Some of those old Japanese machines turn better than the old Singers. Singer had a better reputation at the time. I think there was a lot of prejudice against Japan because of the war. Any you might look to see if any of your Singer machines were made in Japan. I'm not sure about the 293 - I will look at it some more today. Last night I pulled pics off my archives to post. Somewhere think I had a pic of a pretty pink Brother zz machine.