Ok, so whats wrong?

[Neale]

You can generally buy acetone anywhere that sells glass fibre supplies (yacht chandlers are good but only if you're near the coast!) as it's used as a cleaning solvent.

Heating up time is a function of how much heat you can get into the hot end - my second attempt uses a couple of wirewound resistors as heating elements and draws around 4A - 48W of heat going into that small object heats it pretty quickly although mine might be nearer a minute to get to temp.