I cleaned a machine yesterday - it was a Singer 401. It looked like it had been greased with a black crayon - waxy gunky grease. I scraped off as much as I could, wiped up what I could and then hit the stuck on gunk with some alcohol careful to keep it off the machine's paint. I would much rather see gunky grease and oil than rust. Once the machine was freed up it looks great and sews fantastic. Then the GKs invaded... I was hoping to post pics of the DGKs 'helping'. Two of them (ages 2 1/2 & 5 1/2) stood on an old piano bench and were working with Qtips to 'clean' that Singer 401. They got all excited when the Qtip got dirty with grease or lint. I had to define gunk. It is anything that comes off onto a Qtip... well, I guess so anyway. I'm sure the machine didn't care who swiped the gunk.