Axile grease in my little Singer, pink and white, merritt 2404, HELP!
 

I purchased a Singer merritt 2404 today at a local thrift store. She's beautiful, but she's covered in some black greasy mess that smells like axile grease. It's spued out of every hole in the machine. It's gummed on all the gears and cogs. The bottom of the case was lined about an inch thick with paper towels to catch all the gooey overflow. OMG, my heart is breaking for her! What can I do? Please help me save her!

i would say take as much as you can apart and clean it good with a
turpentine or some thing easy that will take of grease. wow that is terrible.

Well, you got a mess there. I'd start by physically removing everything that I could like Joset said and scraping out as much grease as I could. Then I'd get some kerosene, q-tips, rags, tooth brushes, and a cat litter tray. Put the machine in the tray and start cleaning. Let the tray catch what drains down. Use a hair dryer to soften it up if needed.
You might also try Hoppe's #9 gun cleaning solvent. It's mostly kerosene and will do a decent job of cleaning off the grease.

Good luck in your clean up. And I hope someone offers a better idea.

Joe

I'm with Joe on the kerosene. I don't know what turpentine would do; I do know that kerosene cleans gunk real well. I like his idea of the cat litter tray, too.
Sometimes you gotta wonder, "What were they thinking?"

Or ... where they thinking?

Joe

The problem with turpentine is that will turn sticky itself if you don't remove all of it. Kerosene evaporates more completely.

Use kerosene it is the best for grease.

oh yes, pictures please!!

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;0)

Went to a Singer cleaning class at Houston Market one time. We cleaned with WD40 and long strips of tulle. Melts the grease and the tulle acts like sandpaper, but doensn't scratch. Everyone's machine came out clean as a whistle.
SandyQuilter