I have a lot of old machines I love. Singers are most common. There are some nice, simple, mechanical non plastic camstack old Japanese machines on either one I like the cams. If you get lucky you can find an old European machine. They are harder to work on than the Japanese or Singer machines. Stay away from plastic wonders - computerized or not. I do like the older Kenmore machines. A good 1980's Kenmore 6, 8, 10 or 12 stitchers are usually good and not too pricy at this point. They are plastic but don't have a lot,of issues. The more complicated the less I like them. Kenmore's with bigger numbers are nice but I've had issues with reverse sticking.