Originally Posted by
juneayerza
And are parts available for these old machines such as needles and shuttle cock bobbins
Um, not shuttle cock, long bobbin (the former is the thing you hit in badminton). If your old machine is a Singer it'll probably take standard needles (15x1) unless it's pre-1890-ish. The Singer 12 was the last normal domestic to use a different needle (except for the 206 range of machines). Old vibrating shuttle Jones machines also use a different needle (and they're a little thin on the ground these days).
There are usually quite a number of Singer 28 hand cranks around. They are very standard everything and easy to get parts for. They made millions of them (literally) and they are less collectable than other models (they're 3/4 size) so they're also normally cheap. Oh, and because they're nearly always portables, they're also usually in excellent condition.