More on Downsizing

   The clean-out continues.  Today, I dug out all my Singer "Top Hat" decorative stitch cams.  During my 45 years of collecting sewing machines, every time I saw a set of Singer attachments, I picked it up.  Also, many of the Singers I obtained came with attachments.  I was shocked at the number when I dug them out and arranged them in numerical order

   Also, I was amazed that with all those cams, I only have one complete set.  Noticeably missing is the Zero cam that produces the standard zig zag stitch on machines that do not have zig zag built in.  My only Zero cam is currently installed in a 403.

I never use these cams, All my sewing is straight stitch and zig zag with an occasional buttonhole thrown in so they will all be listed in my My Etsy Shop

Ed

Singer 500a Will Not Form Zig Zag Stitch

To keep all my old sewing machines limber, I like to take them off the shelf occasionally and use them on a project.  I really should tag each machine to tell me when was the last time it was oiled and used but I’m just too lazy.  Anyway, I pulled this Rocketeer off the shelf, oiled it and tested the stitches.  I have no idea how long it had been sitting unused, maybe years.

Straight stitch was fine

but wide zig zag was not. 

I narrowed the stitch width and it got a wee bit better, but still not in the acceptable range.

My first thought was that the needle bar had been shoved up in its clamp by hitting a button or zipper but the marks on the needle bar were in the correct position so I knew that was not the cause.

The next thought was hook timing.  The point of the hook should pass just above the eye of the needle when the lower timing mark on the needle bar is at the needlebar bushing.  It was, so that was not the issue.

When I was watching the hook pass by the needle, I noticed that there seemed to be a more-than-usual separation between the needle and the hook point.  The service manual says that distance should be .018 inches but I measured it at .032 inches – almost twice what it should be.

To be sure that the needlebar was not bent, I installed a size 18 needle and a straight stitch needleplate and checked where the needle passed through the hole in the needleplate.  It looked just like the drawing in the service manual, so the needlebar was not bent.

The next step was to move the hook closer to the needle.  The service manual says to loosen the two setscrews indicated by "O"

And move the entire hook saddle.  It was easy enough, after loosening the two screws, the hook saddle swivels around the shaft it is mounted on and the hook point can be moved closer to or farther from the needle.  I moved the hook as close to the needle as possible without hitting it and tightened the screws.

I now still have good straight stitch and the narrow zig zag is as it should be.

I am not getting the full width zig zag that the machine is capable of, but that is a different problem that I will tackle later.

 Ed

Ed's Vintage Sewing Machine SHop

Singer 401/403/404 Tension Adjustment

Today I dug out a Singer 403 that I haven't used in a long time (maybe never).

I'm not sure I ever serviced this machine when I got it because there's some tape residue on the vertical pillar that I would've cleaned off if I had ever cleaned and oiled The machine.

As I was sewing on my project, I noticed suddenly I was getting loops on the underside of the fabric. It had me stumped for a minute until I saw that my upper tension dial was at zero. The tension knob was so loose that just the slightest bump moved it from its desired setting.

As I was getting ready to correct that situation, it occurred to me that maybe some others would like to know how that's done so I got the camera out and took some pictures of the process.

  There are many styles of tension assemblies, this is the one used on the Singer 400 series. Once you get the external knob off, you find that all upper tension assemblies are very similar inside.

Here is a clip from the service manual telling how to disassemble the 401/403 tension assembly.  To merely tighten the knob, you only need to perform these two steps.

After the thumb nut L5 is removed and the split stud is exposed, insert the blade of a flat screwdriver in between the two halves of the split stud Q2 and spread the two halves slightly apart. That will tighten up the thumb nut L5 when you screw it back on.

If you get the stud halves spread too far apart and the thumb nut L5 will not go back on, squeeze the stud halves back together a bit with pliers and try again until you get it where you want it.

 I had previously noticed that the +|- indicator was skewed off to one side so while I had the tension assembly open, I thought I would fix that also.

There is a set screw inside the nose door that holds the entire upper tension assembly in the machine. Loosen that set screw and you can turn the assembly to any position you desire. When you have it where you want it, tighten that setscrew and you're ready to reassemble.

Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

After the tension assembly is reassembled, you want to adjust the tension so that you have a good balanced stitch with no regard to the numbered dial.

Once you have a good stitch, push in the numbered disc D5 and rotate so that the number 4 appears at the top of the dial at the +|- indicator. Release the numbered disc and make sure the pin C5 is seated in one of the holes in D5 and you're done.

