This machines has a unique history that you can read about at Singer301.com here is a small excerpt:

“The new Slant-needle sewing machine would not only be marketed as a “Family Sewing Machine” but also as the “Slant Shank System” to educators and high schools that wanted the most reliable machine able to withstand the daily abuse from high school students. Singer felt that the education system would produce a new generation of sewers raised on the slant shank or Slant-needle sewing machines.

It would be the first family sewing machine ever made that was a cabinet and portable all in one. You can raise the handle and lift the machine out of the cabinet and carry it anywhere. The first family sewing machine to sew up to 1,600 stitches per minute. Singer craftsmen took 100 years of engineering knowledge and built an amazing machine that represented the ultimate in sewing machine design and styling. This new Slant-needle sewing machine would be known as the revolutionary “Singer Model 301”.“

The 301 would be the last machine Singer still offered in classic ’Black’ found on all earlier Singer models. It also is a close relative to the very popular Singer Featherweights. They use the same bobbins, much of the engineering in the needle bar and drives are very similar, and they also have a ’fold back’ arm to more easily access the bobbin area.

When I restore the machines, I tear them down. I clean out all the old grease and oil, internally and externally. The removable parts I run through my parts washer so they look new again. The first six pictures below are of the machine once I restored and cleaned this 301. Those starting with picture 7 show the state of the machine when I began, along with how the parts look once through the cleaner.

If you look at the very last picture in this post, you can see the type of grunge that often exists that prevented a machine from working. This machine had so much compacted fabric fuzz it created an entire 1/2 inch thick piece of felt. There also were multiple types of thread wrapped around the bobbin case as well as the machine wheel. I take great joy in giving a machine back it’s original beauty and a new life. The video directly below is the final stitch test after restoration.