Originally Posted by
elnan
Most likely, the needle was deflected by pulling or pushing on the fabric while sewing. Would it help or hurt if that hole turned out a bit larger after the smoothing work on it?
I agree about the cause.
The reason the needle hole is as small as possible, is mainly to avoid the needle pushing the material down, and get a clean entry. The hole should be as small as possible. That's one of the advantages of the SS only machine, and the reason we should dig out the extra throatplate that came with the ZZ machine, for SS. But if all things are done right - new needle and correct thread for the material, holding the thread tails when starting, etc - we usually don't have any problems sewing SS with the ZZ plate. And that hole is larger than the SS hole. Point is, I don't think we need to worry about widening the hole a little bit, it's much worse to leave sharp nicks and burrs. I'd be sceptical to opening it enough to avoid hits in the first place, though.
Thinner needles will deflect more easily, but the size is a given for the project. Then there's stiffness. I've read some people are concerned with needle quality, and choose needles for minimum flexibility. Organ is the brand mentioned often, but this is not something I have tested.