Originally Posted by Cari-in-Oly

For all of you with these reproduction machines, or anyone who is looking at one, there are a few things that will tell you it's a reproduction just by looking at it. The first, and biggest tell is the plastic feed dog drop knob on the bed. The old Singers did not have that. The old machines, if they have a feed drop at all will be a large screw underneath the bed. The almost gaudy brightness of the decals is another tell that it's either a reproduction machine or that the machine has had the decals replaced. If it's an electric machine the tell is the modern plastic electrical connection on the machine, it looks nothing like the old 3 pin style Singer used to use. The upper tension assembly is another tell. It's very easy to see that it's modern plastic. There are other ways to tell a reproduction machine but these things are always what I first notice when looking at one.

Cari