Thanks Diane, I will have a look at that.

I own a 6600 and have not had a problem. I belong to a yahoo group for Janome's. We are the Janome Jedi's. There is also a Facebook group for Janome owners but it seems to address more embroidery issues. There are even merchants and repair/maintenance people in this group and very experienced sewists. You might want to join and learn even more about your machine! It has been good for me although I have never had any real problems with my machine. I have learned about stitches and programming memory. It has been great. There might even be a group just for Horizon owners but there are Horizon members on this site.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Janome6500/info

Diane in Wyoming

How great Lois. It certainly is a unique looking machine, I have never seen one here. These old machines were built to last and seem to be able to handle bulkier fabrics much better than the newer machines. I have a featherweight also and I must say it has a beautiful even straight stitch, I love it.

Lois, I'll bet you had great fun getting that little beauty back into working order, and a great deal of satisfaction.....great stuff!
Anne

Cathy, Never had the chance to even try a Featherweight although I would like to do so. These machines I am talking about are gear driven machines. I like the idea of no belts for curious little fingers to get caught in. In the mid to late sixties Singer started putting nylon gears in their machines and began switching from cast aluminum bodies to plastic. Can you tell I just love these machines?

lorra wrote:
I think there is a rubber ring that would not be hard to replace. Two screws take the top plate off and I bet you would see what to do. Rubber can get hard brittle and smooth after 50+yrs.

Lois, these old Singers are addictive. I have my mother-in-law's Rocketeer. It stills beautifully, but the bobbin winder no longer works. I need to see if I can get a part to repair it myself, or take it to a repair place. I love your bag too. I sewed all afternoon on my Singer featherweight. Love it!

Rocketeer is a nickname given to a Singer Slantomatic 500 manufactured in the early 1960's. I had been sewing all my own clothes from age 12. So for my 16th birthday my parents bought one for me. It wasn't called that back then. I think the collectors have given it that name. It was the top of the line and it was the only machine I had until the late 1990's. Take a look at it and I think you'll understand how it got it's nickname.


Bonnie Hunter recomended a free Kindle Book Reference Book on all kinds of old sewing machines. After reading it I decided to start looking for one for my sister-in-law. She has suffered through quite a few machines that were just pieces of junk. The last one we dumped on the curb for spring clean-up was a made by the same company just a few years later. Anyway I found a 500 on Craigs List for $50.00. It was so gunked up with oxidize oil and grease the gears hardly moved. But from what I had read they were saying those machines were nearly indistructible so I decided to take a chance. My Janome technician told me what to use to clean up the gears and I went to work with dental brushes and a safe solvent. There were a few levers out of place but I found a free download for its maintenance manual and a guy that loves Rocketeers online. He has a website about old machines. He responded to my email questions within an hour after I asked. He sent me schematics when I popped a spring out of place and couldn't figure out how to put it back. In less than half a day I had the machine huming like new. A week later I found the one in the photo at our local Bernina dealer. I had to pay $75.00 for that one but the Bernina dealer had taken care of anything that needed attention on that one. I found another webcite where a woman was refurbishing and selling old machine and she spoke highly of these machines. She said if anyone tells you they been realigned and have had the timing adjusted that's a bunch of baloney. She said they don't need maintenance they just need cleaned and lubricated. That's what I found with the one from Craig's List. It has a bunch of internal cams and does all its embroidery stitches just fine and all I did was clean it up. Marilynn's 301 was a forerunner of this one. Hers was the beginning of about 10 years of really really great gear driven machines manufactured by Singer. I am looking to find a whole fleet of them for my neices and grand-nieces. Wish me luck!

What's a Rocketeer? Sounds like something from Disney World

Susan, I have one of those things that I used with my Singer Slantomatic 500 (Rocketeer). I think it was called a Thing-a-ma-gig. I used it to hem jeans. I was using a 90 topstitch needle and tried using a 100 but I couldn't get it in the machine. It was late at night and I was tired. So I will try again when I have daylight and am properly rested. And yes, it really was through all those layers at one time. It was the final anchoring of the handle strap through the binding and all. I am thinking that my final anchoring stitches may end up just outside the binding which will eliminate 4 layers of fabric and the fusible layer. Combined with leveling the pressor foot and going very slowly I think I'll get 'er done. I am afraid that all this pounding through those many layers is going to throw the timing out of whack on my Janome. Perhaps I'll follow Marilyn's advice and try it on an old singer. Mine is in Nevada with my daughter but I managed to pick up 2 Rocketeers last week. (That's another story.) One for my sister-in-law and another for one of my nieces. But now that I think about it I just might keep one of them for myself. I am finding that a girl just can't have too many sewing machines. This is the second time since I've had them in the house that they could do a job better than the new ones. Rita, like you, I love my new Beatle Bag skipped stitches and all. Thank you everyone for the compliments.

Marilyn I had just been thinking exactly the same thing. Lois, time to get that treadle machine you have been hankering after. Your bag is so lovely - I won't mind a few skipped stitches.

What Sue said Lois ! Make a sample piece and try them out. I had a similar issue with a big bag last fall
and eventually switched to my 301 Singer to sew those very thick areas. :shock:

Sue ..I call that thing a "stump jumper", my Dad used a ramp to go over immovable boulders, stumps and the like
in the field with the tractor...where he couldn't go around.

Lois, I'm wondering if you ever sew all of those layers at once, but I'd definitely use a jeans needle, a size 100 or more, go slow, and, use a bump jumper. I'm sure there's a better name, but I know it ships with Berninas...the white rectangular silicone thing to put under the back of the presser foot as you stitch over a thick part so that the presser foot stays level. If you are straight stitching, a straight stitch foot and throat plate will help support the needle, too.