and they are fast...
I HATE, Loathe and Despise the new 'features' of today's machines that go soooooooooooooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooow...
You can even get a treadle going faster than some of these new machines..
for instance, my Singer XL1000 supposedly sews at something like 1600 spm - but thats' doing embroidery, and forget reverse sewing - stitch..........stitch......... stitch...
so I use the 301s or 319 or, or...
speaking of simple to repair, I just got a 'klunker' from Billy and used it and another broken FW that I got for $25 - put the two together and came up with a working machine!!
I've worked on my old Singers all along but this is the first time I've actually repaired a machine .... fun