A Jaundice Babylock

Now, with two unexpected black Singers in crazy cabinets, I get asked to help move a friend. They had been sharing rent with several roommates in a house in Rochester and one by one the roommates lives changed and my friend was the last one out. That means they were the only one left to clean the place. It would take a week. Among the items roommates left behind... deep in the basement... under a pile of other stuff… was yeah, you guessed it.

This time it was a portable from the 80’s, and it wasn’t stuck. It was stiff, certainly, but not frozen. A few drops of oil here and there, a close inspection, a good cleaning… and the machine ran and sewed. Unfortunately, there was no paperwork, no manual (still haven't found one) and no attachments. The one thing it did have, was a good name: BabyLock.

The BL2000 Pro Lite is a simple machine.  It seems sturdy and it sews well, but the other thing that it had, was a bad case of being left next to a window for a very, very, long time. One side of the machine looked nearly new in white while the other side looked old, brittle, and very yellow. 

What I found this time was a cure devised by gamers to ‘restore’ their old gaming systems back to new.  Fortunately for me I did not have to create my own concoction because someone else had found it for me. The trick involved very strong hydrogen peroxide in a cream base and UV light. The easy method meant stopping by the salon supply store for some Salon Care 40 hair product.

Even though there are tons of videos out there saying the exact same thing, this method of re-whitening yellowed plastic is not for the bare handed. Gloves are a must.  Care is a must. Best done outside on a surface you don't like. The basics are: Gloves, Salon Care 40, the yellow parts, and several large zip-close clear plastic bags - and gloves. I mentioned those right? The parts are going to go in the bags so that they lay flat, so make sure they fit beforehand. The other thing you need is sunlight. 

After coating the yellowed bits with the cream, slip them into the plastic bags, zip them shut, and leave them in the sunlight. It all sounds easy enough, but if your too messy with a brush the parts may streak (I used a dampened sponge) and getting the cream to stand and not move around while slipping them in the bags was tricky. 

 

I did two applications and two full days in the sun. Often, I'd check to make sure the yellow edges were rotated so they got as much sun as possible. Then, once the parts became white, I rinsed and rinsed (submerged and rinsed) the bits off with water at first and then a mild soap and then more water and let drip dry. The bags were thrown away. Once everything was dry, I reassembled the machine.

This time, everything worked better than expected. I’ve tried this method twice. Once with the Babylock plastic and it worked great, the second time with the plastic panels off a Stylist and it didn’t work as well.I must have had the wrong sun.