Degreasing A Machine

[mogwild]

Greetings.

My wife and I purchased a sewing machine that had been used up until recently, and was heavily oiled when taken off the table for long term storage. And I mean heavily, everything is coated. The fellow whom owned it before since passed away, and we acquired the machine at auction. It's in excellent condition, but the heavy oiling has attracted some sand/dust from when it was stored, and transport home, and I would like to fully clean it all off, and re-oil with fresh new oil before use to prevent the sand from abrasively damaging anything.

My first instinct is to use brake cleaner, because that's what I use to clean automotive parts, and it leaves no residue, and doesn't harm paint, I won't be hosing the machine down, just spraying it on a shop towel and cleaning off the old oil from the surfaces and carefully cleaning the rods and movement area's etc. But then I thought why not ask someone who knows So here I am.

Any help is much appreciated.

-trev

Edited May 2, 2012 by mogwild

[Glendon]

I am by no means an expert, but here's the answer I got when I asked this about an arbor press a month or so ago. People were debating whether break cleaner was safe or not. Some people were saying that it might speed up corrosion and shorten the life of the machine, even if it wasn't immediately obvious. What was recommended to me to try first was a green degreaser called Simple Green. You can pick up a bottle at most auto shops. Worked very well for me.

[mogwild]

Thank you very much. I am familiar with Simple Green, its available at my local Canuck Innertube, I never thought to use it. I will pick some up tonight and get to work.

Edited May 2, 2012 by mogwild

[electrathon]

Brake cleaner will work great. Simple green will work too, but it will take a lot more rubbing and will leave the machine wet, so you need to be more carefull. The great part of brake cleaner is it eveporated very fast and leaves not residue.

[mogwild]

Well I have lots of brake cleaner at home already And I'll lightly re-oil the surfaces to protect from rust afterwards anyway.

[KAYAK45]

According to the manuals for cleaning the 111w155 and the 31-15 for the Marines, soak them in diesel fuel once a year. Then lubricate as needed.

Tough to fight the Marines!

Just a thought!

Kevin

Edited May 2, 2012 by KAYAK45

[mogwild]

HA! really? Wow. Well, my truck is diesel....but...I think that's a bit extreme. But if its in the manual...

[KAYAK45]

Diesel is extreme, but brake fluid isn't. What's extreme here?

Dude, it's in the war manual!

[mogwild]

Brake Clean, not brake fluid

But yes, I've seen the "instructions to destroy so it doesn't fall into enemy hands" part of the Singer 97-10 manual, always good to show people its an extreme machine.

I wonder if that has to be the good 'ol high sulfur diesel fuel and not the new low sulfur crap they sell now

[amuckart]

I've used aerosol brake cleaner on many machines without a problem. The only way I can see it would promote corrosion is because it totally strips all surface oils off, so it pays to wipe exposed metal down with a non-drying light oil afterwards (or just spray the whole thing with syntex and deal with the drips).

I would run far, far, away from any water-based cleaner. You'll never get the damn thing dry before it starts rusting, and you'll need to soak the whole thing in WD-40 to displace any moisture you can't get at.

Kerosine is the other traditional sewing machine cleaner, but several cans of brake cleaner are probably a lot cheaper than enough kero to completely submerge the machine for a week.