Lessons learned in Ebay purchase, rescuing a featherweight
Thankfully I was able to purchase 2 featherweights for a decent price off ebay, the one was in pretty good shape, very useable, just needing a cleaning. The other one I paid around $150 for and was told it was in working order. I don't care about the dirty, can fix that, but when the machine arrived it had a broken needle, which always raises my eyebrows. needles break for reasons we all realize that, but we looked into it some and found the bobbin case was broken (this was a $50 parts/ not including labor my husband and son did) and the throat plate had some springs or something broken, included in the price of the bobbin case base.
Well, now that those parts are in we put a needle in and slowly.... .put the needle down and another bump of the bobbin case, me thinks at this point there is something wrong with the needle bar height. That appears to be the best place to start, we found a manual on the web on the timing of the featherweight. And this is where we will begin the timing. Thankfully I have a talented husband and son. The machine is cleaned and greased, now we just need to time it.
Larry the guy I purchased it from on ebay gave me a $30 credit on the machine, which I should have asked for more. $120 for a dirty and broken machine isn't such a good purchase. Now I have seen machines in much worst shape going for $150 and i wonder how long it be before the prices come down again. I'll watch and wait.