I bought my small handheld vacuum at Walmart. Hubby has tried to use it several times and I said no no no! Get your own! lol

Some Walmarts also sells the small attachments in the hardware department for about $8 or so. I got mine from a sewing machine shop in town but it didn't fit my regular vacuum and the miserable place would not take it back so I bought a handheld vac which does work and even though it ended up costing me a lot more in the end, I know it will save me a lot since I can clean it regularly...

me too

Janie, what part of Iowa are you from and who is your Janome dealer?

My 2cents would be to ask your dealer that tells you to use canned air to take you to their repair area and show you what canned air they use for repairs. My experience bets that you will not see any canned air. If you do, maybe that should be a warning.

I also would not base usage on what schools or government offices or any other publicly financed business uses...they have an unlimited supply of YOUR tax dollars to buy replacement machines whenever necessary (and even when not necessary) so using whatever is easiest is going to be their choice.

My Bernina dealer told me to NEVER used compressed air on a sewing machine. He said it will push lint further into the body of the machine. Instead he suggested to buy a vacumn cleaner adaptor, turn down the suction power and vacumn the lint from the machine. I have done this to my machine once a week. My son in law even uses it on my computer when he is doing maintence on it.

I used in on my machines. Here is how I see it. The computer has a lot of parts that can't take water. So if it is good enough for my computer then it is good enough for my machine.

It is best to vaccum out with a small attachment that fits on the vac hose, as air drives lint into places you can't reach. Use small brush to clean bobbin & feed dog areas.

Right! It does push lint into the machine. You can buy vacuum attachments on Clothilde made to suck the yuck out of small places, like sewing machines and computer fans.

I've been using compressed air for years in between servicing.
The repair man that regularly cleans and services my machines has commented that he wishes that all of his customers maintained their machines as well. :lol:

I have heard not to use it also, because of the thing with packing it into the machine.

I do use it everytime I clean my machine, but I have it fully open on the top and bottom and the lint blows out of it not into it.

Works great. I take my machine in to get cleaned annually and my sewing machine expert has never said a word that there was lint packed in my machine.