I clean and oil my machine as regularly as I can, my sewing machine guy showed me a few things when I had mine in the last time because he's an hour from me and getting it in when an issue crops up is a very hard thing for me to do since I don't drive. Before that, I would take mine in once every couple of years. Mine is vintage and I've always worked on vintage machines, so servicing them myself saves a lot of time and money.