Originally Posted by AlZilla

I've seen that sort of lift mechanism on a couple of old New Home machines from around the turn of the last century. They both used leather straps. The strap runs from the top, across to the wheel and on down to a metal arm that extends back from the wooden platform the machine sits in.

"Back" when the machine head is up and pointed at the floor when the machine head is down. The metal arm is mounted underneath the wooden platform and centered, side to side. The machine heads on mine are screwed to the wooden platform, otherwise they'd flip out and down when the top is closed.

EDIT: My first one arrived with the strap missing and I couldn't for the life of me figure out how it was supposed to stay up. It has a small, non-obvious roller at the back that I just wasn't seeing. I left it open in the workshop for weeks and glanced at it whenever I walked past. FINALLY, I spotted that little roller and it all made sense.

That's a gorgeous cabinet, by the way. Any indication what brand machine lived in it?