Thursday, August 19, 2010

Singer Slantomatics & attachments, feet, throat plates... don't let this happen to you...

This is where it all started...(went wrong)...

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I picked up a singer monogrammer for slant shank at the thrift store for $1.50. It had the monogrammer unit, feed dog cover plate, screw, instructions, letter placement template and one cam for the letter "C". So of course my thinking was that for $1.50 what could I lose? This was before picking up my Singer (Rocketeer aka 500A), so this attachment would not fit any of my current machines.... forever the optimist...


So now that I am the proud owner of a Singer Rocketeer 500A. I needed to get educated on what I actually had. Since I have decided to keep this machine to use it for (eventual) denim pocket embroidery and buttonholes. This is just a little blurb about this specific machine in the Slantomatic, Slant-o-matic series and what to consider when buying vintage machines.

a little background....
The Singer Slantomatics had a few versions, the 400, 500, and certain 600's series. These machines are slant shank machines, which means that the needle and pressure foot are at a slight angle forward for better visibility. So any foot you buy will need to be specifically for a slant machine. Here's a graphic representation from the Clotilde website of the different types of feet.

So from my research these are the other model numbers for the Singer Slant machines.
401, 403, 404
500, 503
620, 630, 640

So you can use the same feet and throat plates for all of these.

They have a pressure fit for the throat plates.
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These are great, there's a little lever that drops the feed dogs down and it raises two "clamps" allowing you to switch out the throat plate easily, and you don't have to fumble with screws and hunting down screw drivers.

The lever...
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The throat plate
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The 401, 403, 404, 500, 503, 620, 630, 640 use the same throat plate system.

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The plate on the left is what came with the monogrammer (for the 700 series), the one on the right is #161825 which is what I would need to use it. Gratefully it appeared with the buttonhole attachment which would later arrive.

More faceplates & throatplates....
Then there are the 700 series, Stylist 400, Fashion mate 200-300, Stylist 500-800. These take different systems from magnetic, to slide in and magnetic, slide in and clamp. So it is really important that you know which machine you have, so you can buy all of the proper accessories.

Tomorrow... the buttonholer....

Singer Vintage Buttonholer

Well I finally received my Singer Professional buttonholer today #102577. It's been a long wait, I paid for it on the 6th and it just seemed like it took forever to get here. It also came with the elusive plate that I needed for the Rocketeer. I've had some fun just playing with it today, and look at my buttonholes!! How exciting!! Maybe I can finish that safari jacket and belt now.... and that blouse... and those jeans... I'd better get working.

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