Ferdco Pro 2000

[Trox]

Hi, I contacted the Hoffman brothers not long ago and asked them for the guide. They sent me a complete quote with prices on all the accessories for the Ferdco machine. They still had the needle guide, plates and presser feet´s for the machine. Their accessories looked different from what other clone seller offers. Now I cannot find their email anymore, I must accidently deleted it. Now I found an second hand lower needle guide I'm about to purhase. If that doesn't happen, somebody beat me to it. I got to write them again. Anyway, here is a picture of the patent. It looks exactly like this. Should fix occasionally skipped stitches with the use of slotted, holster and stirrup plates. (Especially when the use of thinner needles) I had some problems with that. Anyway, I do not know anything about their new Ferdco machine. The price suggest it's a standard Chinese clone, otherwise we would have known. They never shut up about such beneficial information.

Tor

[Trox]

I looked at the YouTube video https://m.youtube.co

of the new Ferdco Pro 2000. There it has accessories that looks just like all other Chinese ones. The accessories on picture I received from the Hoffman looked just like the old Ferdco ones. I  told them I had most of these attchment, but your look different. I almost bought some of them because they looked much better than the normal Chinese ones. I had been pretty disappointed if I received exactly the same as I already had. Perhaps they had some left of the original Ferdco accessories. I do not understand this because the video above is from 2014 and I contacted Hoffman Bros last fall.  It was an old picture they sent me and I was primarily interested in the lower needle guide. Here its pictured with the old Ferdco double harness foot this http://www.raichert.

Ed Raichert spec on the machine says: up 346 thread, needle sizes from Nm 160 to 280. That's Singer size 23 to 28. There is nothing about a size 30 (Nm 330) needle here. These machines might take a Singer # 29 (Nm 300), like the DA 205-370 also does.   

According to the patent search the Ferdco lower needle guide is not a valid patent anymore, due fail to renewing the patent payment. Perhaps they just filed to patent it again since Ed Raichert called it a "patent pending lower needle guide", I do not know .

"Ferdco 2000 pro super bull" is very good old established brand, that speak for  quality and craftsmanship ship. We all know the story about Ferdco. I do not think the Hoffman Bros bought this brand just because of the old rest stock. They had plans of using this well established brand for all its worth, of course. Do not expect to get anymore from them than you get from other dealers to the same price and you will not be dissapointed.

Just my 2 cents

Tor

[brmax]

Thanks Tor !  some good photos there to reference and would benefit future owners of the Juki clones also.

At this time the links aren't working here for myself but I get the "picture" easy enough, so a compare picture of Juki standard and maybe the latest clones parts would be cool.

These latest part accessories might just be custom and I suppose Juki never made, from a future clone owners perspective anyway.

This is my reason of interest this morning doing some coffee, and just another benefit for the great conversation here.

Thanks

Floyd

[Trox]

Http://www.raichert.com/leather/pro2000/ferdcoPro2000Web.htm

HI Floyd, I had to write this url in manually. Not possible to come and paste for the moment. Sure it's related to the site upgrading prosess.

I try once more to paste the YouTube video, otherwise the link is in the site above.

https://youtu.be/f-1

Tor

[Trox]

It still  does not work? 

[JerseyFirefighter]

On 3/27/2016 at 9:56 PM, soccerdad said:

So, is there nobody out there with a newish (last 2 or 3 years) Ferdco pro 2000 machine? Anyone with a newish Ferdco care to weigh in?

I've had my pro 2000 from Keystone for a few months now. I'd be happy to provide any photos or videos. I have zero experience with the cobra's or cowboy's so I could not provide an accurate comparison. It sews well when dialed in for the thickness I am using, however I am still a novice in general with sewing so it would be disingenuous to give a much more in depth review and critique. Let me know if you guys want any other info.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2016 by JerseyFirefighter

[brmax]

Thanks Tor,  A great effort for sure! some of these links we just cannot link. Its possible they are directed to so many phone interchanges looking for a penny or whatever.

Just a minute ago I used Eds main link leaving everything after .com and it showed a couple photos of the new machine but no accessory pics.

I do appreciate they great job some of the dealers here put forth in the base products, as pre check setup and tuning and then afterwards the "normal" in my book tech discussion.

Clearly getting these parts photos can be the newest for dealership strategy best left to us, happy trails.

Going to keep looking around at the choices here and will post up when a good photo or part illustration is found.

good day there

Floyd

 

edit:  Rob, sounds great any pics are good, thanks! 

Edited March 29, 2016 by brmax
posted like at the same time i guess

[mikesc]

link to page
http://youtu.be/f-14mGByIzE

 

Edited March 29, 2016 by mikesc
link test

[mikesc]

Trox..I got your links to work..had to "allow scripting" from leatherworker.net and put the HTML tags on the links by hand..the link buttons seem to be buggy, the URL field in the form which opens up when the link button is used is not accepting input, it sits there stubbornly showing "example.com" and refusing any text input, but the text field does accept input..but the "embed" feature works..I could have embedded the video, but did not, instead linked to it.. HTH

[soccerdad]

Jersey,

Thanks for posting about your new Ferdco. I'm sure others are right that Hoffman Bros. are a good company and will keep the machine solid ... it's just nice to hear from a user of a new machine. 

Cheers, 

Dale 

[brmax]

I am thinking its as the others in the new design style of a walker. It might have been said before but I'm asking, was the 900 bull the last model before this model, and wasn't it a jump foot as some called it. curious! and appreciate any answer

Floyd

[Art]

Floyd,

The 900 B (or Bull) was a jump foot with the foot running off groves in the balance wheel.  I think the head was a big Seiko.

