My wife and I purchased a Singer 500 Slant-0-Matic in 1961 and the machine has never gone into a shop. After purchase a Singer repairman came to our home and showed my wife how to take the machine down and do the maintenance herself. He had her do all of the work herself. He stated that it did not need to go into the shop unless it had a problem she could not now fix. The machine has been used heavily and home maintence done regularly for over 50 years. She also does maintenance on her own Featherweight when ever the sound changes. I maintain my mechanical machines and the newer Janome's go to the shop when they have problems. They never come back better than when they went in, but the problems are sometimes fixed on the first try.