Yard Sale Machine-Mistake?
 

Well, I am tired of traveling with my old warhorse of a machine that weighs a ton
and only sews straight...but purrs like a kitten.. Nikki.
So, at a yard sale I bought for $20. a Singer Futura 925, well, no attachments,
and I thought that's okay...then I tried to sew, I can't wind the bobbin in the
machine and I can't pick up the thread from the bottom. The release lever, pops
back off every time I try and wind the bobbin..Did I make a mistake, is this
going to cost me a fortune to fix? Any suggestions?

I have learned to not rely on the seller's statements - I want to see for myself if a machine works before I take it home!

You can probably guess why this is so!

Most repair places charge about $100 to look at a machine. I don't know what the value of that machine is but I would guess it is not worth fixing.

I don't know anything about this machine, like what is worth in good working order. I do know it will cost me $85 just to take my machine in for a good cleaning and check over. I have bought several good machines at Yard sales but have always tried before I buy. I sit down with it, check bobbin area, winder, all nobs move, cords, are the frayed or look like they were replaced, look every where before I turn it on, than check stiches, dog feed's-up an down, reverse, needle adjustments, everything I can think of that I might use. If the seller says I can't for what ever reason, like no power into yard, I pass on the great buy. In the past I have been stung big time.

I don't know about this machine. Is it a newer one? Or vintage? I am thinking joining the following Yahoo! group might be helpful:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/singermachines/
as it does list Futura as one of the models in its description. Chances are good these are easy fixes once you know what to do, so I wouldn't give up on the machine yet.

Hippie girl
 

My hippie girl neighbors had a yard sale and there was a pretty good looking Singer..probably 60s or 70s and they were asking $5 for it so I assumed it was a piece of junk. They said it worked perfectly so I figured what the heck and bought it but as soon as I handed them the money they remembered it didn't work...oh well. I took it home and it was not working so I googled the problem and it showed a diagram of screw A and said to loosen it so I did. It also had a bad bobbin. Cleaned it up...works great and I love it! I can use it on my table for larger projects plus it runs faster than my cabinet one. Try Google!

Crappy people are everywhere. Seems I relearn this frequently. Hope you figure it out inexpensively & have a gem!

If you don't get any help from Google you could take it to a repair place & get estimate for a check-up & repairs. Most reliable repair places will happily do this for you. If it's not worth fixing then thankfully you are only out $20. 00.
To me it sounds like someone was pretty harsh with it. Did it come with the user manual that might give you some insight to where to start. Good luck!!

I sure hope you can get it fixed. I have bought machines at yard sales and donated them (to a quilt guild or a needly friend, etc.), but I always plugged them in first and tried them out. There are good deals out there because many times what seems "broken" to the seller isn't broken at all, but just needs adjusted (like tension) or the seller simply doesn't know how to use the machine. Good luck to you!

This is why when I have a garage sale later this month I am setting up all 3 machines I am selling and people can use them before they buy and I will be sewing a quilt together on one while the sale is going on.