I only have a hand-cranked 3/4 sized VS, and it is a beauty to behold (looks like this - it's a German Vesta VS III re-badged for the Australian market).
I'll be the first to admit that it sews beautifully, and when it doesn't seize up from the garage flooding it has a very smooth movement. But because I prefer rotary treadles (for ease of buying bobbins and such), it really is more of a conversation piece than for serious use.
(My usual workhorse is a treadle Singer 201k simply because of parts availability - if I break it, it is cheap to fix (and I have a weird aluminium 201 to use if I really break it), but there is a Lada in the garage that, frankly, has a much nicer treadle - I think it's the smaller flywheel - but replacement parts are a bit of a guessing game.)
The really sad thing, is that I actually have made back most of my money from buying my sewing machines, simply by selling on parts and accessories I couldn't use or, I if had multiple attachments.
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I'll be the first to admit that it sews beautifully, and when it doesn't seize up from the garage flooding it has a very smooth movement. But because I prefer rotary treadles (for ease of buying bobbins and such), it really is more of a conversation piece than for serious use.
(My usual workhorse is a treadle Singer 201k simply because of parts availability - if I break it, it is cheap to fix (and I have a weird aluminium 201 to use if I really break it), but there is a Lada in the garage that, frankly, has a much nicer treadle - I think it's the smaller flywheel - but replacement parts are a bit of a guessing game.)
The really sad thing, is that I actually have made back most of my money from buying my sewing machines, simply by selling on parts and accessories I couldn't use or, I if had multiple attachments.