Have I ruined it.....
 

I had mold on my vintage circa 1930s Singer and sprayed it with Lysol, now the finish is splotchy grey. Can I bring back the finish or do I just move on.

Try to do a search for "grey spots after spraying with Lysol". I did this and came up with a couple things you might try. One mentioned rubbing the spots with mayonnaise. Another mentioned starting with a hair dryer to warm the surface and then doing other things to remove the spots. I tried to post these to my reply but my computer skills are limited. The last one was under refinishwizard.com. It mentioned the hair dryer followed by denatured alcohol. Hope this gives you some ideas.

I would highly discourage the use of alcohol on a 1930s Singer. It will mess up decals and finish of shellac on the machine. However, IIRC the alcohol is used with french polish, but that is a labor intensive and extreme caution needed to do it correctly.


Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Sometimes the white spots will disappear when it's left to dry. When you clean shellac you never leave it wet for long, rather use a more suitable polish or sewing machine oil. You can use a cloth well wringed up in water and gently go over the surface, it should be just slighly damp and not leave any wetness on the machine. Shellac in good condition can handle a gentle clean, but be extra careful if you can see wear to decals or flaky shellac.

If the staining is only on the surface you might be able to polish it out with a resin based car polish. I don't know if there are expert tricks for sewing machines, but for wooden furniture I know they use alcohol or lighter fluid, put a match to it and a controlled flame removes white stains. It's rather spectacular first time you see it, and it has to be done very carefully.

On the other hand, there is this sticky thread on how to repair and improve the finish on old sewing machines. It has given very good results in most cases.

How about waxing it with carnuba wax? I was told to use it by a person who was in the business of buying old featherweight machine and selling them. Her machines all look brand new when she sold them, even though they had flaws and some were really old.

I would highly agree with not using any kind of cleaning product that is stronger than water. And by all means, don't let it dry on its own, whatever you wash down, wipe dry immediately.