wilburness

Christy and Mark you were right. the belt is slipping. I had to finish up another project (montgomery wards) before I would let myself even look at my necchi. some moisture has gotten in and things are stiff and some has a bit of rust. it is now soaking in some triflow. this machine does everything but blow my nose for me with no electronics. it will take me some time to get it all cleaned up. I will let you know how my little lavendar flower is doing. I am sooo happy that it is a slipping belt. whewwwww

Cari-in-Oly

That is a Julia, one of Necchis finest. One of the most common problems with the Italian Necchis is that they are made with such tight tolerances that the slightest bit of old oil can gum them up. The best way to clean the innards is 90% rubbing alcohol. Just keep it off the paint. It completely dissolves old oil and crud and evaporates cleanly.Then follow with sewing machine oil of your choice. This type of cleaning is recommended on the vintage Necchi group. I now use it to clean the innards on all my vintage machines and it makes a world of difference.

Cari

Rodney

The alcohol is probably ok on painted machines but be very careful of it on the old black japanned machines. The alcohol can (will) make a mess of your shellac clearcoat and decals in a hurry if you're not careful. I've used it to clean gunk off of presser feet and other easily removed bits. It does work well.
Rodney

wilburness

I had to put my necchi aside. she is sooo pretty though.

Cari you mentioned before about using rubbing alchol to clean gunky oil. my Lavendar princess sticks. when I used tri-fow it loosened up, but now sticks again. what do you use to apply this with and how much do you use? I have searched the web and looking for some sort of schematics or pictures to take it apart and clean well. I'm still a newbie and need some sort of pictures to look at.

I did join the necchi yahoo group but have not done my intro nor gone to the site and seen what is available. still reading the newer posts only.

and while we are on the subject of cleaning (nice segway) when people use shellac on their machines, what kind do you use and how do you apply it?

wilburness

it is under the cam bed where it is sticking. the silver square lever (no name in book) that releases the cam is what sticks. I'm sure I have to take off the bed the cam sits on to see what is sticking, but do not have the confidence yet to do that. I have a fear that there is going to be springs that are going to go boing boing and pop,out. this is why I joined the necchi yahoo group

Rodney

The only time you would use shellac on your machine is to repair a damaged clearcoat on an old black one. Shellac was used by the manufacturers as a clearcoat on machines with decals. I just use Zinnser clear shellac straight from the can. A little goes a long way. Glenn has a great tutorial on repairing the finish on older machines. His methods are better than mine, I just can't get the hang of his. I haven't tried it yet but a can of spray shellac may be a good choice too.
Your Necchi wouldn't have any on it. Black Singers up into the 50s used it as well as the other old brands.
Rodney

Cari-in-Oly

There's a file at the vintage Necchi site where one of the mods put together an excellent tutorial for cleaning and unfreezing a Necchi. You can apply her methods to any machine, really. Basically I dip a Qtip in alcohol and just get in there and clean, working levers back and forth, etc. until I'm satisfied, afterwards following up with Tri Flow or regular oil depending on the machine at hand.

Cari

Beckaroo

I want a lavender Necchi so badly I can almost taste it. Did you get yours working properly? I have 4 Necchis and 3 of them had serious issues. So far my husband has been able to fix 2 of them through Internet searches and web sites like this one. The third one just came yesterday and is still in isolation. LOL