Work and play

I've been on travel for work quite a bit lately so I haven't had much opportunity to do things sewing-machine-related. Three weeks in Japan, three weeks at home, two weeks in Japan, two weeks home, then two weeks in Guam (the Guam trip I was able to take my wife along). Soooo, I'm really itching to get back to sewing machine related fun. To get things kicked off, my dear wife and I hit two Goodwill stores today, which happens to be the day we returned from Guam (24 hour travel time from start to finish). Our heads are kind of spinning from the three flights but I can always (usually) make time to hit the thrift stores. I purchased a Singer 328K in really nice cosmetic condition (photos will come at a later date) and an older Singer buttonholer, plus two boxes of Kenmore cams.

The reason for today's blog entry though is to show the machine I passed up at Goodwill, although I may have to finagle my wife into picking it up on the $1.29 Monday event in a couple weeks.

The machine pictured below is a Singer 15-91 (a popular and sought-after model). Sorry for the lousy photo. You couldn't really tell if you didn't know, but the machine is mounted to a board with six screws. Someone drilled six holes through the machine bed (!) around the perimeter and put wood screws through the bed and into the wood (you can kind of make out a brass screw head in the lower right corner of the bed). A couple other minor issues I saw were the spool post is a piece of threaded rod and the stitch length knob is a regular off -the-shelf screw. Oh, and there was no motor controller. All these things add up to a not-so-ideal purchase, at least not for me.

I couldn't believe it when I saw the wood screws holding that machine to the board. Kind of drops the value. There are a lot of good usable parts on it though, and I'm sure it will still sew fine if someone took the time to oil and clean it up. I'm just not sure I am the right person for the job.

I'll also mention here that I ran across a generic Japanese Class 15 clone sewing machine (labeled Blue Bird) at a thrift store on a US military base in Japan (the trip before Guam) that I just had to snap a photo of. The machine looked to be in great shape and came in a bentwood case with some accessories, but somehow I don't think they will be selling it anytime soon. The price tag was marked $280.