Necchi BU Miranda (1959)

Can anyone make any sense out of these names?
Anyhow found this near perfect condition Miranda with an excellent condition case, manual, and  accessories.

Absolutely filthy with oil varnish, so it required the full disassembly, soaking in SuperClean, and brushing with PineSol.
I have this whole operation down to 5 or 6 hours.

The SuperClean is perfect for chromed and unpainted parts; it will remove paint and etch aluminum! From experience I know this; the chrome parts need nothing but rinsing off.

For the all the painted parts I went with PineSol; couple of sprays, wait five minutes and scrub with a very soft scrub pad. To return the shine I like to use TR3.

Original case with logo on the front.

The thing with Necchi is the ultra smooth as silk running, this is exactly like my Nora, with a twist of the hand wheel it spins silently.

Singer 15-91 (1951)

Thru the great kindness of my cousin I was bequeathed this beautiful Centenial that was my Aunt's.

I doubt it has seen the light of day since Aunt Darlene passed in 1979.

It needed the whole "remove all the shiny bits" treatment, and came out pretty nice

Pfaff 260 (1960)

The problem with the 200 and 300 series is that they are so smooth and quiet that even though this one is an aesthetic disaster it functions beautifully and had to be saved.

One of the reasons I like going thru these old machines is just how much I learn about the dozens of ways things can and do go wrong.

The machine had a little "slow" spot when you turned the hand wheel and in reverse that spot really hung up.
I left the hook assembly until last, thinking that the slow spot was in the main gear. It turned out that (under closer inspection) the bobbin case was from a different machine! Almost identical except for one detail, I ground down the offending difference and all is fine.

I am completely sold on rotary hook machines and although the Bernina 830 is not you won't find many other systems work better.

The worse cosmetic feature is the large paint chip on the top cover. Otherwise I'll be making a base for it soon

Bernina 830 Record Electronic (1979)

So now I know...

What all the fuss is about...

What a beautiful machine, smooth, quiet, has everything you need and a little more.
I am very lucky; this one was kept out of the sunlight and so has no yellowing.

The precision is amazing. It is in the Que for the next shoe

The Hall of Fame

It did not come with the knee lift so this is what I came up with.

The diameter is just under 1/4" so I turned the end of a 1/4" steel tube down on the lathe.

It has a 1/16" pin thru the end

Amazing to have a domestic machine with a knee lift!

Sooo I now have the infamous "full speed only" foot pedal😒
Have to figure out what to do... I think I'm going to try a conventional controller?
04.08.17
Turns out  we have a top notch Bernina Technician in our corner of Michigan.
The Technician at Fabric Affair gave me excellent advise and got the system running with the suggestion of replacing the brushes in the motor as a 1st order of business. So between him adjusting the sensitivity on the pedal and my replacing the brushes the machine is fully functional although it still has little bits of hesitation during start up.