I LOVE my 1941 Singer. It's a black cast-iron model and was born before bells and whistles were ever thought of... it straight stitches, period. My two newer machines (a Singer and a Brother) have annoying problems when I use them and it seems like I'm always having to adjust something or start a seam over because of a problem, etc. But not with the old Singer! If something goes wrong with her, I rethread and put the bobbin back in, since I messed it up somewhere. Her only problem is that she won't make bobbins any more....which started the month that Side Winders came out. End of problem!