J Miller

500a's are neat machines. I have two of them . Any black top hat cam will fit and work. But only a select few cams came with the machine as it's built in cam stack duplicates a lot of the replaceable cams. Any ZZ slant shank feet or attachment will work on the machine as well. Singer did make some for the SS 301's that won't work on the 500s.

You can find cams and accessories for your machine on ShopGW almost anytime, although if it's in a dedicated 500a box you'll have a lot of competition bidding against you.

Great machine to sew with, mine are keepers. We were considering flipping the second one, but I've since decided it's gonna stay right here .

Joe

Candace

I have no idea what the blog your read meant about the tensioner not working. I love the second tensioner on the machine and prefer it to the 401 for that very reason.

Sewnoma

S/he didn't say it didn't work, exactly, more that it didn't seem to make any difference....here, I found the blog, here's an actual quote:

Link to the whole blog post, which includes a picture of the alternate threading: http://www.oldsewingear.com/news/thr...thread-control

I have no idea if they're right or wrong; mine is missing so I can't test it out! But I threaded it the "regular" way (minus that tensioner) and the stitches look great to me. So it's apparently not necessary, whatever it does!

For the cams and such...I'm going to take my time and enjoy the hunt. I see cams crop up at the local thrift shops priced dirt cheap pretty frequently and I have looked at them online enough that I think I can recognize them when I see them even if no boxes are with them. I found a list of the cam numbers that "belong" with this model, I'll just have to add that list to the notebook I keep in my purse.

A question, to those of you more knowledgeable about these Rocketeers - did they ever come in any other color than this putty color? I thought this was the only color, but I was doing a search and I spotted what appeared to be a black or dark grey 503 in an image search. The link didn't work...I'm thinking that must have been a repaint...?

And speaking of paint...does anybody make touch-up paint for these? The booboos are extremely minor, but they both expose bare metal so I'd like to dot some matching paint in there.

Thanks for sharing my excitement.

Candace

That's very interesting because I notice a big difference in tension with FMQing on the 500 vs. the 401. On the 401 it stinks and the added tensioner on the 500 makes it passable. So, for me, I do notice and appreciate the extra thread tensioner. Personally, I appreciate the nicks and boo boos in the paint.

Rocketeers only came in one color.

J Miller

I've read that blog entry before about threading the top tension and thread guides and can only speak for both of my machines.
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If I skip the extra thread guides (above to the right of the tension dial) neither machine will sew properly. The tensions are just not right. I've not tried them knits, but for everything else that extra thread path is necessary.

Joe

Candace

I agree Joe.

Sewnoma

See...now in this picture I'm not seeing the little arm on your machine either! That slot that the thread crosses...is it just a trick of the photo or is your little arm missing too? I thought it was supposed to always be out, riding along on that thread as it crosses that slot....does it only come out at certain times or for certain stitches? Maybe mine's not missing, just tucked away. Is there something I need to do to engage it?

I didn't try the "alternate" threading the blog showed, I threaded it like you have it in this picture and the stitches looked good to me. Just no tensioner arm like I've seen in other photos.

Quincunx

Oh my goodness yes a keeper. I wish I could have borrowed him for when the scary spider walked out and away from the cool old Singer here.

costumegirl

Wow!! You have a terrific Santa!!! What an exciting gift to play with!!!!

Sewnoma

Maybe I could start renting him out? LOL We've been together since high school, I think I'm extremely lucky to have found Mr. Right so young.