On Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:44:04 -0400, dan/danl
wrote:

Any
recommendations/tips on a used sewing machine to look for?

If it's painted black and still works, nothing will kill it. If it
doesn't work, pick all the lint out of the innards, clean off the
varnish that used to be lubricant, oil it, put in a new needle, and
try again. (Check that it takes a standard needle.)

There were bad machines built in the black-paint era, but the few
surviving badly-designed machines are in museums, so you aren't likely
to get stuck with one.

Singer sewing machines peaked with the 400 series (beige, if I recall
correctly), tanked for a while (the 600 drove me INSANE), and are said
to be coming back.

Take samples of your favorite fabrics, and samples of fabrics that are
hard to sew (sheer, heavy, slick, fuzzy, stretchy . . .), and try
out the machines. Someone on Creative Machine recently commented
that you should also bring your own thread. (When I worked in a
Singer store, we demonstrated on heavily-starched sheer fabric that
*nothing* could make a bad stitch on. We also used very cheap thread,
because machines had not yet gotten picky about thread.)

I've been using the same machine since 1964, so I don't have a great
deal of shopping experience. Buying at a shop that does repairs is a
good idea.

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at comcast dot net
http://roughsewing.home.comcast.net/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.