The Singer Golden Touch and Sew can be inexpensive at thrift stores and isn't really heavy, heavy, but still enough. Mine was given to me, but we still don't have a 4-pin plug or controller for it yet. I have given these machines a jaundiced eye until reading the manual and seeing it is a pretty neat machine. Maybe I was wrong, even if it does have plastic gears. I saw some gear sets on sale on Ebay that would work on it, if ever needed. Right now we really need a wiring diagram to make a wire to try it. I'm dying to find out what it can do as far as chain stitching.