Originally Posted by
Tartan
Where is the broken off piece?
That's what I was wondering. It had to go somewhere.
Moonrise,
You might try calling your local vacuum repair shop. A lot of times they will do some basic servicing of sewing machines as well. As far as the broken needle, it's possible that it cracked the case & took a while for it to completely break off. I definitely feel for you. After a $180 repair on my old Singer due to a broken needle, I learned a very expensive lesson: apparently you're supposed to change out your needle from time to time! Who knew?!!!
Not saying that's what happened to you ... just that I get how frustrating it can be to have something so small cost so much money.