Originally Posted by
JoeJr
I have a 503, a Rocketeer without the built in patterns, and have cleaned up a few Japanese ZZ machines. The ZZ machines are much heavier and therefore give the illusion of being more solid. I found that they were much noisier when operating and vibrated more, but were faster than my Rocketeer. My ZZs had external, more powerful (I think) belt drive motors, the Rocketeer has an internal motor which can be much harder to fix or replace if it gives you problems. If I have a bigger sewing project though I use the Rocketeer, but have not used it for more than straight stitching or zig zagging.
The real solution though is to make room for 2 machines!
LOL, yeah... I was considering that. Since I have a sewing cabinet and the Singer in question is a cabinet model... and the Universal is already in a travel case. So there's that. My question would be is if the Rocketeer does a quality straight stitch on lighter fabrics? I ask because I originally figured my second machine would be a straight stitch. The Universal does fine on medium and heavy fabrics... lightweights not so much.
I agree, the Japanese ZigZag is a monster. There's a 1.5amp that drives that steamroller. My Mom's old Riccar felt more like a swiss watch finessing its way through stitches. Going between the two is like Tazmanian Devil ripping through stitches and a Prima Ballerina dancing across the fabric.