Hey Ron, what were the differences in the 850 models? My friend has one, and when I was looking there were a few concerns, I'm vagely remembering one version lets you barely tap the pedle and get a single stitch and one did not, and one has a motor that is always on like an industrial and one is only on when you use the foot pedal. Like I said these are vague memories.
I have a 950 and if my hubby wasn't handy I'd hate it. The new ones have this honking big clear piece of @%#@#$ in front of the foot. They say it is to prevent needles from flying into your eyes. Well that may be but you can't see to sew. You can't flip it out of the way either. Hubby removed it. The place I bought it would not remove it for safety reasons. I would not have bought it except hubby said that he could get it off. It also had a big piece of wire that is hooked to the foot "to keep your fingers out, because these machines sew so fast and we might get hurt" what a bunch of hooey. Industrial machines have been around for eons. You have to be careful with a home model too.
There is still one thing that I don't like about this machine, and that is that the knee presser lifter doesn't always go back into place so the tension isn't always engaging. Hubby is looking into this too and thinks he has found it. I had no choice but to get this machine way far from home, because the local dealer "doesn't do industrials". wouldn't even talk to me about it.
Other than the above I like the 950 machine.
Sandy