Originally Posted by Charlee
Nicky, what did you spot "out in the wild" when you were junkin' yesterday? Anything good?
Hi Charlee, thanks for asking. It was frustrating! I went to 6 thrift stores, and at the last one there was a Kenmore 117.282 with case for $25. After finding nothing, that sounded good so I got it. I looked it up from my iPhone and found it was the same vintage as me, 1948 and felt that was a sign. When I got home I set it up and started feeling remorseful, maybe since I could not figure out how to thread it... Anyhow I didn't even plug it in, I took it back for store credit. I think it would have worked, the rubber wheel on the motor turned when I spun the wheel.
I think I will enjoy searching for and buying these antique machines, but it has to be love at first sight, and this was not. There was white powdery stuff on the crinkle finish too, like it was starting to disintegrate in spots and that turned me off.
On the other hand, I am going to check out a few old machines next week that I found on my local Craigslist. I will post pics of them for your opinion. One is a Bartlett portable in a wooden case, the other is a 1910 portable Singer, can't see a case in the pic. There is only one pic of each, but they look pretty good. The gal is out of town, but I called her the other day and she still has them, is asking $50 each. She lives in a neighboring town so it will be a pretty easy road trip next week when she returns.