Originally Posted by
Sheluma
Wow, what a great story about your mom. So talented! And she did it all with her little FW. I wouldn't change a thing, either. About that lead tube -- it protects the lamp wires from the gears and from oil. Be careful with it because I'm pretty sure the white dust is lead oxide. Wash your hands well and discard or wash that cloth. Personally I don't want to deal with it -- I just try to avoid it, but I did see a website where a guy replaced it with a copper wire "backbone":
http://tech-rhet.net/misc/featherweight/
Do you think I should clean it or avoid it. I don't want to break any thing or make anything worse. I've been looking at the possibility of replacing the decals. I think, if I really want to do this, I'll have to strip it down, repaint it, decal it and then add the clear coat. I absolutely will not do that. I do not want to fix something that isn't broken. Know what I mean?