thepolyparrot

I just gave away my best 503 recently, with a big Copenhaven cabinet full of all the attachments and doo-dads. It was so much fun to get it working again and to hand it off to a young woman who wants to sew. There's nothing like these old gals for toughing through a newbie seamstress. You're going to have a wonderful time with it and you don't have to worry about breaking it!

Remember to keep the race clean, clean, clean - that's the only real vulnerability I've found in the 400/500/600 machines - a little tiny blob of lint can really foul things up. Have fun and make beautiful things!

miriam

I picked up a 401 yesterday - it was on the back porch - argh - the stitch selector is frozen solid. It was the girl's grandma's machine. I asked the girl if she would rather I restored it for her and taught her to sew. She said she didn't have time to mess with an old piece of junk. I told her these were the best machines Singer ever made. It is junk now but I can make it work. Now I have to hope it does. She decided she had more memories with Grandma's record player. sigh.

SteveH

Hey folks, ignorant guy here looking to become aware...

I get that the 403 and 503 are better than the respective 401 and 500, but what are the primary differences between the 403 and the 503?

ArchaicArcane

Looks. That's about it.

The presser foot tension is in a different spot, the styling is a little more "futuristic" hence the "rocketeer" nickname,... color.

Interesting to note is that some of the German made machines (411G =401 with benefits, was there a 403/503 equivalent?) seem like a bridge in the styling. Colors are more like a 400 series,... but not two tone, and a little blockier than a 500 series, but less blocky than the other 400 series machines.

miriam

The differences are in the threads - read above...

Mainly the 401 and 500 have a cam stack the 403 and 503 do not. The 401 and 500 can be set to do the same stitches you can do with the 403 or the 503. When the 500 and 401 are set to do the stitches the width is set. The 403 and 503 have width control and you can set the needle left right or center when you use the cams. You can do all that on a 401 or a 500 if you use the cams so what advantage is there to have a 401 or a 500 other than you don't have to have all the cams? The biggest disadvantage to the 401 and 500 is the controls tend to gum up. If you get them ungummed then they have to have lots of TLC or they don't want to move. Those machines like attention. The 403 and 503 seem to be ready to go all the time. I guess I like simpler. I can also predict what stitch my 403 and 503 will make - the 401 and 500 not so much. You can set the dial at E and Q but if you put the lever at 2, 3 or 4 each position will give you some mutation and you would have to make a note so you can find it again. There really aren't all that many real combinations because they tend to repeat somehow. It is fun to play with the stitch selector on the 401 and 500 - gotta admit. But for dependable I like my 403.

ArchaicArcane

Hey Miriam, did you ever notice that some of the cams and the disks actually make slightly different stitches for the same stitch patterns? You can see it in the Cam chart that Jenny put up on her site. In most cases, I like the disk stitch better than the cam stitch.

It would be really cool if the cams worked in unison with the disks, like the Elnas do (I have an elna SU here that "combines" cam and disk to make even more stitches.)

I've often wondered if the chainstitch capable version of these machines (411g, 431g, etc) would be able to use the basting disk that the others can't. That basting disk is one of about 5 I'm missing to complete the set, so I can't try it.

miriam

I need to get serious with my 411G and 401G - do some experimenting. BTW I found the right bobbin holder for it in my hoard of junk - I need to get it out and play soon.
Yes I have noticed that the 403 and 503 make nicer stitches than the 401 and 500 - they just look better to me more complete or something. I have a couple Elna's and a Phoenix but I haven't been using them as much as the 403 - I honestly don't know why - they are really good machines. I'm over Viking, Janome and Dernena - hurts my neck to use them - can't see past the nose. The slant-o-matics have me spoiled rotten. I do like a mean 15 clone - best one I had was a Montgomery Ward - nice piece - sorry I sold it...

SteveH

Thanks a lot for the info. I actually did read the above posts first, and still was confused. The "cam stack" comments did not clarify it originally.

Now i get it.

The reason I ask is that although i am planning to shift my "collection" to pre electric machines, these are cool enough to want to have and use at least one.

The 403's around here seem to go for about$100 whereas the 503's are about $250. Worth asking to clarify the differences.

JudyTheSewer

Thanks for the information and the link to the oiling utube Mariam. I just bought a 403A yesterday. It is very dirty/gritty from sitting in a storage unit and the needle bar does not move from the left position regardless of where the needle position switch is set. When the 0 cam is in and the width is set to the maximum setting the needle barely moves and created pretty much a wobbly straight stitch. It came only with the 0 cam, zigzag foot, and the zigzag needle plate. Luckily, I found 6 top hat cams and some slant needle feet in a White cabinet drawer that I bought. I also have a 301 with all of the feet so I should be okay in that department. It was great to see this thread this morning and I'm glad to hear that the 403 is a good machine. I'll be heading down to the "shop" in a bit and start cleaning her up. I think I'll bring down our spare hair dryer too. I'll try to remember to post what I find is the solution to getting this machine's needle bar moving.

miriam

Needle bar could well be an easy fix. Push the needle bar to the right - see how it goes in and out side ways on a pin? Clean that pin up - probably gummy dried up oil. Then push again on the needle bar and look under the butterfly/rectangle thing next to where the top hats cams go - there is another pin that goes in and out - side ways - clean that. No camstack readers to gum up. Some times it takes brake cleaner to get the gum out - Tri-flow is good though. I pack it with cosmetic pads so the brake cleaner doesn't go anywhere - put a towel on the rest of the machine.