I just found a Barn-Fresh Featherweight & Table
 

Today I bought an old (probably !950s I haven't looked at the serial # yet) Featherweight that was advertised on local Craigslist. The machine was as dirty as I've ever seen. I have given it a first wipe down with a damp cloth and a lot of ugly came off. I know how to grease and oil the machine but I don't know how to remove 50 year old masking tape. The bobbin case is there but seems to have a spring broken. The table has been stripped and is sound but ugly. Any Ideas about how to approach the issues? Oh yes, I forgot to say the machine & table only cost me $250.

Get some Goo Be Gone and work with a soft cotton cloth like an old under shirt. Doesn't look bad. Alcohol might work but I use GBG all the time. Do it in an inconspicuous spot first.

Alcohol will remove the shellac finish. I wouldn't recommend it. Goo Be Gone can damage decals so be careful using it.

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Have fun fixing her up.

Oh you lucky girl!! I love FWs!! It looks pretty good! The table looks great too and with a little bit of prep will be ready to be refinished.

I agree with Candace- I wouldn't use GBG or alcohol. Is the masking tape brittle? When puling on it to remove, it might also pull off some of the decal. I would first try putting a really damp cloth on the tape for a period of time. I would probably repeat doing that a few times hoping that the paper tape and adhesive will soften and loosen up.
Great find!!

Pretty! Olive or baby oil should help remove the tape. I am not sure if they would do any damage...others may have insight or test somewhere first.

Thanks for the ideas! I just finished cleaning , oiling and greasing it. I've never seen such a mess of lint, grease, old thread pieces etc. inside a machine. The needle was too long and I had to put in a new light bulb too. I put in a bobbin case from another 221. Now it runs like a top and sounds the way it should. I do love these old cuties! The table looks to have old oil stains on the wood. Not sure what to do about that as it has been stripped of the finish. ANY Ideas about that?

I think I would try Kerosine. It is a light weight oil, and it is the thing Nova Montgomery had us use in a workshop to clean the featherweight.

I know you will just love it. I personally would not use alcohol or GBG, I think I would use some baby oil or singer machine oil on some cotton and let it soak onto the tape, perhaps it may take several applications, but I think it would soon soften up enough to be removed carefully. I know that the oil would not damage the surface, - I wouldn't use a scraper of any kind.

Definitely no alcohol! I've been using it with reckless abandon on my Necchi and it's made the finish dull. I kind of had no choice as there was so much toffee-like gunk all over it - but never on a japan/shellac finished machine! I'd just soak it in oil and see what happens. Lovely find BTW! :)

Congrats great find!

Great deal..I bought one last year..with table. It was real clean and the machine was gone over and serviced. I paid 275.

Re: the broken spring in the bobbin case, I posted this back in March. I'm assuming this is the spring you're referring to, not the tension spring:
http://www.archaicarcane.com/spring-has-sprung/

Wow, lucky find. Have fun with it.

I got an old FW table off ebay. It was not in good shape but good price (I was having a lot of problems with people outbidding what I could afford at the time I found this one for $79). It had a lot of duct tape keeping the insert in place. I did have to find screws to fix the insert area where the metal frame/pieces were and then I did a lot of sanding on the top to get the tape gummy stuff off. I was very careful about sanding as the top is veneer. I just smoothed out the chipped out areas very carefully. Then I stained and used polyurathane (sp?) on the top and painted sides with black semi-gloss latex enamel. I think it turned out pretty good from the original condition. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

If the sanding on the table is smooth, try just some tung oil or butchers paste polish. As someone else mentioned, why worry about the 'tatoos'...it is vintage, why try to hide that fact. Might need to do a light sanding to clean it up a bit, then wipe with tack cloth to get the bits of grit off the table.

Sounds weird but to remove tape gunk try mayonnaise. I was told this trick when I had to remove a lot of duct tape gunk with marring the finish. I don't think I'd do this on wood but works well on metal. To finish the top and sides of the table since it'a already stripped I'd give it a very light sanding, wipe with tack cloth and to blend in the oil stains use wood stain to stain top and apply two coats of matte finish.

Regarding mayonnaise; when I hear of a "household item" solution like this, I think, okay, what is it in the item (mayonnaise in this case) that is the active ingredient. So, for the mayo, is it the oil? The vinegar? Isolating the active ingredient and then just using it can be a much more efficient way of doing it. Honestly, not that it is a big deal to use up some mayo on your sewing machine - but in general, I think it is better to know what it is you're after, and use just that thing.

I think, based on what others here are saying, that in the case of the mayo, it is the oil that you want to isolate.

I think of people buying a cleaning product for $5.00, with the magic syllables 'oxy' in it... and guess what? Probably fifty cents' worth of peroxide would have done the task.

Just my cheapskate's $.02 worth. But SMR, I'm not criticizing your suggestion - it is quite interesting to me, actually! :-)

The first thing that usually goes through my mind is: Man that's going to smell awful if any is left behind and it,... uh,.... ages. ;)

For the tape, try something oily, peanut butter, olive oil, vegetable oil, put it on let it sit, then wipe, you may need to repeat this again. As for the table, oil is very difficult to remove because it penetrates the wood, call a cabinet maker in your area, they may be able to help you old, have fun and enjoy them both

Update: Just had to remove a service shop's sticker from the bed of my new 201 - I soaked the top of it in oil until I could peel the plastic/shiny upper part of the sticker off, leaving just the white paper/glue residue behind. Then I got a paper towel and soaked it in water, folded it up and left it to sit. After about 15 minutes the whole thing just wiped away. Easy!