KenmoreGal2

My friend told me yesterday that she has a treadle machine in her garage. It was her step mothers, purchased it at an antique store. My friend knows nothing about treadles or old machines and has never tried to use it.

I'm a newbie with old machines but I'm fairly competent with my 1950's Kenmores so I offered to help. My friend lives over an hour away so today she will Skype me with the machine in front of her. Please tell me what info I should gather so we can evaluate this machine. She wants to either sell it or give it to me if I want it, but I'm not sure I want it. I have very little room in my house and if it's a machine that needs obsolete parts, I don't want it. It's also possible the machine is missing so many parts that it's not valuable at all. IDK.

The only thing I can think to have her do is try to turn the handwheel and see what happens. I'm sure there is more. Where are the model numbers on these old machines? Is the bobbin assembly somewhat similar to modern ones so I can see if it's all there? She does sew, so maybe she can thread it and try a stitch. I have no idea what condition or brand of machine we are talking about.

I'm going to visit her in Feb and if the machine is worth the time, I'll bring along my oil, grease, screwdrivers etc and see if I can get it going. But today, I don't even know what to look for.

Thanks in advance. If I can get her to take some pics, I'll post them. Otherwise I'll report back with what we find.