What does the J relate to? I have a 185K, which means it was made in the UK, or Great Britain. Bought it, in a table, at a Thrift Shop for $30. It has been used, for sure and needs a new belt and has no spool pin at all and there are three holes up there, so am wondering which one needs the pin?

Singer Machine Letter Designator's
 

The J designation was used for machines from the Singer plant
in Saint Jean sur Richelieu (some people call it St. John's), Qubec, Canada.

J - Canada
K- Scotland
G - Germany
M - I think was Spain, I'd have to look that one up. I don't have any "M's".
Of course "No letter" was used for the Elizabeth NJ, USA machines.

These are similar to "Mint Marks" on coins.
The letter just tells you where it was produced.

Long answer for short question.
Lots of times other people read these and have similar questions.

Allen

Caught the bug, have you? I'm doing pretty well, just 13 machines and I might sell one or two of them, but it's so easy to buy just one more! Oops, just remembered I have the pink one coming!

Allen while you're in Japan and Korea try to make time to find at lest one or 2 fabric shops. You're wife probably won't be upset by the gift of some nice silk for a dress or something. I love my 99s. I think you'll like your 185 too. They're closely related.
Rodney

Rodney,

I'll be sure to check out a few fabric stores while I'm there.
Maybe I can even find some "Vintage" items, that weigh less than a machine, that I could pick up.
Macybaby posted some photos of needle packages (in another thread) that were beautiful.
I think would go over really well with the wife if framed and mounted.
Needles should make a perfect decoration for the sewing room.
I'll be sure to see if I can find some of those in various languages on the packaging.

Lot's of little shops over in the smaller towns that I visit that just might have such things.
Since a lot of the "15 Clones" were manufactured in Japan for export; who knows what I might find.
I have to keep telling myself "Machine weights are far to heavy for luggage".

Needles and attachements weigh nearly nothing.
I'll take lots of photos and try to post some of them when I can.
I don't always have easy internet access in some of the places I'll be working/visiting.

Allen

I have recently sold four 401a on ebay And still have 2 left plus a 404' I also sold a FW and some attachments.i would like to sell more on craighslist.. but Dgs says it too risky.I am trying to convince the police dept. to let people meet in their lobby for transactions for safety. ONe old couple was killed. in the home over a sport car on Cl.What do you think .ebay charges and holds your money for about two Of more weeks.Cmaras1234

I've bought and sold lots of times through Craigslist without a problem. I've met up with people in public places like store parking lots as well as at their home or mine. I've never had Ebay hold my funds but I've been an active member since 2003.

Cari

The M stands for Monza, Italy. I don't know if my list is complete, but it shows about 30 Singer plants, none in Spain.

Cari

Cari has it right. M is for Monza, Italy (1934-1968).

The nearest thing that I can think of that may have given newguy a reason to associate M with Spain, is the M.R. decal that Singer had to put below the Singer Badge on machines that they exported to some Spanish-speaking countries. The M.R. stands for Marca Registrada and means Registered Trademark. I don’t know for sure that Spain was one of the countries, but it could have been.

CD in Oklahoma

DH built a box for one - very simple to do