Singer 500A (nicknamed Rocketeer, by happy buyers at a time when America was riding high on the success of sending a man to the moon, & furthering space research & travel, Americans were aiming for the future, adopting spare, futuristic designs, similar to Scandinavian designs, with natural blonde wood, & simple styles), zigzag sewing machine, a modern, steel gear driven, American made sewing machine, one of Singer's last all metal machines (except, of course, the very hard wearing fiber resin Textolite handwheel gear, glass light bulb, electrical wiring insulation), before the "built in obsolescence" business model kicked in.
Singer 500A accessory case is hard plastic, with organizers built in, to help hold each of the presser feet, cams, & attachments, even room for 4 bobbins, & a packet of needles. Note the Singer Sales business card, for Main Street, in Lincolnton, NC, USA, where I live. There is a tiny packet of buttons, which also came from the Singer store, lying on the desk, between the trays of accessories. I LOVE getting old paperwork with the sewing machines, it is amazing how different the business of selling sewing machines is today, compared to when this machine was bought new.
SINGER ROCKETEER 500A overedge foot on bath towel video
The Singer 500A has steel gears, and the 600 Touch N Sew models do, too, but the model numbers above 600 mostly have plastic gears, or at least, some of them do, & if you are very lucky, someone may have changed the plastic gears out of the Touch & Sew models above 600, or in the 700 range, and replaced them with the steel Singer gears, you may have a pretty fantastic machine, but this model was really Singer's 'best of the best', before politics destroyed the American manufacturing dynamo.
Singer 500A Slant O Matic zigzag sewing machine came with a hard plastic 2 layer accessory case, with organized sections for each presser foot, a pack of needles, as well as the needle plates for darning & straight stitch. It even sews a CHAINSTITCH, with the correct needle plate & accessory setup! Notice there are 2 spool pins, & to the left of them, is yet another spool holder, which is actually kept upside down, until you want to use it. (For when you want to sew with only 1 upper thread, and want the lid closed.) You can see it's base, but I keep it put with the pin down, so I don't lose it, or break it. It is getting hard to find these parts, due to breakage & loss.
This cabinet is Singer's "Copenhagen", it has 3 large wide drawers, the bottom drawer is extra deep, with an inset shallow tray, perfect for the accessory cases, which can slide back, so you can access whatever you store below it.
This is how the machine came to me, in the lower photo, although I already dusted the desktop & outside the machine, but still had a deeper cleaning to do. This had been banished to a shed, for decades, before the lady who owned it, overheard my husband talking to someone about my fixing up vintage sewing machines. She offered it to him for free, but I had just told him not to bring more machines home, because he had been bringing broken machines home, faster than I could fix them! He mentioned it to me, so I asked about the specific machine, and hearing it was the Singer Rocketeer 500A, I begged him to contact her and tell her we WOULD take it! It had the manual, and all of the accessories, but they accessories, notions & thread in the cabinet were pretty jumbled, but I enjoyed cleaning it all up, & organizing it.
Singer Rocketeer 500A in original table (Bakersfield style, some say Scandinavian) with accessories manual and other items
You WILL need the manual, to really get to know this sewing machine, especially if the top lid is missing. It is common for the top, and the light cover (nose plate) to break their hinges, and get lost. It does not impair the machine, but these 2 parts hold the diagrams for threading the machine, and the chart for choosing stitch designs, and setting the machine to sew them properly. Without these, and without a manual, most people will not figure this machine out.
Considered an "all metal" machine, the 500A sews a variety of stretch stitches, multi stitch zigzag, decorative stitches, regular zigzag, as well as a nice straight stitch. For the most part, like most machines that have any form of needle position choice, it only works on the straight stitch. One dial controls the left half of the zigzag stitches, the other dial underneath it, controls the right side of the zigzag stitches.
Extra stitch cams are available, to further extend the stitch capability of this wonderful American sewing machine!
Copenhagen cabinet also comes in Scandinavian design, is Ergonomically correct, with needle in center front of you when you sit at the table!
Singer 500A often has the camstack & adjacent metal parts stick together, due to the old oil & lubricant drying out, becoming a glue. This is the main cause of old sewing machines being "seized" or "frozen". Use Qtips dipped in alcohol or kerosene, & clean all of the old oil off, it is easily identified, because it usually turns brown, or orange, as it dries out. If it is white, you may have to gently scrape it out with a tiny flathead screwdriver, if lithium grease has been used. I have never had a machine with the lithium grease NOT be frozen solid, by the time I got it! I will NOT recommend using lithium grease in a sewing machine, for this very reason, it solidifies like cement. Sometimes, it may take a few sessions, to get all of the dried lubricant removed, then oil those locations with sewing machine oil. The post at center, with notches in it, actually has to be able to move up & down, so you can select different stitches.
