You should test first. Some are even used on the same applications and may produce nearly identical results which brought us to Acetone vs Mineral Spirits. It reduces the solids in the paint, leaving a thinner film behind, which can lead to poor hiding, durability issues, etc. Acetone is also used to treat metal before painting it. But no one really uses lacquer anymore so people mainly use it as a good cleaner. Paint thinner will slow down the initial dry because there is more thinner that needs to evaporate however, it will speed up the through dry because you are applying a thinner film. Both acetone and paint thinner are solvents, which means you can use either to dissolve a great many things, including paint. Manufacturers vary these to control solvent strength and evaporation rate. Sol I learned the hard way not to use lacquer thinner. Paint Thinner works for and against you. Paint Thinner Odorless Mineral Spirits Turpentine VM & P Naphtha Lacquer Thinner Denatured Alcohol Acetone MEK Xylene Japan Drier Classic wood finish General Purpose Blend Extra refined to remove odor, residue Pure gum artist grade thinner Excellent for spraying oil paint Architectural coatings blend As mentioned before, it usually contains solvents like xylene , acetone, toluene, and methyl ethyl ketone which are made up of lighter molecules. . Acetone is the primary solvent used to clean laboratory equipment and is also used as a nail polish remover. Lacquer thinner is more of a mix of other solvents (acetone, MEK, etc) designed to specifically thin lacquer paints. I use lacquer thinner because, like an earlier poster, I don’t care for the oiliness of the paint thinner. Is this O.K.. Mineral spirits or paint thinner – Never recommended for cleaning a surface because it can leave an oily residue. That stuff is wicked. It seems that I remember someone on this forum saying that they use acetone. It’s the most interesting of the finish solvents because it’s composed of half-a-dozen or so individual solvents. While most paint thinner include Stoddard solvent with heavier molecules, lacquer thinner is a blend of two or more solvents. Good for cleanup of tools and equipment. Lacquer thinner is the solvent and thinner used with all types of lacquer, including nitrocellulose, CAB-acrylic and catalyzed. Acetone and paint thinner release toxic fumes that are harmful to your health. Solvents are good at removing dried paint, varnish, lacquer, and other dried finishes. Water-based finishes, however, tend to coagulate when acetone is added. Acetone is primarily used to clean plastics, fiberglass tools and vinyl. Make sure you are using “old” mineral spirits and not the Klean Strip Grean kind that looks like white latex paint in the bottle, and it comes in a white plastic bottle with a graphic of a green tree on the label. The differences in the actual solvents are mostly about evaporation speed and polarity. It is generally viewed that of your list, lacquer thinner is probably the strongest (i.e the most able to dissolve) as it dissolves pretty well any paint film, then maybe acetone and methyl alcohol (but neither dissolve every resin), then naptha, then paint thinner. In the paint and decoration industry, there exist various types of solvents and thinners. Tied with butanone for strength is acetone. Choosing the right waterproofing tape is equally as important as the surface preparation. all that I usually use for prep. I am about to epoxy a fender and the store is out of a product called prep. Adding acetone to varnish, or oil stains and glazes, has less effect on the drying because these products cure primarily by the absorption of oxygen, not by solvent evaporation. Some solvents may have different names but look like the same product. Acetone is especially effective with shellac and every type of lacquer.