Please help...featherweight case
 

Hi,
We've returned to Florida for a few weeks. I discovered small patches of gray, fuzzy mold on my vintage featherweight case. My hubby is checking with the AC company about our humidity and AC levels. But...what should I use to clean this poor case up? Also, I'm tempted to bring this case back to the North with me for another f.w. And buy a soft case for the FL featherweight. Looking for thoughts on that, as well.
I don't have regular internet so may not reply right away but am very interested in some advice.
Thanks,
lots2do

First wear gloves. I would put 1/4 cup bleach to 5 gal bucket of water as warm as you can stand. Get rag/soft cloth and dip into mixture. Wring rag and wipe down case thoroughly. Do this several times. You don't want the rag to be dripping wet. You may have to use a scrub brush and gently brush through to get to corners. Then wipe again. Take dry rag and wipe again to get any excess moisture off of wood. Let dry outside and preferably in sunny area of yard. Should be stored in area where circulation of air is good. that is how I have handled mold on wood. When done, I usually wipe down with Murphy's Oil soap and then a good oil. Others on QB I'm sure will have other recipes for mold eradication.

tessagin,

Are you sure 1/4 cup bleach to 5 gal of water is enough? I ask because I have a very bad situation of molding sewing machine cases too.

Grey / blue mold. I've tried white vinegar, and a spray that kills black mold, but the stuff on my cases just keeps coming back. Sadly they are in the basement and that's a mold factory. I'm gradually getting as many machines out of there as I can, but the only place for them is the garage and I don't know if that's any better.

Joe

wacko maybe. but you COULD strip the covering, treat the mold, Two coats of shellac and then recover with new black or? Tolex covering

As long as the cases are in a molding environment they will continue to mold. You can always increase the ratio but if you can bring them up out of the basement and into a dryer environment, you will be better off. If you're working in that environment you should be wearing a type of breathing apparatus.. Vinegar is a fruit based liquid. Fruit molds. Maybe you could get a dehumidifier. I would definitely find the source of the mold. You can become very ill in that environment. If you have that kind of mold in your basement you definitely need to have the rest of your house checked out especially if you and any member have had breathing issues or any other kind of issues.

Try using borax instead of the bleach

tessagain,

Roger that.

Joe

Once you have it cleaned set it inside your car in the hot sun and bake the heck out of it. Put it on a tray lined with a towel because it may weep a little and you don't want to harm your interior. And put it inside the car - the trunk does not get nearly as hot. I would leave it in the car from sun up to sunset.

My late husband was a scientist and he said people tend to overuse bleach, a little goes a long way. He would always tell me to cut way back on the bleach, it's very hard on everything you use it on.

J Miller, what tessagin said. I remember your recent bout with some kind of illness. DH and I live in an OLD remodeled farmhouse, and it nearly drives our younger ones crazy with worry about us, and the coughing and sneezing that we do. They swear it is the old mildewy building stuff in our walls, even though we have them sealed off with pink stuff and wall board (whatever you call that white stuff you paint for your walls and ceilings)--and some kind of "very expensive" linoleum on our floors; new windows, etc. as we did all the remodeling.