Is there no one in your family of among your friends that has an old machine kicking around that might suit you? Whenever someone at work sees me eyeing machines on a computer I seem to get lot of "hey my mother (or grand mother) has one of those" which is often followed by "I don't think she uses it anymore". Often times these machines are in good working order and only need a superficial clean up and oiling. Keep looking, something will come up.
Don't let life get in the way of living.
I agree 110% with gmcttr's comments about shipping sewing machines. If it were local to you, I'd recommend grabbing it - which I think was your real question.
IMO you can hardly go wrong with any of the 1950s and 1960s European machines - Necchi, Pfaff, Bernina, Elna, Viking/Husqvarna (not the Eatons Canada Vikings!) - if the price is right and you can justify the purchase on the basis of 'it would be fun to get this running again'.
Some "Vikings" were made in Germany. Avoid them like the plague. Parts are completely unavailable for them. They were only made for a few years at most and once they were discontinued the parts disappeared. We had to get ours fixed a year or so after we bought it. It was still under warranty and they had to search internationally for the part we needed. It's a nice machine (It's mine now) but it will soon need to be replaced because nobody can/will work on it.
I may be slow... But I sure am gimpy.
"Bless you child, when you set out to thread a needle don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it; that's the way a woman most always does, but a man always does t'other way."
Mrs. Loftus to Huck Finn
We Don't Sew... We Make Gear! video series
Important thread injector guidelines especially for Newbies
Bobbin Tension - A Personal Viewpoint
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