Hmm. It started when my wife inherited her mother's 301. I got it going (oil, fiddling), learned basically how they work, took note of how beautufully and conscientiously made it was, and went on to other things. (I am always doing something.) A year or so later, my wife brought home a battered, half-stuck Featherweight. She found it sitting in a junk store, thought it was adorable (which it was), and plunked it on the table. This time, I basically took it all apart, replaced a few part (the extension was smashed), and put it back together. It ran, and runs, beautifully, When I found Ismac, I discovered it is a 1941 model. We now have a '48 as well in which someone had misinstalled some bobbin parts, then given up on it. It's virtually new.
After that, I started fixing up black Singers right left and center. My wife was a little dismayed at the number of them, particularly when treadlers in full cabinets started showing up. Then I got into Whites, then I found an old vs in a cabinet (a "Queen"): completely redid it, works beautifully. Then my wife asked for a Swedish machine, so I fixed up a few of those. Recently I've been doing those kookie Japanese rigs with the '58 Buick aesthetics. I have such love of their stylistic whimsy and goofy names, and respect how beautifully they are made (nickle-plated underparts, fer cryin' out loud!).
I don't - can't afford as a retired teacher to - buy anything fancy, and I'm not a big shopper, so I just fix whatever pedestrian stuff comes my way. They are all beautiful, prior to 1965 or so. I actually like it when they are a "hard fix." That's where the fun is: bringing something defunct back to useful life. I try to get them all working perfectly, quietly, efficiently. That way, I stand a chance of convincing my wife that it is not an indication of madness when another vagabond shows up, as it inevitably will.
Right now, I'm finishing up a blue-grey Morse 4100, an early foto-matic, and am starting on a cb-n Model 12 Husqvarna. I have my eye on an old handcranker. If you run into my better half, mum's the word.
Last edited by Brass Head; 12-28-2017 at 03:40 AM.