girliegirl

ok, I have this red eye sitting here and I need to wipe it down. What have you found to be the best cleaner to use? dirty on the decals... yuck.

mlmack

Most folks recommend using sewing machine oil and cotton balls.

girliegirl

and that will clean up the decals to?

miriam

Depends on how bad you want to keep the decals. Oil seems to be the best - ask Glenn to be sure.

J Miller

I will tell you from first hand experience that oil and cotton balls will clean the machines. The milky looking stuff that's left behind is old shellac. You don't want to remove that as it's all there is protecting the decals.

Glenn has an excellent tutorial on repairing the old shellac to protect your decals.
{ http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...s-t186522.html }
Strong or abrasive cleaners will take the gold out of the decals in a heartbeat. Nearly instant destruction. Don't do it. Just use the sewing machine oil and cotton balls or flannel cloth. Go slow and easy, do a bit at a time and when you stop getting brown icky stuff off, your done.

Joe

mjhaess

My sewing machine repairman says to use machine oil.