Singer Memo-Matic

I managed to pick this Singer Memomatic up near my home in Brittany and it was in a sorry state, stored in a garage. As it was only 20 kms away I decided to drive over. This is one Singer machine that I do not have - it is the Pegboard Singer 2200 and had an attractive gold coloured bed - possibly was one of the first electronic machines to be released and once you get the hang of it, its a fairly simple patterning system to operate (got to admit it took me about a week to get it up and running). In my defence, the manuals were all in French.

This model had always fascinated me, and to be honest the actual board was brand new and the setting up of it is similar to the Singer Memomatic or Superba S48 but its a better quality of box however it is limited in what it can do ie no large picture knitting and you have to manually move the plastic knob you see in the pic up and down the pattern.

It comes with a set of pattern cards for reference of how to set the pegboard up - you have a set of yellow pins that you place on the outside edge to start and stop the knob that moves the pattern up line by line. Very similar idea to a punchcard but more basic. As with all the patterning systems on Singer Superba machines there are a multitude of methods of say mirroring or doubling up etc etc. This particular model is not as smooth as the later models and in fact the carriage at the rear of the machine was quite stiff to operate.

One of the cursor stops had been broken and the bed was slightly damaged but a bit of TLC and a pair of pliers soon had it back in shape. I changed a few damaged needles and voila - it worked. One of the things I keep saying to folk who like to collect, a store of 2nd machines helps a great deal - and in this case I decided to try one of the many carriages that came with non working S48 type Superbas and it was so much smoother and more importantly it worked. They are indeed interchangeable.

The sample below a slip stitch was knitted with 2 carriages and both operated but the later carriage was so much smoother, now I believe the original carriage has possibly been dropped thus making it stick on the rail.

One of the best surprises I had when picking up this machine was that it came with a motor and this one I do not have - I have 3 Singer motors and 2 foot pedals so even just the extra foot pedal was worth the time and effort to pick the machine up and the price was so low anyway.

The Singer 1460 is a cracking wee motor - ok so its not as good as the latest model but as soon as I set it up and switched it on, off it went. So happy I was able to get this one. The machine was on the market for ages and I am surprised at the price it was not picked up however, their loss is my gain. Another fine machine to add to my collection.