How to remove dried Tamiya acrylics?

It it's dried lacquer thinner will be the only thing to get it out probably.  pour the cup full then put some foil over it to slow evaporation and let it sit a few hours.  Scoop out any good and repeat until it is all out... you might have to let it sit overnight with the lacquer thinner to get it out...

If you already let it sit that long then I don't know anything that would get it out, thats about the strongest solvent we use.  I had some in a color cup for my 155 once and it took a day or two of soaking, scooping etc before I got it clean...

Try soaking in undiluted Simple Green. I think this works better than some lacquer thinners.

There are some Tamiya Acrylics, mostly in the old line, that are almost impossible to remove. The one I encountered was gloss green.

Scrubbing with a flossing brush (you can find them in drugstores—used to clean between teeth, very fine, soft, small, cone shaped brushes.

I had some dried X-11 (Chrome Silver) that was being very stubborn in the cup of my Iwata Eclipse. Tamiya thinner soak + time + scrubbing + patience = success finally.  Took about a day and a half I guess.

-dave

A habit I have got myself to use is to keep a container (usually a sour cream or yoghurt container) with enough Windex in it to completely immerse the color cup or bottle I'm using. Once I'm done with the painting, I drop the cup into the Windex to soak while I clean the airbrush. Usually I just have to remove and rinse, though I run a pipe cleaner through the tube "just to be sure" but it's always comes out clean as a whistle.

I reuse the Windex and save it in an old container, it is a rather repellent shade of green now...

edit D'oh! You guys probably all have gravity fed ABs, I use a Badger 150 siphon. Tom (tho9900) recommends an ultrasonic jewellry cleaner. I'm surprised he didn't this time! /edit

Bill, I don't see any reason this cannot be done with a gravity fed air brush. I've been using your technique for years. (Ah, the similarity of great minds… <raspberry>) I also just dump empty mixing containers, measuring pipets, and filter screens in as I finish using them.

LOL!! Sure is a lot easier when the color cup is removable, though.

Bgrigg wrote:

LOL!! Sure is a lot easier when the color cup is removable, though.

Get a bigger jar! (Sort of like: "Get a bigger hammer!")

Bill - if the cup is full of dried acrylic the ultrasonic would work but a solvent, at least at first would speed things up.  I think the mass of acrylic absorbs some of the sound waves and it takes many cycles to break enough free to get it coming off in chuncks eventually... in this case I would go with the lacquer thinner or windex (and time soaking and digging the junk out)