You are going to need some rewiring. Have you ever taken care of an old machine like that? Most of them have grease tubes on the motor and they need to be serviced on occasion.

You can find all manner of info online on restoring old machines.

I had one much like that of a different brand. It had belonged to husbands grandmother and was in a cabinet with a knee control, like yours.

You may need a new controller, also.

There is much to learn about those old machines in order to put one back in service. It can be a fun project. I gave mine away in order to let someone else have all that fun. I had it for too many years and never did restore it. I was glad to have it gone out of my house.

I have other machines to use.

Good luck! It CAN be a fun thing to do.

Do a search for Singer 15* (15-88, 15-90, 15-91). There were lots of machines like this with different names, but all were based on the Singer 15*. You should be able to find free manuals for this.

Thank you for the help! I'm expecting it'll need a lot of service. It was my neighbor's grandmother's and it has been in her bedroom for a number of years being used as a nightstand (so at least not an attic or garage!) and I'm sure it will take a lot of work, but now I have a place to start.

That's great! Does it have a needle in it now? Treasure it until you find what size and type it is so you can get replacements. :)

Have you tried cranking it by hand and seeing if it works?

Did you find a manual for the Nationa sewing machine? i am also looking for that manal! thanks

Cora, your old sewing machine sounds like it has a history much like the one that I inherited from hubs old grandmother. It, too, sat as a side table for a long time when she could no longer use it. It looks to be in about the same condition that was the one that I had. I decided it was too much work to bring back to life and I had other things to do . I freecycled it.

I agree with the advice that it is pretty much a basic machine and most basic machine infor will apply.