I will be interested in your responses. My dear GM ,who taught me how to sew, had a white in a cabinet that had a knee bar on the right side that would run the machine instead of a foot pedal. Bearing this in mind, when I bought by Janome 12000', I thought the knee lifter was the same thing as what my GM had.....boy was I ever wrong as I sat at the table with my new machine and released the knee lifter was only to raise the press or foot. Duh!