I have a Babylock Espire. The manual says not to oil. But I took a maintenance class and the technician said to oil the bobbin race periodically - one drop of oil. The modern machines are built so closed in you have to take for service as you can't reach all the places you would have normally cleaned on an older machine. Very irritating. I vacuum as much as I can reach(taking off the feed dog plate, etc) and take in for service every two years or so. I haven't been sewing all that much in recent years so if I start to sew more I may take it in more often.