The 401 does nothing the any better than the 403.

Ragqueen, you may also want to join the Yahoo group, singerslants. There's a lot of info there on these machines.

Tate

ok the update on the machine. found out it wasn't my grandmothers machine :( my mother is in skilled nursing at the local hospital trying to get her strength back from breast cancer and taking care of my dad who has alzheimes. long story short - mom in hospital, dad in nursing home and the daughters/grandchildren are de-cluttering the house per mom's instructions! mom said she actually bought that machine from a man in town who sold furniture and other things he would get at auctions. she told me she only paid $25 for the machine! even though it isn't one of my grandmothers i still love it and am going to adopt it once i get her out of the basement. we did give two portable sewing machines to a friend who teaches young girls how to sew. when they came to pick up the machines my sisters (one of whom helped create the quilting monster i am) found a pair of pinking shears and said to give them to the lady as well. something made me look a little closer and i turned them over - gingher pinking shears in excellent condition. needless to say they did not go with that lady - they are at my house!

ooo - thank you for the tip about the slant machine group! I am off to check that out, since I am the new owner of two non-working rocketeers. HA! I have ONE non-working motor, lol! SO much to learn, my goodness!

My Mom has a Singer 401 hidden away in a cabinet and sews on a 70s Kenmore that sits on top. When knits came in the 401 didn't do them well and my Dad went and got her the Kenmore, it is a basic model that does not take cams.

I've checked it out and the stitch selector is frozen (no surprise, since I remember the can of 3-in-1 oil that used to sit on the windowsill, it's now hardened in that machine). It's promised to me so someday it will get restored.

The 401 has the built-in camstack and does many of the stitches that would require a cam on the 403. It does take black top hat cams too, for additional stitches (I think #8, 11, 15, 18, 19 are the cam that aren't built in? I've seen a chart somewhere). Otherwise, the 401 and 500, and the 403 and 503 are mostly the same inside. It is a slant shank, that came in with the 301 and continued through the Touch & Sew line. You can buy accessory sets for T&Ss a lot cheaper than you can can for a 400/500 line and they are mostly the same although the T&Ss may come with chain stitch accessories that the 400/500 can't do.