Sunday, November 03, 2013

Singer 500 and 503

You may remember the Singer 503a that Jane used for parts to fix up her 500a.


When the smoke cleared, she had no need for a 503 carcass, so she left it for me to use as a parts donor.  Looking at my collection of 500 series slant-needle machines, I see that I have three 500s and no 503, so I think I will sacrifice one of the 500s to build up the 503 and fix some of the other 500s.


From left to right, #1 has a broken bobbin winder spring and a bad light socket;


#2 has a badly chipped nose door,


and #3 is in the least desirable cosmetic condition, with a serious paint scrape beside the stitch length lever and significant wear on the leading edge of the bed. So, it looks like #3 is going to sacrifice a bobbin winder spring and light assembly to #1; a nose door to #2 and some other parts to the 503.

However, that still leaves me short a nose door for the 503 if I don't want to use the one that is badly chipped and a bobbin winder spring. Years ago, I stripped a rusted-out 503 and kept many of the body parts but I can't find them in my mess.  If I don't find those parts, I will have fodder for two more blog posts - repairing the hinge on the nose door and making a bobbin winder spring.

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