Shoot-I meant for this to go in the VSMS thread, not here.
Look what I found! Er, what did I find? It's cute, whatever it is! It looks like a mini tension-top, or whatever they're called.
I stopped at the local fruit stand today for muscadines, and had a poke around in the back where the, er, "treasures" are, and found this little beauty. Pardon the bad photo-that's a cell phone shot in the dark back of the room.
It says Plaza, although it looks like the word itself was done differently than the decals, and is wearing off differently than the decals, so I dunno. (It's not pin rash.) It appears to be 3/4 size, and electrified-there's a motor and foot pedal, but no treadle. The decals are in great condition; the cabinet is beat. The mechanism turns grudgingly, but the needle bar does move with it, so I suspect a good oiling would help. As you can see, the front slide plate is missing, and has been replaced with a piece of old, brittle, pale yellow plastic. It's stuck; I couldn't get it off to see if the shuttle is still there or not.
They were asking $100 for it. A: I'm not a fan of vibrating shuttles, B: I don't really have room for it, even without the cabinet. But I'll keep an eye out-if it's still there in November or so, I'll offer them less and see if they're interested.
Does anyone have any info about this kind of machine? My google-fu was singularly unhelpful.