Thank you for all of your help. I have a brother pc8500. I can see the needle with the machine turned sideways (have to use a different light source than needle light). I can also set the stitch direction so that I can stitch in the ditch using the feed dogs up. I could not really see why it would cause harm to my machine, but after being warned, it kind of scared me. Thanks again for your replies. This is the greatest board. I have really learned a lot here.