| I was recently asked for advice on how to clean up an old machine. Flattered, for I knew little about the subject, I e-mailed the following to my fellow obsessive. So far I have received no death threats so some of it might be therapeutic to the machine - or may have incapacitated the owner. |
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An Overall
Clean
First, if there is old grease or oil evident wipe over with a soft cloth soaked in very dilute washing up liquid. No scrubbing or rubbing. |
| I use a stiff artists brush and a wooden toothpick for the corners. Beware of solvents. Some older lacquers dissolve in liquids such as paraffin or white spirit. In any case, there is a transparent, protective surface applied to many machines and this could go opaque if solvents are used. If you must experiment test a small area out of sight first. My best advice is to leave anything that will not respond to dilute washing up liquid and a scrape with a wooden toothpick. Like all antiques, the patina is important. |
Do not repaint or varnish.
All the advice I have seen warns against
this. It rarely improves the look and certainly devalues the machine. As far
as I know, decals (the pretty patterns) cannot be replaced.
So what can you do if areas of the paintwork are rust pitted. If the machine
is black then an anti rust agent is acceptable but keep it off the paint work
as much as possible because it can leave a thin light coloured film which will
itself need to be cleaned off. I use Hammerite Kurust applied with a small stiff
brush. It causes the rust to turn a bluey black which blends in quite well with
the rest of the black finish. The surface will not be smooth but it will look
much better than the rust. Agents such as Kurust are expensive but a 250 ml
container will coat a small plough, a cast iron fireplace, a village pump and
several machines with some to spare (well, mine has). It can be bought from
most car accessory and DIY stores.
Unpainted Metal
You may have to remove some parts. I do not advise taking the whole machine
apart. Where possible, replace each bit as you do it.
Most of the bare metal can be improved. Chromed or electroplated parts are difficult
to cure once they have become pitted. Often, most of the unsightly rust patches
will be reduced with wire wool. If the plating is otherwise shiny, leave
out the wire wool and any other abrasives.
On the bare iron parts use a none-abrasive household stainless steel cleaner
to clear tarnish. I use "Shiny Sinks" from Homecare Products (Tel. UK - 0181
871 5027, I think the UK is 44). On lightly tarnished areas this is miraculous.
Let the cloth (a soft one) dry out a bit for best results. It may take several
goes to finish the job but you can get a shiny finish.
| For areas with deeper rust you will have
to take the part off and use the finest emery paper you can find but be
prepared to leave the worst bits as they are. Patience is needed. I usually
watch TV at the same time and take up to a week per machine. This has the
added bonus of irritating the wife. I use an ordinary furniture spray cleaner before as a final cleanup.This may cause a slight clouding on the painted surfaces but this soon clears up. I polish with a THIN application of beeswax polish. Frequent rubbing, even with a soft duster wears the decals (gold patterns) so use a very light touch. Treat your machine like a valuable oil painting - O.K., perhaps that is going too far but do make sure you remove nothing that is original. |
Let me say again, the "dirt" and wear can be part of the antique value. A clean
and polish with beeswax is all most machines need. I have a 1939 Singer model
99 in mint condition but it is not worth a tenth of my grubby old Wheeler and
Wilson Number 2 Model.
Renovating a Machine in Very Poor Condition
| This was an old Eagle machine in a very poor condition. Much of the black paintwork had peeled off and the underlying areas were rusty. All the bare ironwork was rusty with pitting in most areas. The mechanism would not move as most of it was encrusted with dirt and dried on oil. Any decals visible were very faint. However, it was complete and most of the mother of pearl inlay was still intact. |
 Before |
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The Renovation Dilute washing up liquid (detergent) was applied with a small, stiff brush. This removed much of the grease, surface dirt and loose rust. It was left to become completely dry. With a fine paintbrush Kurust was carefully put onto the rusted parts of the paintwork. This went dark blue at first but soon blended in with the rest of the surrounding black area. It needed to be left for about three hours and two or three sessions are needed. Great care was taken to avoid the unrusted paintwork and any ironwork that was originally shiny. The shuttle covers were removed, painted liberally with "Shiny Sinks" and left for a few hours until almost dry. When the Shiny Sinks was scraped off it bought most of the rust with it, including rust lodged in the pits which rubbing would not remove. I had to do this three times. The other parts were removed one at a time to be cleaned with wire wool or fine emery paper. Screws are easily lost. I always replace them after removing a part and take them out again individually for cleaning. This part is very time consuming and there are no short cuts but the end result is worth the trouble. The wooden base was removed and washed with detergent. A light sanding only was needed to bring up this surface. I did not want to bring off all the original varnish. When the machine was reassembled I went over it again, treating any more rusty areas with Kurust. The whole machine was then cleaned with a household furniture spray cleaner and polished with a clear beeswax. |
 After |