Hello Olive! I'm here in the Seattle area, I'm actually rather near the Seahawks facility so a bit south east. Welcome to the boards, no matter what section you post in most
A number of years ago I would get nice post-war Japanese all metal machines and clean them up, buy a part, do what was needed and had a charity that connected them with refugees and immigrants. I'm not all that mechanical but the machines I selected didn't need much more than a cleaning.
For most of the last 30 years I've been sewing on a vintage Remington that originally belonged to a friend's grandmother. I'm 59 and it is older than me, but when my once top of the line machine (the last year with cams before they went to computers) broke, the part that broke was not covered and I tried for years to have it fixed, so I started using "Remy". About a year ago now a friend of mine gave me her replaced modern Bernina and I have been trying to come into this century.