Thanks to you all
 

I have bought some machines at thrift stores and fixed them up. Several I have donated. I am glad that I am not the only one that rescues old machines. When I see one I always think that some lady has loved this machine and her kids/husband has tossed it. Thank you for all of your encouraging words and letting me know that I am not alone.

I love my old machines and have way toooo many but I hate to think of them just getting tossed away. I enjoy cleaning and oiling and then seeing what they can do...I have learned so much from Billy, Charlee, Joe, Muv, and I can't even name all they people here on this board that have encouraged me......so welcome and enjoy the journey!

It's fun to work on an old machine! The worst one I've ever found was a Belvedere Adler 950-B, coated with nicotine several decades old. It was in a solid walnut table table someone had coated with thick, thick paint. If they had only washed the dang thing before they painted it, it would have saved them a lot of paint! LOL I used a citrus stripper to remove the paint and the smell of nicotine overpowered the citrus stripper! Yuck!

It's now restored and lives in my sewing room. It makes beautiful stitches.

I have a couple of machines, and when I sew on an oldie it amazes me.. The stitches are perfect, and it purrs like a kitten. I use a 1926 for almost everything. She only goes forward, but I've learned to compensate. I treat her well, and she has a very nice work ethic, and she appreciates the my care.. I gess you would call it a symbiotic relationship..

I have numerous machines and am always on the lookout for more. My biggest treasure is an old singer in a lovely cabinet which sews beautifully. It was going to the dump if not sold. Hopefully someone at the dump would not have trashed it.

I can't stand the thought of an old machine being scrapped. I have too many now, and just passed one up at a flea market on Sat. I kept thinking about it so went back on Sun. but the vendor wasn't there. Maybe I will find it again next week.

I do the same thing - can't stand to see one just sitting gathering dust. I also get a thrill out of giving a machine to someone who needs one or wants one to learn on. Ditto on the great advice I've gotten from board members.

I have been biten with the vintage machine bug as well. It is hard to see these "ladies" and not consider the works they have already created in their time. But just because they have age on them and not the newest bells and whistles doesn't make them useless. I'd rather sew on any of them, than my newest machine. But don't tell DH, or he'd want me to sell THAT one. :D

Hehehe this board is really what hooked me. I see inexpensive machines all the time and a lot of times there are very minor problems with them...or major problems and I still have to take them home! I am the same way, I think of the woman who owned it first and how she would want it to be restored and loved! Even if it's not the most valuable machine...