Singer 503 for sale

Long time readers may remember that I sometimes use this blog to showcase machines I have for sale locally.  I never, ever, ship.  Never.  Ever.  And I never discuss prices on this blog, but the price is given in the Craigslist ad (which will disappear when the machine is sold).

I have a Singer model 503 for sale.  It has been cleaned, oiled, lubed and every function has been tested.

If you come to see the machine you can see on a test strip that the stitch length and width changed just as they are supposed to do.  You can also test it on my front porch before buying.  See this post about my pandemic sales plan. 

The needle left-right-center movement works smoothly.

I replaced the broken tensioner with a working one from another machine, which is why it is a different color.

You can read more about the tensioner replacement below.

I replaced the motor controller (aka foot pedal) with a brand new one.

I replaced the original light bulb with a much brighter LED bulb.  The LED bulbs also do not get hot, and are supposed to last for a long, long time.

I repaired everything that needed repair EXCEPT for the bobbin winder.  There is a broken spring that I was unable to replace, but a "real" repair shop might be able to do so.  I restore machines as a hobby, not as a business.

To wind bobbins you could

• wind bobbins on another machine if you have one
• buy pre-wound class 66 bobbins from amazon
• buy a bobbin winder.  I have a Side Winder which works well, and there are also more expensive models available

 Also included with the machine

• The original Singer accessories box, which includes 
• cams to make additional stitches.  The zigzag cam is in the machine now.  The stitches shown on the box cover above are the ones that the cams shown below make.

The black discs are the cams and the shiny silver thing is a straight stitch needle plate.

• additional presser feet and attachments

list with names of attachments below

the original manual

• A vintage Singer buttonholer with templates to make 20 different sizes of buttonholes in three different styles (straight, keyhole, and bound).  

The buttonholer and templates

The manual for the buttonholer

I doubt if the buttonholer was used much because the protective styrofoam cover is still intact. Styrofoam breaks easily so this is usually missing

This test sample shows that you can adjust the width of the gap in the middle.  When looking at this photo keep in mind that blowing up the photo this large magnifies the stitches, which look a bit smoother in their real size

The feed dogs can be dropped for darning or free motion quilting.

You use the same lever that drops the feed dogs to pop up the needle plate so that it can be removed.

The case is a cover that latches down onto the base of the machine itself.

The case is in nice cosmetic condition.

The 503 is a sibling of the famous 500 known as the Rocketeer for its space age styling.  And although this may sound like a sales pitch, I actually prefer using the 503 over the 500.  Let me tell you why.

The 500 has a number of built in stitches.  These stitches are created by cams which are installed internally in a cam stack.  There are controls on the front of the machine which allow you to select the stitches that you want.  Sounds great, right?  This was the top-of-the-line machine in its series.

Why don't I like it?

1. Well, I restore old machines, and after 55 or 60 years, old oil and/or lube can gum up the works.  Cleaning out old gunk is the major thing I do to restore machines, but these are a witch-with-a-b to work on.  It IS possible to disassemble the whole darn thing to get it clean. I removed the cam stack on a machine in this class once.  I have no desire to do it again.

1.  There is a MUCH easier way to get the extra stitches, the way the 503 does it.  One cam at a time popped into the machine.  No complicated sequence of events for getting them to work.  Just. One. At. A. Time.  Beautiful system.

On the inside of the top cover right above the cam is an illustration of the stitches made by each cam, and the simple instructions to set the machine for stitching with them.  

And as far as I know that is the only difference, so you get the same performance as the 500 and it is easier to operate.   If any of my readers know of any other significant differences, please tell us in the comments below.

This machine was quite dirty when I bought it but it cleaned up beautifully.  My experience with other Singer machines with this color scheme is that they often have paint jobs that have become chalky over time.  Not this lovely one.  The paint job is quite glossy, although there are a few small chips here and there.

Keeping in mind my oft repeated warning that I AM NOT AN EXPERT, JUST AN OBSESSED PERSON WITH A BLOG, I will tell you that it is my belief that the weak point on machines of this class (which also includes the 401 series) is the tensioner.  Ask my friend Barbara, who has several, ALL of them with tensioner problems that she has been unable to resolve.  I spent two days on the tensioner on this one, and never even managed to dis-assemble the dratted thing.  Really.  My only guess is that I was just unwilling or unable to apply enough brute force, because I was able to remove all of the screws holding things in place.

I have a box of  tensioner parts and tensioners harvested from dead sewing machines.  And in that box I found one that fit and worked, taken from the infamous Singer 285, widely regarded as the worst vintage Singer ever made.  So now I know that the 285 IS good for something.

And that is why this particular Singer 503 has an aqua tensioner on it.  This aqua tensioner has two tension discs inside rather than the three that the original had.  This means that if you want to use a twin needle and two threads, they will both be running between the same discs rather than separately.  In my 58 years of sewing I have never used twin needles so I can't comment on how much this might matter.  I do know that three discs are not considered necessary for twin needle sewing.

All of the original presser feet are in the accessories box and are bright, shiny, and look unused.

On the piece of blue fabric shown are the ruffler (top) and binder.  The blue fabric is a piece of stiff cambric that dealers use to demonstrate stitches, and on this one is a line of hem stitching.  Next to this:
Top row:  straight stitch foot, narrow hemmer, adjustable zipper foot.
Below this:  seam guide
Bottom row:  special purpose foot, button foot (holds buttons in place while you use a zigzag stitch to sew them down)

If you can deal with the broken bobbin winder, this is a terrific deal and the price I am asking is a bit less than I paid for the machine, the LED bulb, and the new foot pedal.  If the bobbin winder worked and it still had the original tensioner I would be asking two to three times this price.