Yes! It still looks wonderful.

Naw, I just had 2 people tell me of the same problem in a very short time and wanted to get to the bottom of it. ;)

Yes it has to be compatible blood types and all that. The Singers in the 400 and 500 numbers look like they are in the same family; much the same outline, angles, beige and brown. Maybe there's an old list of parts some where. These are the type of vitage I like, with all metal gears, can be repaired and worth spending some time and money on. Yesterday there was talk about an old 90's Bernina that blew up, not sure if it ever will be repaired because of the mother board and electronic parts. It's been a long time since Singer made these, every year some go in the garbage, sold off as parts machine on ebay. I wonder how many of us really care about them, and actually sew on them? I hope some are willing to spend a bit of time and effort on them in the future.

The 400 and 500 series Slant-o-matics have a pretty good following outside of the vintage collecting crowd too. They go for higher prices than average machines. I've seen the prices creep up on them over the two years I've been interested in old sewing machines. The 401As are very strong, smooth running machines that are respected outside vintage circles and the 500 series Rocketeers are popular for their looks. I'm guessing they run about the same as the 400 series machines as well.

I'm not quite sure how to word this. They were made right at pretty much Singer's peak, at least for domestic machines. I'm not sure of the industrial side of things. Shortly after Singer made these machines they started struggling financially and the quality of their machines suffered as a result.

I think these machines were pretty close to being at the peak of mechanical sewing machine technology for any brand. The only other significant mechanical advances I can think of are the Touch & Sew's autofilling bobbins that didn't really catch on and the addition of a second cam follower to move the feed dogs back & forth making stretch stitch and other decorative stitches possible. The downside is plastic gears and camstacks were introduced at about the same time.
I could go on.
Rodney

Rodney,
Mechanically the 401 and the 500 are the same machine, it's just the dress that's different. All things being equal(clean, oiled, etc.) they should run exactly the same.

Cari