SherylM

NOS means "new old stock". It's a machine that's been sitting in the box, unopened and unused, since it was made.

Sewnoma

Wow, I wonder where they found that!
I also wonder at the $100+ for shipping...it's already boxed up! Just needs an outer box and it's all set; the hard part's already done.

I love Kenmores, but I agree...left-homing is a big turn off in a machine you want to actually use. Would be neat to have a brand-new one, though...nice to have brand-new accessories and such for it.

path49

I guess since I was signed in on ebay, it calculated shipping for my zipcode....'cause I'm seeing $40.85 for priority shipping. But you're right....the hard part's done. Anyway since it's still in the original Styrofoam, it should arrive in good shape.

Freaky_Quilts_Dragon

I find new old stock items fascinating. How so many shops just put things in the back and they get forgotten, often changing hands but still just don't nothing, until somebody comes along and goes 'hey, I wonder if anybody wants this?'

It kinda reminds me of how technologies get forgotten and rediscovered throughout history. The ancient Greeks had very accurate and precise gear-driven clocks, but then the knowledge was lost in Europe until the middle ages.

Littledreamdevil

I learn so much just reading every day on here...I had no idea what Left homing or "new old stock". Now I do ...getting a education in my old age....thank you

ann31039

Nice, but I'm not into left homing either. It's very annoying. I had to use my grandmothers Nelco last year and it's left homing self. For some reason, ALL my other machines lost their minds and would not cooperate. That one was the only one that would work, I guess she was jealous or something. Now I have backups for my backups.

mamagrande

Well, old dogs can learn something new...Now I know what left homing is. Thanks because now I would look out for that, not that I am in search of another machine..

NopahDesertRat

I have had mine since about 1976. I have sewn a lot of clothing and a few quilts on it. Yes it is left homing and the biggest disadvantage I see with that is you can't always find presser feet that fit. Mine has all of the feet that came with it and the monogramer and buttonholer.
It still stitches just great. I accidently bought another one exactly like it, but it had been neglected and it took me a while to get it cleaned up, now it sews fine too. By accidently, I mean that I bought what I knew was a Kenmore in a cabinet, without looking at it well. When I got it home my daughter asked me why I had bought one just like I already had. I got a good look and it was the same model, but I was happy with the purchase.

Ethel

path49

One other disadvantage I can think of is if you want to use a twin needle, you have to buy the kind that has the shaft on the left side (instead of centered between the needles)....not easy to find. You can find the Kenmore brand ones that are made like that on ebay occasionally but I think they only came in one size & width....can't use Schmetz where you've got a choice of a lot of different sizes.

SherylM

I have three Kenmores with the super high shank feet - two of them are left homing. I like the way the feet go on and off the machine.

The first one I got was my 1703. I found it at a Salvation Army and it only had the case, the foot controller, and a Q foot with it. After scouring eBay and the rest of the internet I managed to find all of the attachments that originally came with it, and actually ended up with multiples of some of the feet (which is fine, since I now have three machines that use them.)

You can buy an adapter for the super high shank machines that will enable you to use low shank and low shank snap-on feet. http://sewingmachine221sale.bizland....e/page106.html

I've seen them for sale on many web sites, but this site is the only one that I've seen that sells spacers too (about the middle of the page) - "Spacer kit #4 is used for machines that sew a straight stitch in the left needle position.
These spacers are positioned on the inside of the mounting portion of the presser foot there-by moving the toe of the foot to the center."

I've been tempted to buy one of the adapters and the spacer kit, but I have twelve machines so don't really have a need to make my super high shank machines take low shank feet. I still might do it someday though, just so that I *can* use my low shank feet on them, if I decide I want to.