Learning the Brands

I hoped I was on a roll with several nice machines bought, one sold and interest in 2 more. Here's where I stumbled. Since I was thrilled with the Elna (what a find!) I answered another CL ad for an Elna SU 69 Air Electronic. This took quite a bit of research because of its age and apparently some inherent problems with this model. It was also over my price point at $75 but it did include a cabinet. Hubby came along for the first time on this sewing machine adventure I was having and we drove through some pouring rain to get to the far south end of the cities suburbs. By that time we almost felt like we had to buy it! It had been owned by a woman's mother, lovingly cared for, and now they were moving out of state and they were paring down such inheritances. It came with all the original cams, feet, accessories, and the cabinet was good quality wood and in excellent shape:

It has a button to push that releases it to swing up into free arm! It feels very solid, hums along, but has a kind of growling noise. Is this normal? It sews beautifully with so many cams for the special stitches. An oddity that I can't quite get used to is the drop-in bobbin location behind the needle plate. You can't see the opening very well but then I discovered a tiny drop down tool that will pick up the bobbin for you. Way cool. Yet, I kept inadvertently opening up the bobbin cover when my hand would roll over the fabric I was working on. I would have to learn to place my hands further out but, really, is this okay for me? I think I might have made my first sm buying mistake and how it takes up a good deal of real estate in my basement sewing room that I share with all kinds of other storage, including hubbies hunting gear.

It's getting crowded:

You can see the Elna SU in the cabinet on the left, my old Kenmore on the floor, the Viking 1100 on the desk far back and the on the table is the Viking Freesia 415, Elna Top 300, and the Bicor on the end. Yea, I did clean up for these pictures so it is usually worse, much worse.