Prism99

You can do all that yourself. I fix up old thrift shop machines for a local non-profit. The "packed" means packed with grease.

A lot of the machines of your vintage came with semi-permanent grease, so it may not need any grease. If you do need it, it is called sewing machine grease, comes in a small tube, and is widely available on the notions wall of places such as JoAnn's and Walmart.

Take the screws off the top of your machine, if your machine has screws, so you can lift off the top. Put one drop of oil in any oil holes, plus one drop wherever you can see two parts moving against each other when you turn the wheel. Grease goes *only* on gears. Gears have teeth, so are easily identified. You will probably see some white or brown gunk on the gears; that is the old grease. It's usually okay to leave it there. I just add a little new grease.

Swing out the side door of the machine, on the left, and oil all areas where two metal parts move against each other.

For the bobbin area, I remove the bobbin case and the bobbin race. Usually there are a couple of little knobs you flip to the side to release the bobbin race. I use a small stiff brush to clean out that area. Before replacing the race, I place a tiny bit of oil on the outside of it and then run my finger around it so there is just a light film of oil on it. Replacing the race usually requires a little patience. It's not hard, but I always wish I had 3 hands when I do it.

Before replacing the race, remove the needle plate and vacuum out or use a tweezers to lift out any lint, especially around the feed dogs.

Don't blow into the machine or use sprayed air -- this can push lint deeper into the machine.

For some machines you need to take off the bottom and oil those moving parts too. I lay the machine on its side to do this.

That's about it!

Edit: Just saw Susan's comment about white lithium grease being better. Will have to seek that out!