Originally Posted by
Onebyone
If the machine oil has a yellow or gold color it is too old to use. Machine oil should be clear. Machine oil is made to evaporate so that's why it's important to keep the machine oiled. If using oil not made for sewing machines, it will not evaporate, gets old and sticky and causes all kinds of problems.
I knew to use ONLY sewing machine oils - I did not know it was supposed to evaporate.