i love it when these old timers get rescued -- you are their angel -- i have three elnas and two singer featherweights -- when one goes into our shop -- another gets pulled off the shelf -- no downtime here

i even goes so far as to talk to my machines as if they were girlfriends -- i swear there has been so many times i thought i would run out of bobbin thread at a critical point -- but the girls came through

We just addicted don't we??lol

great machines!

Congrats! great looking machines.

what a find.

Those 404s are pretty cool - they were used in Home Ec classes back in the days when girls learned to sew. The Singer 401 is a fun machine.

Neat !

Enjoy your new 401A. I have one that has been fixed up and I love it.

The 401 uses the built-in cam stack for zig zag and some of its decorative stitches. There are also additional decorative stitches available, but require additional, external cams.

This site has some great information about the 400 series of machines:
http://blog.sew-classic.com/2008/10/...ne-review.aspx

Here is a comparative list of the stitches that the 401 & 403 machines can make. (note: the 403 uses only the external cams)
http://i522.photobucket.com/albums/w...atterns401.jpg