Originally Posted by
Mickey2
Your machine looks flawless in the picture, absolutely lovely. I like the 99, it's a nice model, sews just about anyting with ease. Some find it noisy, but my experience is it quiets down with cleaning, oiling and replacing missing felt and rubbber under the machine base and cabinet legs. I have a beige 201K23 in exactly the same cabinet, but the top is very stained and the lacquer is almost gone.
The only thing about the 99 is you have to be careful when taking out the bobbin case and not be tempted to loosen the screw right in center there. If you do all parts under the bobbin case will start to slide around and you have to spend quite some time to get it back into place. If it's not adjusted correctly it will either be unnecessarily noisy or tension will be off (not room for the thread to pass). I just had to mention it, because it's a classic when it comes to this model.
Thanks for the advise regarding the bobbin case. I had read that in a couple of places so I left it be.
The machine is in amazing shape, a few scratches and chips but nothing that distracts from the machine. I love the lines of these machines, just so classic looking. The top of the cabinet when closed has some wear and tear, water stains, paint (why people paint around furniture is beyond me), and some spotty lacquer. When it is open as in the picture it almost looks new. The Howards really helped. When I saw this with the cabinet, I jumped on it. I like my sewing machines level with my work surface so all my machines are in cabinets except for the Featherweight but I have the card table for that.