Speaking of sewing machines, while you can always get an inexpensive Brother, sewing machines today have a lot of plastic gears and other parts that do not last.
Some of the best and affordable machines out there are the Singer 301s, which were made back in the 50s. They're bullet proof and repairable. You can do a lot with a straight stitch machine, and a single use machine like that will outperform any multi-stitch machine by a long way.
It's a shame that a lot of people come across these and think they're junk because they're not computerized.
I have two old sewing machines, I picked both up at the local refuse transfer station. One is a 1920s Singer. It’s super basic, doesn’t even have a reverse, but it’s bullet proof. It’s cast iron but a portable model, so it’s built in to a carry case and weighs ‘only’ 20ish kg.
The second is a Toyota Jigline. It’s from the 70s and is mostly stainless steel. It has multiple stitch patterns but the pattern selector has the only plastic gear in the entire machine and it’s cracked. It still works fine but I’ll have to replace it at some point. At least I can see and understand the entire mechanism.
The Toyota was cheap but the Singer was around market price. The Toyota was marked as not worked but with a liberal application of machine oil it came free. There are plenty of guides online for fixing up machines.
> "One is a 1920s Singer. It’s super basic, doesn’t even have a reverse, but it’s bullet proof."
That goes for much earlier models too. Recently, during a factory clean-up, I came across a Singer that predates yours by some 50 years—it was made in the early 1870s—1874 to be precise—and it too was built out of cast iron and made to last seemingly for ever (it was still quite functional).
Incidentally, you can tell the date of your Singer easily by by checking the many Singer serial number databases on the Web. Here's a couple to start with:
> sewing machines today have a lot of plastic gears and other parts that do not last.
Singer hobbymatic machines from the late 70s and later also have plastic gears, but for some reason these last no problem. They also mostly use bushings for bearings (I mean obviously it would make the mechanism much larger if you had to fit roller bearings everywhere), and they also last, provided you oil it every couple years.
Petroleum oil/grease can make plastics brittle, IIRC they need fully synthetic grease, some manufacturers sell their own but the right type should be ok...
Just troll craigslist till you find a 80s or so bernina. It'll be more than worth the $300 you spend on it. Mine sounds like a new porsche engine running and destroys singers.
I got it because the plastic gears in my wife's singer self destructed when I was using it to sew camping gear. About the same size, 2x the price, just insanely better.
If you're not going to do anything heavy than then the parent's recommendation is fine. And it won't have a motor short like some of the old singers where the insulation is wearing out, but that's an easy fix.
Some of the best and affordable machines out there are the Singer 301s, which were made back in the 50s. They're bullet proof and repairable. You can do a lot with a straight stitch machine, and a single use machine like that will outperform any multi-stitch machine by a long way.
It's a shame that a lot of people come across these and think they're junk because they're not computerized.