Help me diagnose my ferdco?

[JerseyFirefighter]

So I have a 5 month old ferdco pro 2000 that has been working great. Today.. I was sewing a bunch of projects and all of a sudden, the machine hangs up on the downward motion of the needle. I tried backing it off and moving forward and had a small success rate. Once I got the machine running again it would sew, but every 30 or so stitches I would hear a loud click. When trying to release the brake and handwheel the machine it gets caught up in the same spot. A side note that I had been sewing for the past 20 minutes and had not changed the thread or the material. I'd like to diagnose it before having to drop back at keystone so If anyone has any experience in such an anomaly id love to hear your input. Thanks!

 

 

[Northmount]

Have you tried replacing the needle since the jamb?  May be bent or point damaged.

Tom

 

[JerseyFirefighter]

I'll give that a go now. Hadn't done anything to trouble shoot. because i couldnt narrow down the hangup . This is the second needle I've used in the machine since the purchase. I put maybe an hour of straight sewing time a week into it. Ill report back if that fixes the issue. 

[JerseyFirefighter]

Didnt improve the issue. As I was replacing the needle (which was definitely a little more blunted than the new needle) i'd realized that the sharpness of the needle would not matter. The rotation of the cylinder put the needle at the top end and as it gets about 25% downwards (nowhere near the material) it hangs up. It's hard to describe, however the machine itself feels like it's running gritty. it feels like as if cycles the smoothness that I had 20 mins ago was lacking, and it refuses to move after that stopping point unless I back the stitch up and muscle through it with the pedal. 

Edited August 20, 2016 by JerseyFirefighter

[Uwe]

Some screw has probably worked itself loose over the past five months of regular use. Something is now slightly out of place and occasionally catching something else. You have to find out what it is and put it back in place and tighten it down. "Muscling through" is almost never a good idea if it's the machine itself that's causing the hang-up, as opposed to the material. Disconnect the motor belt and turn it over by hand (don't reconnect the motor until you have this figured out.) It's the only way in my experience to really feel the machine and find tight spots. When you find a tight spot or a hang-up, wiggle the handwheel while looking at every moving part to see if anything is out of place. There will likely be rub marks or scratches evident as well. Remove covers to see what's going on. Remove throat plate, take out the hook and see if it still happens. That'll take considerable time, but MUCH less time than shipping it off to Gregg to have him do essentially the same thing, or repair something once something actually breaks.

Edited August 20, 2016 by Uwe

[JerseyFirefighter]

Thank you Uwe.. The whole muscling through thing was to confirm the stoppage issue. It broke my heart to continue on but I wanted to record it to give a more accurate description. I will do just that over the coming day or two. If I cannot narrow down the issue, it'll have to head off to gregg. Good news it's an hour or so drive so Ill drop it off personally. Perhaps even a phone call to him on monday may save me the trip to help walk me through troubleshooting. 

[MADMAX22]

I would add to check your thread spool as well. I was having repeated issues with my 4500 and found that the spool of bonded nylon I was using had somehow started sticking at the bottom (all the thread was stuck together at the bottom of the spool like a bonding agent had collected there and slightly hardened). It would stitch fine until the thread coming off the spool got to that point and it would hang every time.

[JerseyFirefighter]

The hang up is definitely on the machine somewhere. The needle hits a hard stop in the same spot. It will sew at speed but as I slowed down it halts and you can hear the motor trying to continue to push. I havent gone any further because I dont want to cause any damage. Trying to diagnose it by hang cranking it while troubleshooting. 

[Wizcrafts]

Unless you know what you are doing, I'd stop right there and take it to Gregg. You've never seen this happen before, but I'm sure he has and knows where to start looking. It is possible that a C clamp has popped off one of the crank shaft mounts inside the head, or a screw has worked itself loose inside the body.

[JerseyFirefighter]

 

Unless you know what you are doing, I'd stop right there and take it to Gregg. You've never seen this happen before, but I'm sure he has and knows where to start looking. It is possible that a C clamp has popped off one of the crank shaft mounts inside the head, or a screw has worked itself loose inside the body.

Its hard to argue with that logic. I haven't been able to look at it since last night, but come tuesday Keystone is where I very well may be. It's pretty nice and terrifying to realize youre at the point that you simply cannot afford machine downtime. 

[CowboyBob]

Have you taken the end cover off(needlebar end) & oiled everything lately?

 

[LumpenDoodle2]

I've just bought myself a Juki ls-341, which had been serviced only in someone's imagination.    Among many problems was one of the machine sort of seizing up as the needle was coming down.     I finally traced it to, of all thing, a loose screw on the reverse lever.  

The lever was moving slightly out of position, and stopping the whole machine.  Once I set its postion and tightened the screws, all was well.

(Only took a day to work that problem out, I must be getting good at this :-()).

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

Did you check the tire pressure?  Bring it on in, we'll be happy to take a look at it, and sure to remind us it's covered under warranty for sure.  Head only is fine.  Just try to let us know when you plan to come in.  Or don't, we'll take a look either way.    

[JerseyFirefighter]

 

Did you check the tire pressure?  Bring it on in, we'll be happy to take a look at it, and sure to remind us it's covered under warranty for sure.  Head only is fine.  Just try to let us know when you plan to come in.  Or don't, we'll take a look either way.    

Thank you Gregg. I seemed to have worked out the needle stoppage issue, however there is still something a little off. I got hammered at work and couldnt mess around with it too much this week. I'll give you a call on Monday to see if the issue is anything that can be an  "aha" moment for me to tweak. If not I appreciate it and will bring it down. Have a great weekend!

[Uwe]

14 hours ago, JerseyFirefighter said:

I seemed to have worked out the needle stoppage issue

You're gonna tell us what was wrong and how you fixed it, right?

 

Edited August 27, 2016 by Uwe

[JerseyFirefighter]

On 8/27/2016 at 0:14 PM, Uwe said:

You're gonna tell us what was wrong and how you fixed it, right?

 

So I ended up checking all the exterior screws and making sure they were tight. A few days prior to the issue I blew out the bobbin housing with compressed air and oiled the machine. I suspect that what I had thought I was blowing out of the bobbin housing pushed it towards the back on top of and behind the bobbin case. After pulling the bobbin and blowing it out again I had found a few sizeable pieces of thread had freed itself. I rethreaded the machine and swapped to a 207 instead of a 277 (<--shouldnt be relevant but I did it anyway) and tried a sample piece. It started to sew without the needle hangup and has handled a few straps almost seamlessly since then. My observation of what was still kind of off was a slight click as the needle raised back up after the stitch. It's not as prevalent as the needle stoppage, but when you put a fair amount of time on your machine you get to know the ins and outs and sounds it makes. 

 

I did note that the SPI lever is loose and has fallen out of reverse on a project. That is still something that I have to address.