Can anyone recommend a unit for cleaning upholstery? I tried the car buffer on a canvas sofa and a silk one. Neither seemed to come clean.

what cleaning agent did you use?

you can buy a small portable HWE machine, or a spotter machine (HWE also), or look into a Von Schraeder (sp) upholstery machine.

thanx --- Derek.

I have always done upholstery by hand, and more recently begun using a 6" orbital buffer in some situations. When I am unsure about a fabric, I pass the job along to a local "upholstery only" specialist.
Kind of a "know when to hold them; know when to fold
them" approach. So even when I fold them, I earn 15%
of the job cost. Works for me.

Doing it by hand is rather easy now Mark, and the new encapsualtion products work well for low moisture upholstery cleaning too.

What is the "doing it by hand" technique?

1. Separate the cushions/pillows from the body. Dry
vac all individual pieces and the body. With a fingernail, break up & vacuum away any bits of dried food, etc. you may come across. "Root out" all stuff
in the various crevices.
2. With terrycloth pads or towels placed all around the body, spray it down with your cleaner. Lightly if it's only lightly soiled; use more if soiling is heavy. Also spray the cushions/pillows with pads arranged so as to catch overspray. Allow from a few to several minutes of dwell time.
3. With folded pads or towels, or a terrycloth mit (Argo makes these just for this purpose) proceed to
wipe down the body & various pieces, absorbing softened soil as you go. If need be use specialized spot treatment products for areas where these would
help: ink removers; tannin stain product, etc.
4. If the piece was heavily wetted, you might want to ake additional passes with dry towels/pads.
5. If the fabric requires, set the pile with an
upholstery brush.
6. Leave cushions/pillows to dry, standing on one edge
on a clean surface.

Thx Mark. The good information.

Mark

couple other things to awlays remember with upholstery :

1) do not get ANY water / solution on the deck (area the cushions sit on. once this is wet it will permanently stain (water mark). so use care and dont spray that area.

2) do not use your hands to clear out the crevices. as was related to me in an upholstery cleaning class, one cleaner swiped his fingers into a crevice and skewered 2 or 3 fingers together with a sewing needle.

always thought that was an urban legend, but ya never know...

thanx --- Derek.

Re. the deck, I always make sure that I wet it
completely, so that the results that you warn against
won't occur. It's when you you get it wet in just one
or a few areas that spotting of that type may result.
When you wet the entire deck, it all dries out evenly.
That's been my experience anyway.

I agree with Mark, if you get the deck wet, you must wet the entire deck and then you will not have any problems.

great point Mark.

thanx --- Derek.

What I left out of my step-by-step a few posts above
is that I sometimes use my 6" orbital buffer on furniture which is firm enough. On soft pillows, I
stay with the hands-only technique. With either method, you can use your usual cleaning product, or an encap product. Industry ikon Gary Heacock has posted
photos on one of the c.c. message boards of how he
does just about all his upholstery cleaning with
an orbital buffer and Releasit encap product. Others
use a rotary drill set up with a pad holder holding
a small green-stripe pad or a FibrePlus pad.

a polisher like this works great to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7527544611&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOAB:US:52

thanx --- Derek.