Ed

Singer 401G

I abandoned the Supermatic for an old standby Singer 401A and finished the project I was working on.  Sewing on the 401A made me think about the 401G on the shelf that hadn't been used in years.  All I remember is that I didn't like it when I got it and put it on the display shelf for someday in the future when I felt like tinkering.

  The machine is in excellent cosmetic shape, obviously not used too much in the past. It came with a unique accessory box having two slide-out drawers instead of the 401A box with hinged lid

  It is kind of a cross between the American 400 series and the American 500 series machines.  It has the general body shape of a 401A with the thread finger of a 500A.

At first look, I thought the bobbin winder was missing and I have never parted out a 401, 403, or 404 to salvage the bobbin winder.

 Then I realized that while the mounting provisions exist for a 401A-type bobbin winder on the front of the machine, the bobbin winder on the 401G is in the top lid.

To begin with, the motor would not run.  Turned out the connector on the motor was loose and not making connection.  That gave me the opportunity to pull out the motor and lubricate both ends of the shaft.  Next issue was a loose hook shaft - not much, just enough to make a click when it was jiggled.  Loosening the screw on the collar and sliding it toward the hook about half a millimeter solved that.

I oiled and greased everything that needs oiling and greasing but the machine is still noisier than other slant-needle machines.  It still has the beige bobbin winder tire so I am going to assume that the machine has so little wear that the gears have not worn together yet and it will quiet down in time.

I will use it for a while and see what happens.

  After everything was back together, I tried sewing.  The green fabric on the left was the result.

No matter how high I turned the tension dial, I got loops on the underside.  Checked the thread gaps and felt the hook and bobbin case for burrs and could find nothing wrong.  I disassembled the top tension and found nothing wrong there, either but after reassembling, the stitch looked like it should (the pink fabric on the right)  -Ed
Ed's Vintage Sewing Machine Store

Rocketeer #1 is Finished!

  This machine is one I thought was 100%. However, when using it, the light switch was very touchy - I had to turn the light on & off several times before it would stay illuminated. Since I was going to part out Rocketeer #3, I decided to cannibalize the light assembly for #1.

  Removing the upper lid, I noticed that the bobbin winder return spring and the bobbin winder latch spring were both not working properly. So much for 100%!

  I posted a few days ago how to replace the bobbin winder return spring and I just had to bend the end of the latch spring and reattach it to the latch to remedy those issues.

  I should have made a tutorial on how to replace the light assembly, it turned out to be a bit more complicated than I had envisioned but I didn't take any photos so it would not be too informative.

The easy way is to cut the wires just inside the machine housing and splice the new socket to the existing wiring but I elected to do it the hard way and replaced the socket and wiring as a single unit, threading the wire down to the main connector.

  When I reassembled the 500, I found that it would zig, but not zag.  At full zig zag width, the needle would go full left and come back to center, but not go from center to the right.  Slant-needle Singers only have a paltry 4 mm zig zag to begin with and cutting that in half leaves that function essentially useless.

  I oiled everything I could get at several times, let it sit, ran it at high speed to work in the oil, but nothing helped.  I could manually push the needle to the right, but it would not go there under its own power.

  I spent much of Sunday afternoon and most of Veteran's Day fiddling with that one problem. The service manual was no help, but the diagrams did convince me that the cause was either a binding needle bar vibrating bracket or a binding needle bar driving arm.

  The needle bar vibrating bracket was the most easily accessed, so I tackled it first.  I loosened the collar below the bracket that holds the bracket in place to be sure that the binding was not at this point.  

Of course, being the easiest fix, that was not the problem.

  The needle bar driving arm is an I-beam connected to the needle bar vibrating bracket one end and a forked end connected to the stitch selector. At the end of the lower fork is a thing called a "ball pivot".  From what I can tell, it looks like a metal Tootsie Pop with a round globe on one end and a shaft on the other end that hooks to the bottom fork of the needle bar driving arm.

  The "ball" of the ball pivot sits in a tunnel in the side of the stitch selector and keeps the driving arm aligned.  The ball slides back and forth in the tunnel as the driving arm moves left and right to re-position the needle.

  I had oiled the back side of the ball pivot several times but the oil had apparently not penetrated far enough into the tunnel to lubricate the ball and make it slide freely. To get at the front side of the ball, you need to remove the camstack. Once the camstack is out, the tunnel is visible on the left wall of the stitch selector.

