New to me, that is. I purchased my first Bernina yesterday. A 730 Record. Or is it Record 730? I don't know. According to the manual, it is a Bernina-Record Model 730, so I guess I still don't know what's right. Ah well, no biggie. I'll just continue to call it a Bernina 730. About the only other major sewing machine make I haven't picked up yet is Elna. I passed up an Elna SU at the local thrift store for $25 but it had some issues. In hindsight I should have bought it. I went back a couple days later but it was gone.
As I said, I'd never laid hands on a Bernina prior to yesterday, and I had to patiently wait the drive home to delve into what makes a Bernina tick. I'd heard and read that Berninas were some of the best machines out there. Now it was my turn to see why.
I quickly noticed the top conveniently hinged up to reveal the plethora of gears, cams, levers and whatnot. Oooh, what's that? A steel gear driving the shuttle/hook shaft? But wait, it looks like the mating gear is nylon (not positive yet but pretty sure). Not a real bummer but it would have been nice if both gears were steel. And seeing that shaft made me think it was a rotary hook. But a closer look and semi-letdown, the hook was oscillating.
And I also noticed what looks to be a nylon gear driving the hefty cam stack. Ok, so it isn't indestructible like I'd originally thought, but it is still a Swiss-made wonder, and very neat with the 20 built-in selectable cam patterns.
I have yet to see if this thing sews but the previous owner said it worked well, and I would tend to think it works fine. It will be fun to make a test pattern of each of the different stitches and buttonhole feature.
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