Originally Posted by
ArchaicArcane
I used the plate from my 411G, and the spare 411G bobbin case from another machine. I posted about it here:
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...ml#post6268509
I bet that the flat stock pieces could be made. The guide on the bobbincase, and possibly even the arm on the bottom of the throat plate, but it will take a way better person than me to do it. I think a guide similar to the ones on the newer machine could be made, but the newer guide didn't fit, so I had to kludge. For proof of concept, it's fine
The W&G will be worth restoring. You'll love it. I've seen some, but never gotten my hands on one.
Singer put out 2 different buttonholers that would work with the 401 and other slants, the metal one, and the so called "professional buttonholer" that was a lot more plastic. I've seen a couple of others - Greist, Ruby, Famous, but I don't recall another slant one. I'd be curious to know what brand it was. The manuals do show using the machine for buttonholes, but in practice the buttonholer attachments work way way better.
With the machine alone, my buttonholes always end up more like a weird parallagram than a rectangle.
I don't know what's wrong with me, for some reason I thought you didn't have the plate. The W&G was initially $75, with the foot control not working. When I got there he plugged it in (you can plug this machine into the wall without the controller), and the motor hummed but the machine wouldn't move. We spritzed it with WD40, but it needs a lot more. There is an opening in the motor big enough to see the commutator which had a thick layer of black carbon, and I could see sparks (this may be normal?) when it was running. So he let me have it for $25. A few days later he found the manual, and I tried to pay him for it but he refused to take anything. The manual has been taped several times and some pages (starting with p.2) are stuck together and I can't get them apart without tearing the paper. It is a mess, splotched all over with machine oil, falling apart, no cover, but I'm really happy to have it.
Anyway, sorry to hijack with W&G, but about the buttonholer, it may have been a Singer, but an interim one that was crappy. I'm no expert because I've never made a buttonhole by machine, but I think there is another slant buttonholer -- in the pink clamshell "jetsons" case. I think that one and the metal one in the maroon case were for the 301. They don't come with the 401 plate. Then I think there was the crappy one that Joan had, then the "professional" buttonholer came out. I think she told me it was made in Japan or Taiwan.