Necchi Supernova BU x2....

I have a good excuse this time but I'm not telling you until later.

I've been getting a lot of questions lately about vintage machines and my recommendations.  Somehow I keep coming back to the same machine and it's simply because it's the most versatile vintage machine I've found.
The Necchi Supernova BU.  If you've been following since the beginning you might recall I sold a Supernova Automatica (pictured at right) and you may have wondered why.  Honestly I've been asking myself the same question lately.  Then I remember it had a few issues, a vibration at a certain speed, cord that was designed to be in a cabinet, and a habit of slowly changing stitch length while you sewed.  The Supernova BU had none of these issues even though they were essentially almost the same machine.

During my (ashamed to admit) daily craigslist scouring I noticed a listing for a BU about 30 minutes from me for $100 that included the cabinet.
I emailed the seller and she said it was missing it's famously complete two layer accessory box. (pictured at right)  I also noticed by the photos that it had an after market foot controller.  In a way this machine had three things going against it.  The cabinet that would prevent shipping and require a vehicle big enough to pick it up.  The missing accessory box can cost up to $75 to replace, and the foot controller not being original.  Since I can't fit my legs under the cabinet I'll be getting rid of it and using the machine on my work table.  I already own a complete accessory box, and I happen to not like the original Necchi controller (pictured at right).  Who decided it would be a good idea to make you push this little black button to control the machine?  It's also very uncomfortable to use without shoes on.  The point is that I talked her down to $50 and we made the deal.

Every old machine has it quirks and this one is no exception.  The light stays on all the time when it's plugged in and it's an even uglier green/yellow/cream color than my other BU.  Hard to see in the photos so you'll have to trust me.  The needle clamp was on backwards and the thread uptake had been bent at some point causing the paint to get chipped.  The wiring was also best described as scary with duct tape in places it shouldn't have been.

This is a slightly newer BU than my other one (new in front) and it has a great upgrade that I can already see the advantage of.  The bobbin cover plate has a matte finish to reduce glare.  I've been blinded many times by the reflection on the chrome bobbin plate, what's interesting is that on my even newer Automatica it still had the chrome cover.  I wonder if this was an upgrade you purchased separately?  You can see it's the machine on the right.  Besides that it's basically identical to the other BU.

 -Edit-  I just realized since I wrote this that I forgot mention the little old lady I bought this machine form had had it for  over 20 years and never sewn a single stitch on it.  I think we could consider this a barn find!

This new addition came with a few accessories that were mostly designed for some other short shank machine and some class 66 bobbins that had seen better days.  It did come with some of my favorite Necchi class 15 bobbins and that did make me happy.  These little beauties are made of aluminum and precision machined to be perfectly round and true.  They fit inside the bobbin cases so nicely and the thread feeds like a dream.  Granted they're a little harder to get wound since there's no hole to hold the thread tail but you can't have everything right?

You're still asking why.  Why why why......   Well I'll tell you but only enough to hold you off till tomorrow.  I'm about to be sewing up some jeans and I like to use two different colors of top stitching thread.  The Supernova is the only machine I've found that will handle the super heavy thread I use in the bobbin.  Having two machines threaded with different colors of thread is a luxury I can afford, especially if it's only $50!