New-2-sewing

I have never learned how to sew, honestly never tried. I’m a 39yr old man and I want to teach myself with the singer 403 slant-o-mastic that I just bought yesterday. It has all sorts of parts and discs that came in the seat of the chair. My question. Is there anything I shouldn’t do while I learn on this beautiful classic machine to avoid damaging it? Or should I just play around with all different settings until I figure it out.

NJ Quilter

Congrats on your purchase! Did it come with a manual? If not, I would suggest finding one online to download and at least oiling in all the proper spots before giving it a good run. Do you have any idea what type of sewing you'd like to do? Quilting; home dec; utilitarian?

After you've given it a good once over, go to the fabric store (JoAnns, etc.) and grab some fabric; new needles; thread. Get yourself a decent pair of scissors if you don't already have them. Get some different weight fabrics and different size needles. Then jump in with some test stitches and see how she runs. Test out the various cams to see what stitches they do. If the cams are not labeled as to their specific stitches, you can always sew with them and then write on the fabric the cam ID so you know what stitches each make.

Good luck and enjoy!

OurWorkbench

Welcome to QB. Generally, one should clean and oil the machine. Frequently, the vintage machines have been sitting for a while and are stiff and sluggish from the old oil drying up.

A free download manual for the 403 from singer.com can be found at https://res.cloudinary.com/singer-se...ng_Machine.pdf

Since this machine is considered in the same series as the 401 There Is a good thread about the 401 at She's real fun, my 401... Pay particular attention to She's real fun, my 401... as it would apply to your machine as well. There is a good page about the 401 at https://archaicarcane.com/stuck-in-t...lant-o-matics/ that may help with the 403 also.

There is a service manual at https://sewingdude.wordpress.com/201...ervice-manual/ however, I would suggest not jumping to conclusions that you need the service manual.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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OurWorkbench

I forgot to mention that Quilting Board has a forum specifically for Vintage and Antique machines at https://www.quiltingboard.com/vintag...thusiasts-f22/ Feel free to post there with pictures, questions, etc.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

bkay

I sew on a 401 regularly. I also have a 503 (same as 403 in 60's looking body, nicknamed the Rockateer). They are essentially the same except that the 403/503 has removable cams. The 401 and 501 have built-in cams. It's often said that the 401 is the best sewing machine Singer ever made. It has really close tolerances, so it may make take extra effort on the cleaning/removing old oil from the moveable parts. I've used 90% alcohol from Walmart and unscented lamp soil, also from Walmart to remove the old sticky residue. I've used q-tips, strips of old T-shirts and toothpicks saturated in one of the above solvents. Of course, mine was totally frozen up when I bought it. Yours may not take that much work.

There is a series on youtube about the 401. Here's a link: Link to youtube.

bkay