If you have an opportunity to go to one of the larger quilt shows (there are others around the country besides Houston and Paducah--check to see which ones might be reasonable for you to travel to) you can visit with the representatives of the companies that make basically all the machines known to humankind. I have a Juki 98Q that fits into a Gracie frame, though I don't have the frame. I already had the Juki and almost bought the frame but then didn't--I don't really have anyplace to keep something large like this set up. But I was able to practice with the whole assembly, which included a stitch regulator that worked with this system. You can buy these Juki machines (mine is the 98Q, there is the 2010, and a whole additional series of Jukis that I think would also work with this system), The frame of course can't handle anything with a deeper throat that those Jukls, which is about 9 inches, but all in all it looked like it worked very well. You can buy the Juki machines of this type (straight stitch and reverse only, no zigzag, but powerhouses) used very often, frequently for $500 or so. If you do very large quilts, queens or kings for example, this this setup might not be for you but it looked sweet to me. But in general I'd try to make a trip to a quilt show where all the different makes of machines are there and eager to sell one of their machines to you. All of them will let you try the various models out for hours if you want to before you buy.