Cleaning My MIL's Treadle
My original post on this subject got deleted by mistake so I am going to try and repost. I was cleaning my MIL's old treatle because I wanted to try and use it to sew on. It was pretty grimy and yucky because it had been setting in our garden shed for 25+ years and I am sure she did not use it for the last 20+years of her life. We began by wiping down the cabinet using Pledge Orange Wood Cleaner. We got the cabinet looking really nice and then we started on the head. We took off as many of the pieces as we could and proceeded to clean the machine hoping to get down to the black shiny finish. We should have used sewing machine oil and a soft cloth but instead we used Goop and you can see what it did to the gold decals on the machine head. So, please, do not use Goop. Only use sewing machine oil and cotton balls or soft cloth for cleaning. We are not done and I believe there are a few of the decals that we might be able to save. There seems to be a rather heavy coating of gunk on the machine head so there is the possibility that we won't be able to get down to the shiny black finish on the machine. I will post pictures when we get it cleaned and shined up as best we can. Here are some before and in the process of this project.