Singer 404?
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Outer Space
Posts: 9,319
For me I LOVE the drop in bobbin but I DON'T love the 301 or FW bobbin. The 404 bobbins can interchange with other machines that use the class 66 bobbin, too - saves a lot of thread and time. That bobbin holds more thread. Have you tried to cover the bobbin plate with the button holer cover thingy when you FM? I'm thinking one of my industrial machines had a drop in bobbin - never gave a problem at high speed.
#12
Super Member
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Cadillac, MI
Posts: 6,487
I have one I bought for $5 so I'd have a SS machine to leave at another place I sew. The tension doesn't stay in sync, but is easily fixed. I just don't like to have to keep an eye on it. I am going to give it a better cleaning and if this continues, the machine will be sold. It does not FMQ. I tried and had to take it all out and redo it at home on the 301. The bobbin does hold more thread than the 301, but that's the only advantage.
It'd certainly be worth the price of a cup of coffee to have a nice SS machine.
It'd certainly be worth the price of a cup of coffee to have a nice SS machine.
#13
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Centralia, WA, USA
Posts: 4,890
I'd get it at that money just because it's a neat looking machine. I haven't tried free motion quilting with any of our machines. So far 3 of the 4 we own are class 66 machines. The oddball is a White Rotary with a vertical bobbin. I should put a test sandwich together and give it a try.
Rodney
Rodney
#14
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Central NY
Posts: 859
It's just a straight stitch machine, so has a limited usefulness, IMHO. Do you need one? I'd rather put my time into one that at least does ZZ, and takes standard low shank feet, that way I have at least a slight chance that someone might actually pay money for it. There is no market for old machines around here and I usually end up giving them away. Folks who list old machines on CL for hundreds are dreaming. The situation may be different in other areas.
#15
Junior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 121
I taught for several years with these machines in my classroom. They do a very nice straight stitch. I was able to buy a so-so one at GW for $25 last spring. I forgot how much I like this one. My current students like using it as its speed is easy to control. Ironically, when we sold these off to replace with updated models, they went for $25 and now I own one again for the same price. I like sewing with it as much as my 301's IMHO. It took me a couple of hours to clean it up and oil but she purrs along now!
#16
Power Poster
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 15,506
Last time I looked about 98% of the time I sew straight stitch. There are lots of times it is nice to have an extra machine set up for a task. An extra machine can be set up to just do one color thread, just do button holes with a button holer or just use a bigger needle and heavy thread - if you are going to do that you can set the tension for the heavy thread. You could use that machine and set another machine up just to do zig zag or some other stitch - it is easy to just go back and forth from one machine to the other. There are lots of ways to finish seams other than zig zag. http://sewclassic.blogspot.com/2013/...er-french.html
#17
Singer 404 for Canvas Bags
I have my Grandmother’s 1959 Singer 404, and I’ve made some canvas projects on it, including a small tote bag with a pocket in it. I made it the winter of 2006 when we were first in the shop and needed a bag to carry our business books to and from the shop. It’s just big enough to hold a couple of bank bags, check books, the daily cash register papers, and a spiral order notebook. We’re still using it (it’s setting right here beside me), although the handles are getting tattered from hanging it every day on a coat hook in the back of the shop.
I made a couple of very large canvas cotton harvest sacks for the local museum with it. They have a cotton program each Fall for school kids, that includes the kids picking their own cotton by hand, taking it to the scales, and then on to the miniature cotton gin. The kids get to take a small amount of ginned cotton home that they picked from the plant themselves.
The 404 handled those jobs just fine. I seldom use a zigzag except when mending jeans, and then I use a multi-zigzag machine, but nearly everything else I sew is with a straight stitch machine.
CD in Oklahoma
I made a couple of very large canvas cotton harvest sacks for the local museum with it. They have a cotton program each Fall for school kids, that includes the kids picking their own cotton by hand, taking it to the scales, and then on to the miniature cotton gin. The kids get to take a small amount of ginned cotton home that they picked from the plant themselves.
The 404 handled those jobs just fine. I seldom use a zigzag except when mending jeans, and then I use a multi-zigzag machine, but nearly everything else I sew is with a straight stitch machine.
CD in Oklahoma
#18
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 476
I made a couple of very large canvas cotton harvest sacks for the local museum with it. They have a cotton program each Fall for school kids, that includes the kids picking their own cotton by hand, taking it to the scales, and then on to the miniature cotton gin. The kids get to take a small amount of ginned cotton home that they picked from the plant themselves.
CD in Oklahoma
CD in Oklahoma
#20
Yes, they’re very large! I patterned my design after measuring a few of the vintage adult bags that the museum has for display only, so the authentic bags were actually made that big. Of course, many farm wives made their own, so there were lots of designs and sizes. Stores sold them too, but most of those differed in design from each other’s brand. There were also smaller bags that were made for children, but the museum decided to have me make the new ones adult-size because they’re showing the kids how adults used to do things. It’s seldom that the kids in the school program get much more cotton picked than could fit in a small laundry basket, and to tell you the truth, it’s a hoot to watch the kids dragging the large bags up and down the rows with hardly a bulge in the end of the bag. The kids can see how much picking it would require to fill those bags!
Edited to add: and how HEAVY those bags must have gotten!
We have a couple of authentic ones in our shop that were used on a farm just west of town. Cotton sacks pop up at auctions every once in a while, usually still in good shape. (The farmers took good care of them so that they didn’t have to replace them any more than they had to.) Ours have been mended several times, so that was interesting to me to see how they did their mending “back in the day”.
CD in Oklahoma
Edited to add: and how HEAVY those bags must have gotten!
We have a couple of authentic ones in our shop that were used on a farm just west of town. Cotton sacks pop up at auctions every once in a while, usually still in good shape. (The farmers took good care of them so that they didn’t have to replace them any more than they had to.) Ours have been mended several times, so that was interesting to me to see how they did their mending “back in the day”.
CD in Oklahoma
Last edited by ThayerRags; 11-24-2013 at 11:59 AM.
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