Singer or Juki Knitting Machines
Singer or Juki Knitting Machines
Japanese manufactured
Models include the Singer Magic Memory knitting Machine (12 Stitch Punchcard)
and Singer 2400, 2500 and 2600 (24 stitch punchcard) knitting machines
These Singer Knitting Machines were sold under the Singer brand in the UK and Juki in the USA. I will concentrate on the 24 stitch punchcard models. They bear no resemblance to what is commonly known under the UK Singer Brand ie French manufactured machines - for a start they are 4.5 mm beds with a 24 punch card facility and look similar to any standard gauge machine manufactured in the late 60’s, and they come in a variety of colour highlights, namely green for the 2400, Pink for the 2500 and maroon for the 2600.
The main differences between the models is that the later 2 have the option of single motifs and thus a difficult to set up pattern knobs on the rear of the carriages. The carriage on the latest 2 were very difficult to place on the bed, the 2500 must have been their first foray into single motifs, this carriage was extremely difficult to place and when the 2600 was released it was a little better. Both of these models utilised stitch cams. In my opinion the initial release, the 2400 was a vastly superior model, so easy to place the carriage and set up the punchcard.
However there is only little caveat and that is the 2400 did not have a release bar on the side of the carriage, you simply had to lift the front of the carriage up and slide off. The later models have a release button at the side of the carriages that simply lifted the machine away from the rear bar. All the models have pattern wheels that run along the rear of the carriage but the 2 later models had methods of engaging and disengaging the pattern wheels, such a palaver, and almost testing patience when it comes to actually knitting a garment,
The latest instruction manual ie the Singer 2600 did not mention in depth the settings for the initial selection row (as I discovered trying to get it to select the needles with my punchcard). I tested the latest first unfortunately, ie Singer 2600 first them worked backward. The good points about these machines are the incredibly simple tension rods mechanism, just about the best ever, and definitely problem free. The carriages carry the patterning drums similar to the Knitmaster machines and there is a switch which you turn to operate what the machine knits ie be it stocking stitch, fairisle, slip and tuck.
It has a tension slider which is very unusual - this is operated by selecting the tension button on the top of the list, and I for one will confess I spent forever trying to work out why the damn thing would not slide. There is are lace carriages within the package and they knit well but you only have 3 boring punchcards and I did test it, and it works - it works from both sides of the bed and in a similar method to the Brother machines. Although these machines have the pattern wheels on top of the carriage, you can easily see the selected needles both on the bed and there is a window on the carriage that lets you actually see which part of the punchcard it is reading. I do have the rare ribber for this machine, The Singer KR13 Ribber and it was unused when I bought it, also I have the very basic but operational 4 colour changer. The colour changer can be used for double bed and single bed work. The ribber for this range is an unusual looking beast, it again has attractive pink highlights on the carriage and massive attachment brackets - what attracted me to buying this was the large knob at the right hand side of the bed which is a swing dial and it also has a swing limiter. If you get the chance to buy this model at a reasonable price then I would go for it, its a fun but very well built machine. I have a quite a good range of books for this range of machines.
