janeite

If anyone is looking for a 201, here is a cheap one located in Lexington KY:

http://lexington.craigslist.org/hsh/3222945522.html

jlm5419

NOt a bad deal. The power cord is easily replaceable, and the price is right. The stool may contain attachments.

J Miller

My wife says she went to school or church with a Gregg Pence. Wonder if it's the same guy?

I already have a 201-2 in a cabinet, but if we were closer I'd go for it. Just to see what's in the stool.

Joe

Vintage.Singers.NYC

Avoid this machine at all costs, unless you're looking to do a complete motor re-wiring. As you can see in the first photo, the wiring insulation has melted away and dripped all over the gold badge (once melted, it runs in that direction when the machine is horizontal and stored in a cabinet), producing the black streaks you see. That means there is bare metal wiring in the machine and the inside of the terminal block is likely a gloopy mess of melted wiring, I've seen this on three different machines in person. Cleaning the black gunk off of the exteriors alone took me literally weeks.

If you're handy and willing to tackle the motor re-wiring, it's possible you'll be able (after much work) to bring the motor back to life.

Janis

I hadn't looked at the machine that close, but looked again. Boy!!! What one can learn on the vintage site!! Thanks for noting about the motor. Something to look out for.

Vintage.Singers.NYC

The other thing I should have mentioned: The wiring insulation typically doesn't melt on its own, unless it's been sitting in a shed in Arizona. What I've found on the three machines I acquired that had these dreaded black streaks is that all of them had been over-oiled, and in one case actually had oil dumped directly into the brush tubes. Needless to say that's bad news

When someone over-oils a machine, that oil can get onto the wiring insulation, and over time the combination melts the wiring insulation and makes a real mess.

Now I know that when I see the black streaks, the machine's motor in particular may have been ruined due to someone improperly oiling it.

janeite

Rain, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't look closely at the pictures. No wonder the cord is not included. lol.

This reminds me of when I went to look at a 401 for sale with my friend. Mysteriously they didn't have a needle or bobbin or thread for us to try it, but they swore it worked. My friend wouldn't buy it without trying it, so we ended up convincing them to knock on a neighbors door to see if they could borrow this stuff. We finally got to try it, but it wasn't working correctly. She ended up buying it because they went down on the price. We had to place my 401 beside hers and look at it part by part. Someone had taken it apart and put it back together all kinds of wrong ways. We fixed it, and it ended up being a fun day : )

I've always wanted to learn to rewire a machine, but will be passing on this one. A relative has got a 201 waiting for me in another state. : )