Singer Sewing Machines

Singer Merritt 1872

2022-01-172024-11-22 by TallySew

A no frills zig zag machine. If you have one of these machines, treat it as a light duty machine.

The pros are:

Not expensive
It sews well
Not a bad looking machine
It isn’t complicated or temperamental
Most wearable parts are still available
Convertible to Free Arm

The cons are:

Plastic Gears in the Drive Train… but that’s a Biggy.

Pass or Buy?

Unless you really have to have one, I would pass on one of these machines. If you already have one and it’s working well, then it’s worth taking care of, but if it needs gear train repair I would spend that money on either an older machine with a metal drive train, or a newer machine with a warranty and modern plastics.

Construction

This is one of the later Singer machines to still have a cast iron trunk, and that’s not insignificant. Cast iron adds a lot of weight and structural integrity to the machine. The machine’s deck and base are made of a thick plastic base that’s beefy enough to resist flexing under normal use. The other body parts that are made of lighter plastic are not load bearing parts, and they are as strong as they need to be.

Bobbin Plates, Bobbin Cases, Bobbins

The Singer Merritt 1872 uses plastic class 66 bobbins. The bobbin case is plastic, so don’t be tempted to use metal bobbins, they will erode grooves into your bobbin case requiring it’s replacement. The 1872 that I have here came with the standard Zig Zag needle plate, but I have also used a straight stitch plate and presser foot to good effect. I only tried the stitch plate and foot to see if it would work, there isn’t any real practical benefit to straight stitch on this machine since the presser foot tension is not really user adjustable.

Top end, the elephant in the room…

The plastic gears in the top end of the machine are it’s Achilles Heel. If you have one of these machines in working condition, it may last you another 30 years if you remember that this is a light duty machine. That said, though this isn’t really first generation plastic, it certainly isn’t modern either. Replacement gears are available for this machine, but you may need to do some digging for them.

Note: Yes I cleaned the lithium grease out of the machine and replaced it with clear food grade synthetic.

Bottom End

The bottom end of the machine uses a timing belt to drive the hook and feed dogs. Though not the most solid solution, it’s a reliable way to power the bottom end of the machine.