I had one of these I re-homed last year after servicing it. My sister's MIL bought it at a garage sale, thinking my sister's plastic Singer would fit in the cabinet. Of course a modern machine is not designed to mount in a cabinet and hang sideways. So, it sat in her garage, so she gave it to me! It was a tank and really purred along once it got cleaned and lubed. It runs by a drive wheel that sits against the hand wheel. These are replacable as so many that have sat for awhile have flat spots on the drive wheel from sitting against the hand wheel for a LONG time. You can avoid this by sticking a pencil between them to hold the drive wheel off the hand wheel. PM me if you need a manual, I have it in .pdf format.
Kenmore models that start with 117.xxx were made by White, so they can interchange parts with White Rotary models. They take standard 15x1 needles, I use Schmetz. The bobbin case can be hard to find as they are no longer made. The 959 I had actually came with 2 bobbin cases; I sold the extra for $30 on ebay and the serviced machine for $35. Looks for ones advertised for White Rotary, it will look like this:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]429925[/ATTACH]
Last edited by Skyangel; 08-12-2013 at 02:42 PM.