My Bond Incredible Sweater Machine® was in my opinion a vast improvement on the one I had in the ’70’s that would only knit fine yarn. I had a custom built “mini table” that clamped onto a table so I didn’t have to keep taking it apart. It fit into an underbed storage box with sliding trays that held all the accessories.
Websites I Have Found Useful
Steph Thornton Crafts has a wealth of information including Bond List Thoughts
Heidi can take you from Novice to Expert Heidi’s Knitting Room
My Bond Machine has been replaced by a Brother KX350 Home Knitter Mid-Gauge machine.
It is no longer being manufactured but parts still seem to be available. It has a plastic bed and carriage, the needles are 7mm apart rather than the 6.5mm of true mid-gauges. It is comparable to the Silver Reed & Studio LK140 & LK150 machines.
The advantage for me is the ability to use finer yarns without loosing the ability to use my favorite worsted weight yarns. I am using many of the techniques I learnt using the Bond machine to use with my Brother machine.
There was no mention of the “Sponge Bar” in the manual I downloaded but I read about it on various websites. I had some Flexi-Foam that I trimmed into two pieces to insert as a double layer and so far it is working fine.
I have found lots of useful information on The Machine Knitter’s Treasure Chest Website http://www.needlesofsteel.org.uk
And in their Techniques & Resources Section http://www.needlesofsteel.org.uk/techniques.html
Susan Guagliumi is in my opinion the goto authority on mid=gauge knitting machines. She provides classes, patterns, tools, books, DVDs, PDFs to download and much more. I subscribed to her classes on Craftsy and found her tutorial methods extremely informative delivered in language that I found easy to follow. Search for her on KnittingHelp.com, look her up on Ravelry, Craftsy and Facebook.
My Yarn Dispenser http://lindabutler.net/yarn-dispenser/ an accessory I designed which I find very useful.