I also have this machine. I bought it in '03 in Florida as a "repack". Salesman told us it had been used in a class and could not be sold as brand new. I paid $1700 for it and later found out that it sold brand new retail for $4500. I bought a 1/4" piecing foot (plastic) for it. I have run my needle through it a couple of times. I don't use it for piecing now as I found it to be too wide. I use my regular A foot and the side to side increments. I also have a walking foot which works just fine. I used the hopping foot for the embroidery for free motion and don't like it very much. What do others use for free motion? I have used the embroidery unit some but not a lot. Just not what I am into. I have used it A LOT for piecing but now as of June I have a featherweight so I do my piecing on that. I had a little trouble with it after we got home to Alaska. My husband bench pressed it into the overhead bin from FL to AK. It wanted to sew in a circle instead of straight. I had to send it over to Anchorage to the nearest repair shop. If I had still been in FL I probably could have gotten it repaired at the original place without charge, but I wasn't and so it goes. I do have to use leaders to avoid tangles at the start of the seam. It has occurred to me that if I used the thread cutter and left the thread attached this wouldn't be necessary. Any thoughts on that out there? I do love this machine and don't plan to upgrade just to get auto thread cutter, etc. It's heavy but that's okay - it doesn't hop around. I will be looking up the Yahoo group for more info. Thanks for this thread. Makes me feel like a member of an elite club. lol Nancy