Art

[Trox]

Mikesc, do you think this will fix it's self when the site here is finished updated. I do not have such possibility to alow scripting on the Samsung tablet I'm using for the moment (only Java script and that's on for all sites).

JerseyFirefighter, thanks for posting a pic of your machine. What accessories  came with your machine? Does it have the lower needle guide pictured in my post above. That will replace the feed dog when special needle plates are used. Thanks

Floyd, if you search or go to Ferdco dot com, you will find the old Ferdco site, who now has been taken over by the Hoffman Bros. The content of the site (pictures, products and description) is the same as before. It's must be more than ten years old. I do not remember when I saw it the first time, buts a long time ago when the Ferdco company was up and running. You can read about the old Bull machines there. Ferdco used a Juki 441 head (called it the Juki  Pro 2000 93 to 95) Like Art said, after that they used machine castings from Taiwan.  

Today, all the 441 clones  who are made have the same spec like the super bull, 1 to 1 1/16" foot lift (dependent of presser foot and plate used)

The original Ferdco accessories looked much better than the ones on the marked today. Their machines was more expensive, since they once used better parts. In the beginning they used many original Juki parts and small volum custom made parts. Today, I cannot see anything else than standard Chinese clone machine parts.  By all means, there are different quality parts out there today, have a look at Tobago dot com (Chinese auction site in Chinese) There you can buy a hole range of different quality sewing machine part. I found 441 feed dogs as low as under 10 USD . what I'm trying to say is, if these new Ferdco was anything else than an standard 441 clone; they would have been more expensive.

Tor

 

[JerseyFirefighter]

Here's an album of a few shots I took. Let me know if you want to see anything specifically. 

 

http://imgur.com/a/aSMO8

[Uwe]

Thanks for posting those detailed pictures! It's nice to see things up close (your white thread is caught in that lower tension spring, by the way) 

The "Made in the U.S.A. with pride" sticker seems a little optimistic and probably refers to just a handful of parts on that machine.

Just going by the pictures, I would bet a small amount of money that these machines start life in the same factory where the Cowboy machines are made, and with a few a added custom parts and labels it becomes a Ferdco. I would be rather surprised if there were any Juki parts on that machine. If they started with a Juki, the Ferdco would cost over $6K.

Now all we need is a few close-ups of that patented lower needle guide under the slotted throat plate. From the patent drawings, it very much looks like it could be made from modified standard feed dog, ground down and polished to stay below the slotted throat plate as it moves. 

Edited March 30, 2016 by Uwe

[brmax]

Hey thanks for the photos, Its appreciated for sure.

I see one dog  with looks to be a std. hole and quite possibly large enough. (considered plain ole progress)

Uwe on that thread, anybody say you shoulda been a ball player too, Good eye!!

good day everyone

Floyd

[JerseyFirefighter]

I noticed it as well when reviewing the photos. Those pics were at Keystone when I purchased the machine. I took a few pics as a reminder how to thread the thing once I got it back. If I have time today or tomorrow, I will try to get a better pic of the needle guide. 

[Trox]

Thank you JerseyFirefighter, for those excellent pictures. I've seen all I need to. Nice looking machine, first US sold clone I've  seen with belt cover. (That's obligatory here) And like the sharp eyed Mr. Uwe pointed out, the now patent pending famous lower needle guide is installed in the (that, because this is not yours?) machine. It's not a modified feed dog, that's the real thing. I'm waiting on used one from a old stock Ferdco machine now. The rest of the machine (cannot speak for the hidden parts) looks exactly like mine or any other 441 clone machine, the accessories too. Difference from a Cowboy would be the handwheel and a couple of other bits and screws. Most serrated feed dogs cannot be altered in to this lower needle guide, take a look at my picture. Most are hollow underneath, I've seen them even with bigger cut outs than mine (I looked at that possibility before of course). A lower needle guide is much more simpler to produce new. The upper needle guide is of course a closed toe inside harness foot. They aren't patented either, and it's a long time since it was. That is if they managed to get it patended at all, I have some doubts about that. They was not the first who made such presser´s, I have old Pfaff foot that looks like that. Perhaps they patended the name   Anyway, looks like a well put together machine, good proven solutions. Nice price too. Of course it's twice the price of buying similar in China (that goes for all of the brands), but everybody have to make a living here of course.  By the way, somebody should make up some of these needle guide before a new patent. Patent means more money from us customers, we do not want that     

Tor

Edited March 31, 2016 by Wizcrafts
Attempted to corrected code for two images, but files were incorrectly linked. I deleted the bad links for you.

[Trox]

Sorry for the double picture entry, I'm not able to delete it without deleting the hole post.

Thanks

Tor

[Uwe]

Neither one of two pictures you posted show up Tor. Please try again.

[Trox]

I'll try again

[Trox]

There you go Uwe, a beautiful high key portrait of a material eating dog

[Trox]

I got the Ferdco lower needle guide in the post today. Bought it second hand for 50 $ and it looks pretty good. No hits by a needle, pretty much as new (some cosmetic signs of use of course). A new one is 100 $ from the Hoffman Bros. Haven't got the time to try it yet. Here is some pics of it compared to my serrated feed dog. It's not possible to modify my type of blanket feed dog in to one. However, the might be others out there with more "meat" That can be modified. By the way, I think it will fit the Adler 205-370 too. It certainly fit a 105-64 and a class 5, not that it would be of much use there  II use it for comparison only.

Tor