Tranum, the clones were made in Japan after WWII. The singer patents had run out. This was an effort to reboot the Japanese economy. I have a clone made in occupied japan. It is a piece of junk but it looks just like an older singer 15. I don’t know if it was poorly made or poorly adjusted at the factory or what. Later they improved on the designs. Many different companies in Japan made the clones. They have different JA numbers on the bottom somewhere. Some have names stamped in the bottom. You might be able to do a google search and find info on the J A numbers. Clones are still being made in China and maybe India and other places. The ‘newer’ clones usually have wilder paint jobs and there may be plastic parts. The most telling is the knob to drop the feed dogs. Some clones have a bit different shape than the Singers they were copied after but the tension is always on the side and they use class 15 bobbins in a case and on the side. They do not have drop in bobbins. There are many other Japanese machines and they are often well made. But there are some that are really junk. Cari who was banned for some reason knows a lot about the Japanese machines. I think you might find more info on google.
Last edited by miriam; 05-22-2019 at 05:57 PM.