamp was placed close enough to warm the cylinder and far enough
away so that it would not get too hot and melt.  After the cylinder had
warmed for awhile I tried to remove it , it slipped off easily.

So, try warming the cylinder first and hopefully you will be as lucky
as I was.  Good luck!

Michael Swanson