Thanks for the good suggestions, Tammi. I'll give them a try "next time".
Donna

Hey Donna,

The other thing I've tried, but I suspect you have too, is the Fast Orange. It's a hand cleaner product with a pumice in it. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I think it depends on how grungy the grunge is.

If you use any cleaner with pumice you can write off the decals and most of the paint. It will destroy them.

I've run out of Hoppe's and am still not finished cleaning this little thing. The remaining gunk looks like the inside of an oven with all the baked on grease. But I don't want to ruin what's left of the paint and decals so I'm only going to use non abrasive cleaners.

And so far, the following is all that's worked:
Hoppe's #9 Gun Cleaning Solvent.

And these have not:
Simple Green
Dawn dish washing detergent
Lighter fluid
Sewing machine oil


I think I'll try some paint thinner on the edges that's giving me the worst trouble.

Joe

Oh, Sorry Joe, we were talking about the cleanup afterward. No abrasives on the machine, abrasives on the hands to remove the grunge.

I had no idea you could use Simple Green on a sewing machine. hmm....

We were addressing the cleaning of our dainty lady hands AFTER the grunge work but thanks for the warning anyway. I think our skin is tougher than the decals.

OK, sorry I missed those posts. Simple green is OK when diluted on most newer machines. But it will destroy decals on older machines. I found that out the hard way.
If I were to use it on an older machine I'd use q-tips and make sure it didn't get near the decals.

Joe