When I was taught to sew, we sewed over the needles, now some 45+ years later, I still sew over needles, I could probably count on one hand how many times my needle has broken because of this---maybe a couple. No biggie. Now I've sewn on machines from Singer 401, 221, 301, 27, and 15, my Brother 4000D, all act the same. I use regular quilting pins, not skinny ones, some with big yellow balls on top of 'em. No biggie with pins.
Sibyl