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)...

009

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.
014

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...
006

The throat plate
016

005


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

008

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....

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi there. I am desperately looking for the initial letter L cam to buy for the Singer Deluxe Monogrammer that works on slant machines like the 401a with the Singer feed plate cover 161825. I have the Deluxe Monogrammer machine and soon to have the correct 161825 feed cover plate but I really want the 'L'. Do you know anyone who has an L to sell or can you find anyone who has one? I would really appreciate this! Please let me know.

contactlauralynn@yahoo.com

Thanks so much.
Cheers,
Laura

ELMO said...

Anonymous, you might try searching ebay. They come up from time to time.

Shipp said...

Where did you get the throat plate for the 500A 161825 foot plate. I need one.

Rosebug said...

I am looking for the 161825 plate too!
Any idea where to buy one?
I have a saved search on ebay for alerts

Rosebug said...

I need the 161825 plate too.
Where did you get yours?

Have an ebay search saved for alerts.

MKB said...

I've always been a little confused about this. Why is the cover plate necessary when you can just raise the throat plate to "cover" the feed dogs? That's what I've always done when using the buttonholer.

ELMO said...

MLB If it works for you then you don't need one The plate is smooth, so the fabric won't get hung up on the feed dog slots.

ELMO said...

The feed dog plates can be purchased on ebay, they come up for auction every once in a while