Hi Y'all!
I recently discovered that my boyfriend had a Singer 15-96 made in Wittenberg, Germany (C3837882). He thought it was an ugly end-table and abandoned it in a storage closet. I have been reading a lot about these machines while drinking copious amounts of coffee and yipping like a puppy about all the wonderful things I will make with it!
I have never used a treadle before-- while I am excited to experiment with it, I am going to add a motor. I found a machine repair shop spitting-distance from our apartment, so I have taken it there where they assure me it will be cleaned up and the motor added. I live in Budapest and was amazed this all came together so quickly! I want to try some free motion quilting and read a nice guide about working on these machines:
here.
My lingering questions: This is a 15-96, the -90 &-91 seem to be more popular for free motion quilting?
Any one else have good luck free motion quilting on a 15-96? The ISMACS website says about this model:
"1 o'clock" bobbin case finger. Spoked balance wheel. Dogs do not drop." Good? Bad?
I will have to figure out how to remove, plate or disable the feed-dogs. Other than altering the feed dogs, are there other considerations I should account for? I tried to ask the repair shop, but the language barrier was an issue-- "feed dogs" doesn't translate. 
She's just a plain black beauty, none of the lovely decorative touches of some of the other amazing machines I've seen in this forum. But I am excited to bring this workhorse out of retirement! Any suggestions are appreciated!