Lacquer Thinner

[Horace Greeley]

Hi, Joe,

At 08:28 PM 11/29/2006, you wrote:

>I think I didn't 'splain quite adequately. When I use it in my hammer dope
>it flashes faster, for quicker results. When soaking lacquer out of
>hammers, this stuff will attack the lacquer quicker, i.e. soften it. And
>when it's doing that job, the flashing issue doesn't seem to matter as it
>has softened that junk and flushed it into the bottom of the hammer where
>it belongs. The short story is: it works far better than the tried and true
>methods with acetone and regular lacquer thinner, IMO.

Understood.

I simply disagree that a lower flash point is what is needed for this 
particular application.  Hammers that are already loaded with lacquer 
do not have any place for it to run.  It needs to be removed.  In 
order to do that, it needs to remain in suspension.

 From what Alan explained, the probable/possible cause for the 
hammers being overloaded is that someone mis-used a technique for 
setting up hammers on Ds and Bs that was used by the C&A department 
for a couple of decades.  In _that_ setting, the teaching of the 
period was to load the hammers with 4:1 (or even 3:1) lacquer:thinner 
applied to the sides of the hammers (after initial shaping) with the 
stack off the keyframe and standing on either end so that both sides 
of the hammers were flooded.  When that is done, the entirety of the 
hammer is (hopefully) equally saturated.  Thus, the need to get it 
back into suspension and flushed out.  Attacking the lacquer more 
quickly is all well, good and very positive, IFF at the same time, 
the hardeners then remain in solution long enough to be forced out of 
the hammer.  My consistent experience is that, in this kind of 
scenario, a lower flash point, however good it is for many other 
applications, simply gets in the way.

Best.

Horace