[CAUT] Lacquering Steinway Hammers

[Fred Sturm]

--On Wednesday, November 10, 2004 10:47 AM -0500 Russell Schmidt 
<hrschm2@uky.edu> wrote:

>       Now, I am now wondering how meaningful the various opinions are
> about the strength of the lacquer solution 15:1 3:1 etc. , without a
> specification of the solid content of the lacquer being used.

	Yep, you'v'e got that right. That's where the rub has been all along, and 
why any number of people were disagreeing vehemently about what dilution to 
use. I was skeptical as all get out when I heard the Steinway folks saying, 
repeatedly, 3:1, soaked to the core. Didn't match my experience at all. 
Eric's specification of solids percentage cleared it up very nicely.
	I couldn't find any listing on labels or web pages for the lacquer I have, 
so I did a real simple test. Filled a soda bottle lid with lacquer and 
weighed it. Let it sit a couple days and evaporate, and weighed it again. 
Weighed an empty lid. Did a wee bit of subtraction and division. Pretty 
simple math, pretty simple way to find out.
	When doing the math for dilution, remember to include the ":1" in the 
calculations. IOW, 3:1 is a total of 4 parts. So if the "1" is 12% solids, 
diluting it with 3 parts thinner gives you not 4% but 3% solids.
	I don't think you can gauge the desired dilution by how it penetrates. 
Well, maybe with a lot of experience you could get a sense of how fast the 
material moves, but anything in the range of 3% to 10% solids would 
penetrate all the way, and pretty fast. BTW, I like an idea Kent Webb gave 
me: apply the first dose using a tray filled with solution. Lay a section 
of hammers in it until drenched, then move to the next. It's a good ten 
minutes faster than squirting each hammer individually. Take that ten 
minutes and have the beer you deserve <g>.
Regards
Fred Sturm
University of New Mexico