When I took it to the guy, he was gonna "clean" and repair it. Well, yesterday when I went to pick it up, he had only cleaned the working parts, I though I was gonna see here shining. So now I want to clean the 50+ years of gunk off of it. What do you use to do that? I looked on the Old Machine threads, but there are too many pages for me to read every post. So if someone can help me with this, I will really appreciate it. Thanks, Sissy

Here are the links to Billy's (Lostin51) tutorials on cleaning a vintage machine inside and out. It sounds like you can skip the inside parts. I'm waiting for spring to do mine as I have no desire to use some of the cleaning products in the house.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-45816-1.htm

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-45983-1.htm

I know what you mean about sifting through all the posts, which is why I found the tutorials & saved the links to them. Here's are the links to Billy's (Lostn51) Vintage Machine Cleaning Tutorials.

Part 1 http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-45816-1.htm
Part 2 http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-45983-1.htm
Part 3 http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-46696-1.htm

Hope this helps. You can always PM him with any questions. Or post your questions to the Vintage Sewing Machine Shop. Folks there have gone thru the same thing with their machines & will be very helpful.
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-43881-1.htm

:) Looks like IrishRose beat me to it while I was cutting & pasting links at snail's pace :)

Hi Sissy,
Sorry for your disappointment. I would be too :(

I used Billy's tutes and my 66 Redeye came out fabulous!!!
Good luck!
Sue

So sorry that you didn't get what you thought :(

Thanks for the question, sent Billy's links to DH.
Penny

If the shellac (clear coat) on your machines is in ANY WAY compromised or missing, you're going to lose decals with Billy's tutorials...there's been more than one person bemoaning the cleaning method that Billy promoted!!

Use sewing machine oil to clean your machines...it may take longer than the "instant" of the GoJo or Goop, but you're still going to have decals when you're done!

Charlee is right - unless you are planning to repaint that machine please use the videos in the sticky: http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...v-t167789.html You do not need to worry about the gunk inside the machine that you can see - it is the gunk caught in moving parts that you can't see you need to worry about so use Triflow oil - Triflow oil it will free up the stuck up parts. It may take a while but it will free up. There is absolutely NO NEED to completely dis-assemble a sewing machine to clean it up. Triflow oil can be found on line or in your local bicycle shop.

It is likely that if you took a machine to a shop that does modern machines they don't have a clue how to clean the outside of these old machines. The plastic machines can be cleaned with many other products. The old black machines have a shellac finish and you must be very careful not to disturb the decals. Glenn has a tutorial here on repairing the shellac. http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...s-t186522.html I have tried this. It works and is so much easier that the posts where you are suppose to soak in kerosene and dis-assemble the machine. Glenn is not trying to drum up business.

It appears that the first 2 links aren't working. I was really hoping to see them.