Some of these were serviced and are for sale, some turned out to be "not worth fixing" due to cheap parts to begin with. All in all I got about 240 machines from another gatherer, and already had about 200 of my own. The herd has been whittled down by sales, a wind storm and just being culled out due to chronic problems (bad engineering/machining, and mostly plastic parts gone crisp). But they gave me a lot of experience, one machine at a time.
The Futura and one other wild and crazy electronic machine was amazing, in it's time, for what it could do. And to find one operational was pretty cool, because there was very few folks willing to work on them, years later. Of course their downfall was electronics have a "lifetime", so when and if things were going to fail, it was going to be over. And the worst part, was those plastic gears. Lubricants took them down sooner and they were not very far from the drop of oil on every moving part years. The feed dog drop mechanisms had plastic too, so they quit early. The upside is they were electronic genius, and finding one still working 30 years old, was kind of cool.
Riccar, Nesco, JC Penneys, Montgomery Wards, Dressmaker, and many more went from OK, to terrible. So their early models could be pretty nice, but they came out of factories contracted to cut corners, make them look good, and "oh well". By the 70's their tensions were often cheesy, they went from horribly heavy sometimes to poorly cast pot aluminum, their foot pedals were sub-class in terms of hinges, or plastic.... or their cords were thinly insulated and they twisted badly with use (heat). This one below was probably an decent machine. See the "DELUXE" ? That could be a good sign from the early years of pre 70's. Same with the Loan-Ashland below. Solid machine, but if they went on into the crap era (which I don't think these did), then they were crap. And that crap era include Singer, and later some other "bought out" big names.
Riccar, Nesco, JC Penneys, Montgomery Wards, Dressmaker, and many more went from OK, to terrible. So their early models could be pretty nice, but they came out of factories contracted to cut corners, make them look good, and "oh well". By the 70's their tensions were often cheesy, they went from horribly heavy sometimes to poorly cast pot aluminum, their foot pedals were sub-class in terms of hinges, or plastic.... or their cords were thinly insulated and they twisted badly with use (heat). This one below was probably an decent machine. See the "DELUXE" ? That could be a good sign from the early years of pre 70's. Same with the Loan-Ashland below. Solid machine, but if they went on into the crap era (which I don't think these did), then they were crap. And that crap era include Singer, and later some other "bought out" big names.
As designs progressed, or moved into the future from straight stitch to zigzag, to fun inside or outside cams, machines began, also, to use the push button reverse. A new weak link. Some maintained metal parts behind the button (but some were a very weak pot metal), some the new plastics, but either way, reversing the feed dog movement requires some "distant cooperation" (as I call it) and that means things need to stay freely moving all the way down the line, because a hang up on that pathway could pop the "reverse movement" behind the button off it's connections, or simply break something. Since that can be a hit or big miss, be sure to check reverse when you buy a garage sale machine.
These two 70's Singers and as they bled into the eighties were the great decline. They almost all started out, including the Touch n Sew, very good machines. In fact, basically the same as their predecessors. But as quick as the next model, with the near same outside look, the new company was cutting corners; using drive belts and plastic gears like crazy. Under the best of circumstances, some of those gears were only going to live so long, period. And oils sped up their demise.
Morse..... One of my favorites. BUT! Not when the power had to go around a corner. The early Morse were always good and worth a second look. But when they finished this series out with this 90 degree turn, they lost my attention. Before their great fall, these Fotomatics 1, 2, and 3 were great machines. Powerful, well geared, ready for action. Add a primary tension off a home built spool holder, and a big needle and you can tackle mean fabric. Sunbrella, tight weave canvas, even some tear proof material. Well, until you roast the motor, because none of these little motors are build for that kind of work. Good news? Buy more motors, not machines. Trick for this machine and heavy threads is two tensions, otherwise you'll be shredding thread.
