Ferdco Pro 440

[Reins Mom]

I have a Ferdco Pro 440, bought this about 8 years ago. Yes, this was before I learned more about leather sewing machines.

One of my challenges is skipped stitches. I was reading another topic and saw that if you adjusted the needle penetration into the leather that helped. I will try that.

My main irritation with this machine is the fact that even when I take as much pressure off the foot as possible the foot still leaves marks on the top of the leather. I'm wondering if the spring that pushes down on the presser foot is too strong or long. I, of course, don't have any repair manual and the people who sold these machines have gone out of business and are no help finding any kind of resource for adjustments.

I'm hoping someone out there can help.

Thanks a lot

Pat

[CowboyBob]

If you do not have enough foot pressure to hold the leather down it causes the leather to lift as the needle pulls out this will cause skip stitches.When you keep the leather down as the needle pulls out this allows the needle to make a loop large enough for the hook to catch it.

How thick are you trying to sew right now?

Bob

[Reins Mom]

I actually have too much pressure on the foot. I really want to know how to decrease the pressure on the foot. The "groove" mark on the face of the tooling leather really affects the look of any stamping or tooling that has been done. Should I do my stamping and tooling after I do my stitching?

The skipped stitches are not a function of too little pressure. I have a lot of experience sewing and recognize the effect of too little pressure.

Thanks for the reply.

[tnawrot2]

According to the Ferdco site the Pro 440 is being crossed referenced to the Tech-Sew GA5-1, you could contact them for a manual.

http://shop.raphaelsewing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=274

[Anne Bonnys Locker]

A 45k25 manual should do the trick.

Jim Saddler gave me a hint that I have used successfully several times on these machines which is to retard the timing fractionally when sewing thick leather. This gives the loop more time to form.

[CowboyBob]

We sell the same machine & I'm very fimiliar with it too.The next step would be to check the needle bar height.You need to take the needle plate off & turn the machine around in the direction it runs & when the needle goes down all the way & starts to go up you need to make sure the top of the eye of the needle is about 1/8: below the hook.

Bob

[Reins Mom]

Thanks so much to everyone who replied with tips.

Darren, how do you go about retarding the timing?

I went to Techsew and downloaded the manual for the GA5-1R. This looks like it will be a great help. I'm going to go have a session with my machine and see what happens.

Pat