ArchaicArcane

I think it's completely market dependent. The 222s for instance are not common in the US and go for huge dollars. I got mine for under $300 and I know 2 people personally who got theirs for $150 or less. I've picked up 2 221s for $75 an $95 each. All 3 needed work though. One the pedal was way out of adjustment - she started moving and groaning as soon as I plugged her in. The other had what seemed like a half a spool of thread behind the bobbin base and the 222 had the timing out and the finger misplaced and the bobbin case assembled wrong and was well on her way to seizing. The market here dictates that a 221 (unless one of the collectible variants - Centennial or other badge, white, tan, etc) won't go for more than $300 regardless of condition or accessories.

I've only ever seen one maybe 2 RedEyes here. I don't know if we didn't get them or what but 15s, 99s, VS machines and 201s are all way more prevalent. I've only had 1 66 here period. It was a Centennial Godzilla machine.

Cogito

You can come and stay as long as you want as long as you bring sunshine and warm weather with you!....oh sure you would qualify it with that lol!! We have had subzero temps for two weeks! Today it was actually 30's but that only lasts for three days or so. Guess I will have to visit in July!

ArchaicArcane

Well we had a deep freeze not too long ago too and the temps came back up to about freezing which of course is when the freezing rain hit. I know how Bambi felt his first time on ice! Holy cow, It's been a couple of years since my last swan dive,... I didn't miss it. Summer's the only time to visit this place! This July we were hitting around 100F. I remember because I was roofing at the time.

J Miller

Sorry about my last post here yesterday. At least the way I worded it. I was in a cranky mood.

Sometimes I cannot phrase what I want to say so that others can comprehend it without confusion or misunderstanding.
Electrical stuff is one of those subjects.


Joe

zozee

Thank you all for your input on FW prices and way more electrical advice and expertise than I can wrap my head around.

I live in Maryland, for those wondering about the market around me. For $350 all of my expectations would have to be met:
-beautiful cosmetically
-recently serviced
-decent or very nice case
-new wiring.

Joe, with all due respect, if I felt a buzz, I would not dare just turn it around in the wall. I'd scream and call 911. Well, that could be an exaggeration, but I would scream for my husband to save me.

Everyone has something they're afraid of. For me it's electricity. A friend's son (who was my son's age, and who was a student of mine in 4th grade) Killed at age 19---electrocuted--as an apprentice working for the power company. Another friend's son was killed by lighting on a playground at age 11. I have witnessed a man recovering from severe burns and loss of hearing as an electrician who'd been elevtructed. I have been zapped and hurt by a faulty lamp that scared the crap out of me. Call me a chicken. I am. Tell me I could do simple foot pedal wiring myself, I'd believe I could(I have the intelligence and dexterity) but the fear is more like a phobia. It is nearly paralyzing. Irrational to those who are comfortable around wires or respect electricity and know what the're doing.. For me the fear of sparking wires, heart attack, burns, etc, may be ridiculous but it's the way I am and comes from seeing tremendous suffering.

So for 350 I want a machine that needs nothing except to be plugged in. I want to see that it has a recent verifiable inspection by a professional. Or else I will pay much less and take it to a sewing machine repair place. Nothing in between. I will not attempt a DIY on anything electrical. I don't even want to learn because of my fear. I will gladly accept the "charges"--haha--to have someone else take the risk.

I know I stand in the arena to be mocked and ridiculed for my phobia. It's okay. Like I said, we all have something we're afraid of.

jlhmnj

Wouldn't do any harm to have an electrician or someone electrically familiar to look it over. Just like buying a used car.

Jon

ArchaicArcane

zozee, I will not mock you. If there's anything on a sewing machine to be afraid of, it's the electrical portion of it. It's the only part of a sewing machine that can kill you. That's not irrational.

I'm sorry you have seen such tragedy involving electricity. It's an unfortunate side effect of what happens when we try to harness Mother Nature's power. In some cases, we don't have mess up, we just have to be in the area when something goes wrong.

I learned the wrong way; was burned but lived to learn the right way. Sometimes, when I get "cocky" about my abilities, I get smacked (gently so far!) to remind me. 3 times I've gotten it but "only" really bad shocks. One of them, I had to lay down for a while and the floor beside me was sufficient as far as I was concerned. I hurt for 3 days after that one and I consider myself lucky. I felt the disturbance to my heart and shook for hours afterward - not from fear but from the hit I took. OK, maybe there was a little fear after the fact.

To be honest, way too many people DIY electrical. Probably half the home owners I know have done it, and probably 60% of those people I'd trust to do it right. I suspect it's a big source for home fires but no one admits it when they did it. I admitted above that I've wired in this house, what I didn't say is that a lot of my work was later (a couple years later) checked by the electrician who did our garage. He was impressed at how neat it was and said it all looked fine. The mess I found when I added lights to the studio last year had me rewiring most of that room because there was a ton of wiring that I couldn't explain and when I found one of the three boxes was hot with the breaker to the circuit turned off, I made the wiring make sense. It might explain why there were boxes in the ceiling and wiring finished but no fixtures. Whoever'd done the work had done it wrong, possibly couldn't figure out what they'd done wrong, and left the wires without adding fixtures (essentially creating 3 junction boxes) and put up the acoustic tiles to hide it. That was a long discussion with my cousin where I told her I wanted to abandon X line, and reroute to Y and then possibly join W to Z. She asked me why I'd called if I knew what I needed to do. Moral support I guess. The job I corrected was a DIY job gone wrong. Am I a better electrician than that person was? No, I am DIYing too but I must have had a different take on the job that was done.

We have specialists for a reason. I used to tell the computer nerds I worked with and the ones who later worked under me that if everyone could or wanted to do what we did, we wouldn't have a job. When they scoffed at what people couldn't do, I asked them - "Could you do their job??" That usually stopped the scoffing.

Now, that all being said - I don't know how many featherweights you're going to find with NEW wiring but that doesn't preclude them from being safe. Truth be told, few of us will rewire a machine that's not manifesting problems - especially some of the Singer lights. I can post pics of the wiring in a featherweight, all except the motor because it's off being painted at the moment to show you how simple but bothersome the wiring is. The machine I'd use is the machine I have disassembled and at the body shop at the moment. There are probably 7lbs of metal shafts, gears and other bits here, and maybe 14" of wire.

Someone like Keeler Sales may rewire when they completely tear down the featherweights for painting, it might be worth asking them but as soon as a tear down happens - expect to pay more than double your budget for that machine.

Here's my math: In my area $250 for a machine, $250 - $300 to paint it and 2 full days to tear it down then rebuild it and adjust it after it's painted. You can bet the people doing this to sell the machines are definitely putting a value on that time. I turned down a job to tear down and rebuild a machine for painting because I knew that there was no way the person was going to pay the $300 plus I think that job is worth.