Originally Posted by
Charlee
Nearly every one of my old manuals for my machines tells you that if your machine is sluggish from old oil to "oil" the machine with a few drops of kerosene, run it until it loosens up, and then re-oil with a good quality sewing machine oil.
If it is just dried oil, more oil and heat, Tri-flow or kerosene will soften it. I used 3-in-1 oil on my 401 way back when and stuck it up but good. The only thing that got her free after that was a solvent. I packed cosmetic pads around the places that were really bad, covered the base and used solvent - be sure to re-oil. Runs like a champ now.