Has anyone ever used the compressed air that comes in a can and is used to clean keyboards and other office equipment on their sewing machine?

I know people who do but I was told by my Bernina dealer NOT to do it! You are actually forcing the lint and dirt into the machine.

I wouldn't use it on a machine that doesn't allow access to all the "guts," because like Mary said, there's that danger of filling invisible/unreachable crevices with lint.

I do use compressed air on my vintage machines all the time. It blows the lint away from the underside of the machine, into the cabinet, where it can be vacuumed out, periodically.

I keep meaning to buy one of those vacuum cleaner attachment kits for computers - tiny little cleaning wands to get into tight spots. Bet they'd be perfect for sewing machine maintenance, too.

PS - when I saw your title, I had to smile - "A dusting machine? Who needs a dusting machine?" I wondered, "My furniture collects dust all by itself!" ;)

If you use it to clean a vintage machine it's just going to blow the dust off and out because they aren't encased. However, on newer machines it just blows the dust deeper into the casing.

You can use a piece of polar fleece, about a 1" square and a pair of tweezers. Just pick up the fleece with the tweezers and run it around inside the bobbin casing and any area where dust accumulates. The dust/lint will cling to the fleece. I usually keep a snack baggie of small pieces of this handy to use.

I use it on my Janome . . . . BUT only spray it towards the left, away from the electronics. AND I only do it after I get MOST of the dust bunnies using my brushes. My dealer even gave me a pat on the back for have a clean machine! He is the one that explained how to use the canned air.

If you use it only to 'finish' cleaning, then you should be okay.

IMHO I think dealers say NO is that many would just spray ALL the dust down to the base and electronics . . . that would scare me to death to open up those machines.

LOL! I thought we'd see a picture of a fuzzy doggie being used as a mop!

Jan in VA

I was also hoping to learn about some magic duster that would work on its own, so I wouldn't have to...

I use the canned air on my longarm, where the fuzz balls get blown out of the machine, but not on the Bernina, where they would get blown into the interior.

I've seen the canned air in every machine repair place I've been in, Bernina included. One repairman told me the most important thing to know about any machine was how to take the housing off, once you can see inside the machine 95% of the time you see a problem immediately. And of course once the housing is off you can use the canned air.

The Pfaff Dealer and Viking dealer told me thie same thing.

I use it!