My Singer 401A
I scan CL nearly everyday mostly just for fun and to see what is available. I have been looking for a Singer 401A for some time but every time I found one it was way out of my price range. This one was on CL for $75 so we went to look at it. It was quite dirty but it did a fairly decent job of moving the needle up and down. I have spent 4 hours in cleaning her up but I am now down yet. The cam dials would not work, neither did the lowering of the feed dogs. The electrical work seemed to be in OK but the foot pedal was very, very dirty. I explained to the gentlemen that I would need to get my OSMG out to do some repair work so he lowered the price to $55. After I got her home, I did an extremely good job of oiling her down and blowing out the lint and dust balls from underneath. Then I applied some grease to the gears and oiled the cam buttons really well at the top of the machine. I now have the dials working but I think the cam stack must be stuck together because when I try to use the dials for deco stitching I get a straight stitch. The tension works well and produces a very fine stitch but it is terrible dirty and I am afraid to tackle removing it. The machine doesn't immediately start right up and I think the wheel needs to be removed and possible oiled or maybe a little grease but again I am afraid to tackle that job also. Hence the OSMG. Still, I think I probably made a good buy. There was a Geist Decorative Zigzagger in the drawer with several little disks to change out but I have no idea how that works.