<html> <head> <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Hi Ed, [It's my first try with the new list system, so I hope it works.] Anyway, I use acetone with hammer lacquer, for a lot of reasons. Apart from the fact that it dries faster, my understanding is that although it stinks, it is less ozone-depleting  and has lower toxicity than lacquer thinner(use ventilation and a carbon respirator anyway). Lacquer thinner has lots of solvents, which are useful for the control of flowout and drying speed when spraying, but not relevant to hammer hardening. When under time pressure, I like to decide early on wholesale juicing, and do it right away. After ten or fifteen minutes, after the worst part of the nasties have flashed off, I blow on it gently with a heat gun. Don't try this at home, and don't sue me when the piano bursts into flames. You didn't hear it from me, disclaimer, disclaimer. Good sense is required; good general ventilation, don't get too close, keep it moving, don't char the hammers, keep feeling them to keep track of their temperature. Warm to the touch only.  If anyone thinks I'm stupid for suggesting it, DON'T DO IT. I've found that it dries on a rapidly declining curve; you can tell a whole lot about the direction of things in 30 to 45 minutes, more in an hour or two, only a little more as the day goes on. Especially if there's some touchup regulation to do, it can dry during that enough to do hammer mating/string leveling, then the tuning, then you can check again. Yes, it will continue to harden over the next day to week, but it's precious little, so if you aim for just a little under, it will probably be fine. Really, no voicing should be done in one shot, but if you're far away you might not have that luxury, and this probably gets you to the realm of touchup. Ed is experienced with lacquer and has his own techniques, but for those who don't: Depending upon the results I'm after, once the juice has done its initial wicking (within a few minutes), I often follow the general juicing with a brief squirt of pure acetone right on the crown, since I may not want it quite as stiff at the surface as I do right under. Then later in the day, a separate decision can be made right at the surface, since it dries even more quickly (especially with encouragement) than deeper does. If there isn't too much stuff in the hammer already, you can squirt the shoulders and watch it wick under the strike point and almost to the surface; otherwise you might need to go in right through the crown and follow it with straight acetone as above. Whatever you do almost always needs to include the part under the crown. Let us know how it comes out. Bob Davis On 10/14/2011 10:54 AM, Ed Foote wrote: <blockquote cite="mid:8CE58B17161E8DD-14F0-38DB5@webmail-m129.sysops.aol.com" type="cite">Ok,  somebody has some experience with this idea, 'cause I know it has occurred to me in the past, but I didn't try it.  <div>    I may have to juice some hammers, tomorrow.  It is a three hour drive from here, so I can't be around when the normal mix hardens.  Has anybody gotten decent results with using acetone to thin the lacquer instead of lacquer thinner?  Would it dry in a 5 or 6 hour span if the hammers got a healthy dose?   </div> <div>  Just wondering..... </div> <div>Thanks,  <div style="font-size: 13px; clear: both; ">Ed Foote RPT <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/index.html">http://www.piano-tuners.org/edfoote/index.html</a></div> </div> </blockquote> </body> </html>