I'm glad you guys are out their rescuing these neglected machines. Some day they will be loved again.

Got the Necchi to stitch last night. Doesn't all work, yet but a good start.

Leon,
Necchis are notorious for being seized up with old gunk even when they were taken care of in a previous life. There's a very good tutorial in the files of the Yahoo group Vintage Necchis on cleaning and unfreezing them and she used a Supernova as an example machine. Rubbing alcohol is a great cleaner/degunker for the innards of these machines. After reading this tute years ago, 90% rubbing alcohol went into my arsenal and it's what I use to clean the innards of any gunky machine I get now.

Cari

Thanks Cari. I hadn't tried alcohol. Seems like a good candidate to try it on.

I use kerosene almost exclusively. Removes the dried oil and grease quickly and is what was recommended in Singer's manuals back in the day. I've also found that it does a good job on the exterior of the machines. Hasn't harmed one of mine yet and works faster than sewing machine oil.

while yes, you do have to be careful not to get rubbing alcohol on a black Japanned machines, I've used it for stubborn spots on colored machines with no issues. YMMV. 90% works almost instantly on gunked up innards, I use it because it's faster than sm oil or kerosene and it smells better.

Cari