For my vintage machines (about 25 of them - yeah, I know!) I take them apart and clean, lube, oil and fix if necessary. This might happen every three months or so or every year, depending on how much I use the machine. I oil all points for every eight hours of sewing. For my Pfaff and Bernina, I do not have the Pfaff and Bernina tools so must take them to be serviced. For my computerized machines not under warranty, I service all the mechanical parts and yes, do take them apart. I use all my machines. They all have different strengths and weakness in terms of what they can do well. I'm happy to say that all my machines run beautifully. There is nothing so aggravating to me as a sewing machine that is not cooperating! Sewing is supposed to be a pleasure and I'm willing to invest the time so that it is.
I took training to do this and am a certified sewing machine mechanic. People give me non-working machines, I fix and service them and give them to folks who cannot afford a new machine. I like working on machines.
For all machines, I clean the bobbin area every time I change a bobbin. I use a brush and q-tips unless more is required.
I love Tri-flow oil and grease. I do sometimes use regular sewing machine oil and Singer grease, however. People, please NEVER use 3-in-1 oil, DW40, or non-sewing machine oil on a sewing machine. It gums them up after a while and can do other damage. I ruined a good machine before I knew that.
Remember, oil places where metal touches metal and use only sewing machine grease on gears, not other grease. You only need ONE drop of oil per place.
I agree with not using canned air on machines.
Last edited by cricket_iscute; 03-21-2014 at 01:47 PM.