I agree with Emmah. Pick up a vintage machine at a thrift store, estate sale, Kijiji or Craig's List as your back up machine. My Singer 201 is a powerhouse and was free to a good home. My Featherweight was at a garage sale for $45 and my newest Husqvarna #1+ bought on Kijiji (orginally sold for $3600) was $200. All of these machines stitch better than my Janome 6500 which I have had a love/hate relationship with and cost me $2000 Canadian. I'm sure that they made my Janome at 10 to 5 on a Friday before the long weekend. It has had its problems but I now have it's issues straightened out. The biggest one was finding out (not in the manuel) that there is an oil wick under the bobbin case that may dry out and make a huge racket and cause the bobbin case to rattle and growl and jump out of place. I had to find out about that one on the Janome 6500/6600 forum on line because my dealer kept telling me that it was "operator error" that was causing all of my bobbin case troubles. I'd advise you to join that forum and read up about your Janome 6500. I hope you get a wonderful machine.