Originally Posted by vintagemotif
Originally Posted by chris_quilts
a Singer 201 with 2 questions: How do I clean bed without hurting/damaging the crackled portion and will machine still sew well without a cabinet? Can I clean with Goop like normal or do I need something else? I am unsure if machine oil alone will do the trick to get the really dirty spots the seller missed.
Congrats on your excellent deal! I only clean my sewing machines with sewing oil. You need to be patient cleaning the machine this way since it sometimes take time to loosen up the cruddy oil that is built up on the machine. Don't use Goop unless you don't mind all the shellac to be removed, and possibly decals damaged. Doesn't mean that it could happen to you using the Goop (non pumice), but you don't know until you start into it. That is what happened to me when I cleaned a machine with the bed having a crackled shellac. I started cleaning with the Goop, only to find the "dirt" I was removing was really the shellac and decals. So, I now only clean with sewing oil. And yes, sewing machine oil alone will clean the machine!
You have me convinced. I will use just machine oil. Am not completely sure that all crud is old oil - it may be leftover smokers stuff. Recently cleaned up a 15 encrusted with heavy smoke stuff and this stuff looks remarkably similar. I will however use the sewing machine oil. Thanks VM.