The furnace clean up sounds like it was a real big project. I live in an old house and I'm always worried about running into potential problems like that. I found this information online (link below) because I'm thinking about buying a Necchi Supernova and wanted to find out if any asbestos was used in the insulation of the motor or the foot controller. This link has a paragraph in italian but you can translate the page with Google. The reason for my concern is twofold, I found a layer of white fabric in the foot controller of my Singer 223 which my sewing machine repair person said is asbestos and I have had the lung disease Sarcoidosis so I'm really overly careful with anything that could potentially damage my lungs. Of course I didn't find anything out about the supernova but this link is interesting as it mentions asbestos used in the clutch motors on industrial machines.
http://www.mattioli1885.com/onlinejo...icle/view/1713