[CAUT] Getting lacquer out of hammers

[Dan Reed]

Fred,

Brilliant!

Dan

On Dec 8, 2008, at 2:02 PM, Fred Sturm wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: caut-bounces at ptg.org [mailto:caut-bounces at ptg.org] On Behalf Of 
> Israel
> Stein 
> Sent: Monday, December 08, 2008 11:20 AM
> To: caut at ptg.org
> Subject: [CAUT] Getting lacquer out of hammers
>> I have a set of overlacquered Steinway hammers sitting on the shelf 
>> here at SFSU that I would love to be able to re-use - since our parts 
>> budget here is fast disappearing into the 12 billion dollar 
>> California deficit. Is there any way to get most of that lacquer out 
>> of these hammers, and if so, how?
>>
>> Israel Stein
> Hi Israel,
>   Here are photos of my method. The trough is constructed out of a 1 
> gallon thinner can, cut with tin snips and bent (I have four of them). 
> I set the action on end, then rotate a section of hammers into the 
> trough, which I fill with a mix of lacquer thinner and acetone (the 
> acetone makes it evaporate out of the hammers faster). I like to set 
> up a few sections and have them soaking (put something over them to 
> keep the fumes down), swishing a little back and forth. After maybe 15 
> minutes soaking, I raise a section at a time and blot out as much of 
> the thinner as I can with paper towels or equivalent. Usually I repeat 
> the process (depends how extreme the problem is). I find I get most of 
> the lacquer (or keytop or whatever) out of the felt using this method, 
> though there will always be a little residue. In any case, the hammers 
> become workable again.
>     Since yours are not installed, other setups are obviously 
> possible. I do think that soaking with a little agitation is the most 
> efficient method, as opposed to pouring thinner onto the hammer felt 
> and letting it run out.
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> Regards,
> Fred Sturm
> University of New Mexico
> fssturm at unm.edu
>
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