Removing dried acrylic paint from spray jars.

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Picked up some discarded badger spray bottles with dried acrylic paint inside. Tried soaking them in 91% alcohol for a week with not any success. Filled them with water & dishwashing soap . put them in a larger container with more water & microwaved them for 3 min. (depends on the size of your containers). Removed them when still warm & the paint came right out. Now have 5 more clean spray bottles.

2

I just use lacquer thinner - They clean up real fast.

Jim

3

I did try the lacquer thinner with no success. It does work on solvent based paint. I think this stuff was in there for years. Ammonia works if it is fairly fresh.

4

Thanks for the tip! Dried acrylic paint can be amazingly resilient.
I’ll try the microwave method next time. Hope that your previous efforts weren’t necessary for this to work.

Kyle

5

If they are glass jars, you should be able to use paint stripper.

6

I only tried the alcohol & the thinner on one jar. The other 4 went directly in the microwave. This is also the least toxic & least expensive method.