  I tipped the machine on its nose and filled that tunnel with sewing machine oil and let it sit for an hour. When I next tested the machine, the zig zag was still at 2mm.  I put pressure on the needle bar driving arm to encourage it to move the needle to the right and after a minute of running the machine and adding pressure, the zig zag opened up to its full 4mm.

  That was about 7:30 last night and I am glad I didn't have to go to bed with that on my mind.

Slant Needle Nose Door Hinge Repair

I estimate that half the slant needle Singers I find in the wild have a broken upper hinge on the nose door.  This is especially true of the 500 series (500a & 503a) but I have also seen it on 401's and 600's. Many of these doors are held on with clear packing tape and that's a band-aid fix but I prefer to have my machines LOOK nice, even if they have been repaired.

So, here is the nose door from the 503 I am rebuilding.  It has the common feature of half the upper hinge broken off and missing, so it cannot just be glued back.  With the broken piece went the hinge pin, so we also have to find a replacement pin. I normally use a finish nail, but this is the shaft out of a pop rivet.

I mix up some epoxy and fill what's left of the channel for the pin.

Next, I position the replacement pin so that it is at the correct angle and press it into the epoxy.  It is best to balance the pin in the slot so that it does not slump down before the epoxy hardens. Then, I slather epoxy over the pin to help hold it in place.

24 hours later, I slice off the excess epoxy and excess pin from the top of the hinge.  I use a rotary tool with a cutoff wheel.  If I applied too much epoxy, now is the time to grind or file it down so it doesn't interfere with the opening or closing of the door.

The original pin is about 1/4" long, but you will find it easier to install the door if you leave the replacement pin a bit longer. With both upper an lower pins the same length, you have to align both with their respective holes to install the door.  If you leave the upper pin longer, you can insert the upper pin and the extra length holds the upper hinge in place while you fiddle with the lower hinge pin.


 TA-DA! the 503 now has a functioning nose door.

Singer 401a

Trolling through the only thrift store in town, I spotted a blonde - not a female, I'm too old for that - this was a blonde sewing machine cabinet. Now, blonde furniture hasn't been in style for quite a few years, so, if it was not just an empty cabinet, this held some promise of a vintage sewing machine.

I didn't recognize the cabinet as Singer, and figured it would contain a Japanese machine of the 1960s.
To my surprise, when I lifted the lid, inside was a Singer 401a!



 I think I've told this story before, but a Singer 301 was my first machine and a 401 was my second machine and my first zig zag machine. I still have a soft spot in my heart for slant-needle Singers, even though I have better sewing machines and I already have too many slant-needle Singers. I don't see many of these around any more, mostly late model plastic machines.

Accumulated dirt made this one look like it had been stored in a barn for some time. It was missing the slide plate and one spool pin and the bobbin winder tire was disintegrated but the stitch selectors and balance wheel turned freely, it had the power cord and foot control and the price was right, so I brought it home.


When I removed the head from the cabinet, I found a tag saying, "Make Offer". Apparently the machine was offered at a local yard sale and no one was tempted to make an offer, so it was donated to the thrift store.



The old girl cleaned up nicely and with just cleaning and oiling and replacing of a few common parts, it sews nicely. I have sewn three small projects on it and am quite pleased with my latest find. Now, I have to pick another machine to get rid of because I am under a one-in-one-out mandate.

One Good Deed...

About a week ago, I fixed a lady's sewing machine. When I didn't charge her, I told her all I did was replace her bobbin case with one from a parts machine someone had given me. I told her if she hears of anyone about to toss out a machine, please grab it for me because I can always use parts. She said she had a machine out in the garage that was worn out and good only for parts, I could have it if I wanted it.

Turned out to be a Singer 401. I am partial to the Singer slant needle machines because a 301 was my first sewing machine and a 401 was my second, so I took it.

She said that it had been used so much that thread has worn a groove in the housing of the machine, the thread kept getting caught in the groove and shredding or breaking. I looked closer and, sure enough, there was a groove just above the last thread guide on the housing.  I threaded the machine and she was correct - the thread runs right through that groove.

I toyed with several options: grinding the groove smooth, installing a rub strip over the groove so the thread would no longer catch in it but being low-tech, I opted to just bend that thread guide at the groove about 1/8" so the thread no longer runs through the groove.

In a quick test, it sews fine. I need to clean and oil and give it a real test tomorrow.