How to test my new used machine ?

Inspect all the leads/cables for breaks and make sure that plugs are correctly and securely wired up!

Good move! Get a variety of sizes of needle and both cotton and poly threads. Gutterman is a good standard thread.

Avoid Singer needles. Use Schmetz if available.

Yes. The 401 takes class 66 type bobbins, I think. Use decent quality metal ones rather than plastic.

Just standard sewing thread will do most things. I like to match like with like: cotton thread to cotton fabric, silk to silk, and poly to artificial fabrics.

Yes. Get Universal and Jeans needles, in a range of sizes, and Stretch needles if you think you'll be sewing knits.

Unless you are going to do a lot of top stitching, just use standard sewing thread for tests. The rest will come later.

Something shirt weight and some jeans weight stuff will do to start with.

Happy testing.

You will need sewing machine oil and sewing machine gear lubricant for your 401a. This machine is metal and direct gear driven, and has no motor "belt". (Hurray!)

Please carefully inspect the electric cables before plugging the machine in. if they are cracked or frayed, they should be repaired or replaced. If you have an operator's manual, please refer to it for the oiling points on the machine. Please check the motor gear for built up, dried out gear lubricant, and if it is present, wipe it away with a clean, soft rag, and apply a dab of fresh lubricant before running your machine. Please place a drop of machine oil at each of the oiling points (please do not over-oil). Please check and clean out the bobbin case, and remove the "throat plate" (around the feed dogs) as well, and clean out any lint you may find. Please inspect the plate for "burrs" around the needle opening, and gently file them down if they are present before replacing the throat plate.

Bobbin winder: These are little rubber "donuts", and tend to dry out, crack, and become utterly worthless with age. Fortunately, they are not at all expensive, and replacements are easily available at JoAnns (black)

Bobbins: For this machine, please buy the correct Singer brand metal bobbins (they should have them at JoAnns and other places).. Avoid generic brands of bobbins as these can cause problems, and the correct Singer bobbins are not expensive.

(The correct Singer bobbins have curved metal sides with 4 holes in each side (3 holes are larger than the last). These are class 66 bobbins.

Plastic bobbins *will* cause you problems in this machine.

Needles: Here I have to disagree with Kate, but please buy Singer needles for use in Singer Slant-Needle Machines (such as the 401a). Schmetz brand needles have been well known to cause problems in these machines, as they are not identical to the comparable Singer needles.

These are 15x1 needles, and come in sizes 9, 11, 14, 16, and 18. You will need sharp point (standard) needles for most wolvens and you will need ball point needles if you are going to sew knit and other* materials.

(*other materials such as windbreaker nylon that you do not want to break the threads in, but rather have the needle go in between the threads of the fabric)

Generally size 9 & 11 are for light fabrics (gauzy, thin, and very light), 14 is for medium weight fabrics (most shirt weights), 16 is for heavy weight fabrics (denim), 18 is for heavy thread use and for topstitching.

Special needles: Knife edge for leather, vinyl (size 11, 14, & 16).

Double needles: Are not really needed for this machine, as it's needle bar can hold 2 regular needles side by side for these tasks.

Thread: Gutermann Poly is about the best "utility" thread you can purchase, in my opinion. I suggest that you purchase a large spool in each of the standard colours (White, Black, Grey, Navy, Olive, Dark Brown, Khaki)

hth, me

Thank you, kind sir.

Oh, it's a slant needle machine... Yes, get the Singer brand ones. They are slightly different. I don't like them myself, but they are needed for the slant needle machines.

I'll try to remember that.

Mostly all great advice except the needle part is pure rubbish. I have been repairing those machines for better than a quarter century and have never used Singer needles.

I agree with "me" about using Singer needles in the machine. I use Schmetz in my Pfaff machines, but the old Slant-Needle Singer does not like them. It sews like a dream with Singer needles. Emily

I tried the Schmetz needles in my slant needle Singer, and had nothing but trouble..

My official Singer OSMG was the person who told me that the Slant needle Singers do need Singer brand needles.. I wish I could remember what exactly the difference is and why the difference causes problems, but they are in fact slightly different. (Somewhere in the back of my brain I keep thinking it is something to do with the eye to point being different combined with the angled entry of the needle, but that may not be correct.) I also remember that I read the same thing on one of the sewing forums from another OSMG. I wish I could remember where I read it.

In any case, I switched back to the Singer needles for my slant needle machine, and my problems went away, and have not returned.

me

Mostly, I agree with all you wrote, but I take exception to the caution against using plastic bobbins. What kind of problems have they caused you?

I probably have 50 metal bobbins and 30 plastic ones, and I have never found either "better" than the other. The *only* reason I prefer the metal ones is that they hold quite a bit more thread. However, when I change thread colors, I just select whichever bobbin which has been previously wound with the new color, makes no difference to me whether it's metal or plastic. I have been sewing exclusively (and lots) with my 401A for over 45 years...

Beverly

Case of different strokes for different folks? I use Singer brand needles exclusively in my 401A, and have never had a problem or cause to try another brand.

Beverly

I used to have lots of plastic 66 type bobbins, at a time when the metal ones were unfashionable. They caused endless stitch quality problems, stuck in the bobbin case, and just didn't turn as smoothly in my old metal machine. When I got some more metal bobbins for it, the stitch problems all vanished. This was on my old 1923 66K. For my old machines, I've always tried to use the metal bobbins ever since. I has a 1970's Singer (my 21est birthday prezzy) and was advised to use the plastic bobbins in that, but it too was happier with the metal ones... Well, for certain values of happier! That thing was a lemon from day 1!

Interesting! I am going to deliver one of my spare 401As to my older DD tomorrow, and I just gave it a thorough cleaning and lube job, and adjusted the tensions (the bobbin tension was set waaaaay too tight!).

I am including a card of assorted regular point Singer needles, and I was going to donate a few plastic bobbins, too, but maybe I'll re-think that. I'd love for her to *finally* find sewing a fun/good experience, so she really doesn't need to deal with any problems. I have lots of both metal and plastic bobbins, I will do a side -by-side test tomorrow with identical thread and fabric, and report my results here. ;-)

Beverly

Good Morning;

I have found that the plastic bobbins just do not seem to run correctly (smoothly) in my slant-o-matic.. They tend to bind somewhat in the bobbin case (or intermittently "grab and release") in comparison to the metal bobbins.. This seems to cause lower thread problems by sporadically affecting lower thread tension. I do not see these problems with the metal bobbins.

me

I suspect that most of us have at least one "lemon machine" in our past..

I bought a Janome once that has forever soured me on that brand (it was not just that the machine itself was bad, any company can occasionally let a defectiuve machine thru, but it was also the attitude of the company not to correct the problem).. I suspect that many people were soured on Singer by the "Touch & Scream" machines (especially the later ones), as well as some of the low-end junk that they have turned out in the past few years.

I can't help but wonder if Brother is not sullying it's name by some of the really low end stuff they are putting their label on now.. Modern marketing baffles me.

me

Exactly, the Singer needles are no better or worse than any other needle as far as function goes.

Needles are made to exacting specifications within a needle system as in

15X1, the Singer needles are the same in all important respects with the exception the point is a tiny bit longer. As far a sewing function the length between the butt end and top of the eye is the important factor.

My guess is that the plastic bobbins, being plastic, are more easily warped and worn. Metal is more resistant to all that. Especially if one tends to run a machine hard, which creates a certain amount of heat from friction.