Bernina Favorit 540 1958

This machine was, let's just say, a bargain.
It's a home industrial machine with built-in cams! It came with an 80 watt Sew Tric motor which was almost fouling the knee lift mechanism. Yes, it has a knee lift! Just about everything here makes this an exciting machine. It's Swiss, knee lift, industrial, full rotary hook and pattern cams in a single machine. Additionally, it can be connected to an external industrial motor or a treadle. Can you see why I'm excited about this? It  is exactly the same size as a Singer and the hinge holes are in exactly the same place, but the front is chunkier than a Singer and in my treadle cabinet the front flap wouldn't go back in place. A little disappointed but to be honest I might have been overwhelmed and had a stroke if it got any better.

 The 540, 640 740 and 840 are all designated as 'Favorit' by Bernina (as opposed to the 530 etc. which are all 'Record'). All of them have a full rotary hook (they go faster), patterns, etc.
They also all have a plastic (nylon) cam drive gear. They do break, so I checked mine carefully but it is intact at this time. They're a royal pain to put back (I have one waiting for the drive gear to arrive from England so will make a blog entry about it).
There are 12 patterns on the 540 and 640 and 20 patterns on the 740 and 840. All of them are basically a heavier, faster flat bed Record.
Mine was missing its knee lift (slightly annoying) and the foot controller (more annoying). Since the motor was kind of generic anyway I replaced it with an 85W Wernard, with new wiring and a Wernard foot controller. To me this is still rather under powered for this machine and I'd really like to get the cabinet inside and mount the 1/4 hp Singer motor to it. It will easily handle the power and I'd only be worried about low speed control.

The picture from the ad

After a good clean and oil (with tri-flow)

Someone asked me the difference between the 540 and 640, and the manual has a whole page dedicated to answering this:

This machine will be a keeper, I'm pretty sure. It's extremely smooth, has the flexibility of zig-zag, and tough enough for anyone. Can't wait to get her into production!