Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/03/01/singer-is-the-cadillac-of-sewi.html
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43 posts were split to a new topic: Mostly wonderful sewing discussion
There was a lot of great discussion here that I don’t want to get lost in this adverpost. Moving the most relevant stuff to a community topic so it can continue after this thread auto-closes.
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Much like older tractors, older sewing machines are often a better choice than newer ones for a variety of reasons.
I love my 60’s Singer Golden Touch & Sew Deluxe Zig Zag Model 750 that I paid $12 for with the table at goodwill. It has held up well even though it does have some plastic parts as part of the case.
It is lovely too.
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And just wait until you cannot insert a new needle in your new Singer until an authorised technician arrives to encrypt its serial number into the firmware.
(Oh, wait, that WAS tractors. Still, give Singer time…)
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And my reply was flagged because DAFUQ?
Yeah the shopping posts are getting a tad out of control. This is not off topic it’s directly on point to the post.
Seriously this shit is starting to feel like it’s a Sunday flyer advert.
If that criticism is too much for someone than I’m not sure what kind of reality this has become.
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I came here to say that I’ve seen many a dubious claim from the BB store but this seems one of the most egregious. I’d consider Husqvarna the cadillac of sewing machines. And my personal favorite Pfaff as the Abrams tank. Stops at nothing, will run forever, takes some special care.
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depending on how you regard Cadilacs, that could be seen as quite an insult to Singer.
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Wanna know what the big step down for Singer was? I got one word for you. Plastics. Plastic gears are light weight and quite. Even quieter once the machine strips the gears and is never used again.
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Singer - the Cadillac Cimarron of sewing machines. Bernina is the real deal.
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my 2004 CTS Sport was, and remains, worth every penny of the $45,200 i paid for her. grant that i do the vast majority of work on her myself so the ol’ gal isn’t a burden financially.
i have a friend that rocks some crazy Bernina sewing and a Bernina vacuum and she spends more in maintenance on those two machines in two months that i spend on my car in a year.
to those folks who’ve somehow inherited a Bernina vacuum, when it breaks, and it will, take it to your local quilting store. they’ll know what to do with it.
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Plastic gears are not an inherently a bad thing. You hear that about a lot of things.
But take the example of KitchenAid mixers. The lower powered models moved to plastic in the 90’s, but it weren’t cause it was cheaper. In the older metal gear versions they did run longer, but when they failed they failed catastrophically. My mom’s 20+ year old model, one of the drive gears failed. And when it did it basically exploded, cracked the casing and turned the drive shaft into little bitty chunks.
It was technically repairable, but the parts to do so cost more together than a new machine did. The brand moved to plastic gears and slightly less powerful motors in certain models to prevent that. A controlled failure at predictable tolerances and life span leaves things more repairable. And most things we talk about as being tanks or lasting forever had a similar issue, so most things have moved to parts with predictable failure rates. Which often means plastic, but can mean carefully engineered metal parts with more powerful machines.
From what I gather from the sowing machine people this is not what Singer has been up to. As you aren’t talking about an otherwise quality machine but for plastic gears. My sister’s can’t even stitch a straight line, and half this thread seems to mention how unrepairable they are.
Plastic gears aren’t the devil people make them out to be. I’d rather have them strip out, and replace a $2 part than have something explode like mom’s KitchenAid. And metal gears are designed to strip out or crack before they explode these days too.
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No ones mentioned that these Singers are all refurbs as well
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The ad/posts are getting out of control. I suspect the BBS folks know this. Just know we long time readers notice. This has been my respite and it’s deeply depressing to see the way the winds are blowing.
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