I've finally reached the point with my machines where I can begin to focus on the wood. For my Singer 12, the base seemed to have a lot of CRUD on the finish... especially around the area where the clamp is from the base to the machine. There's something like a felt spool disk there which is totally nasty and stuck, and the finish around that is nasty as well. I worked with your solution #1 and graduated to the 0000 steel wool, but it seems like it's removing a lot of the finish and stain while still leaving some of the crud. I'm not sure if I should call this good, or move to a stronger steel wool. Any suggestions?