The gold spots you see on the top picture is a reflection of the spool pin it's the black spot right next to it that's still rough from the nephta reactionSharon
nh

To finish up I would give the whole a light french polish, let it cure for a week or so then use car wax to shine it up and protect more. I use a good mcquires carnuba car wax. The machine is looking good. I really don't think the naptha reacted with the shellac, Naptha just removed all the dirt and oil so you could see problems. I am glad everything is going well on the machine. Good job. Let me know if you nedd anymore help.
Skip

Thanks so much, it really gave me a scare, everyone I had talked to suggested I remove the shellac and here it took such a simple fix.
You rock
Sharon
nh

Great, let me know if you need more help. You are most welcome.
Skip

I'm working on a Singer 99k at the moment with the same gold flecks showing in the shellac.
This machine had a lot of areas where the shellac was alligatoring and lifting off the base coat. I think the gold flecks are tiny air bubbles under the shellac where the shellac is separated from the base coat and the gold color is the true color of the shellac finish. I'll rub the machine down again today with just alcohol and linseed oil before I try adding any more shellac.
One great thing about this method is problems are easy to catch before you go too far and shellac is a very forgiving finish to work with.

I'm working on this machine for my 10 year old daughter to bring to her 4H meetings. I want it to be pretty so she can be proud to show it off when she's there.
Rodney

Hi Glen,
well you saved me on my featherweight with french polishing so I moved up to a red eye that also needed a french polish, easy right! Not this time, the top part of the head came out good but the bed is giving me a real hard time. It looked real nice and smooth when I went to bed but looked at it this morning and it's cloudy with discoloration and swirls which didn't show last night. Any suggestions would be helpful. This is supposed to be a gift to my daughters law for Mother's Day. I don't know if it will make it.

I think you used to much linseed oil. Use a little alcohol and a drop of linseed oil before starting the french polish again and do not apply very much pressure. the swirl marks are from the rag and oil and the shellac not laying down smooth.

Sorry It took so long to get back to you but I've been fighting with my password and had a hard time getting back onto the board.
So I did what you said and the results aren't that good. I'm going to try another round of shellac and linseed oil in a week or so. I'd do it sooner but it has to go to my daughter-in-laws tomorrow which is just next door so I'll be able to still get to it.
I don't know what's going on with it. I've done a few other machines with very good results.
I'm open for any suggestions.
Thanks so much for your help

Are you having very high humidity or rain? Moisture will turn shellac cloudy.

Its raining but the heat is still on. Just wondering, how long do I have to wait between using the linseed oil and alcohol and the shellac treatment. I'm wondering if I originally didn't wait long enough between treatments.