After thread breakage on my PQ1500 I also realized it didn't like to go in a certain direction and if I avoided that direction mostly it was okay. Ron Appell in Man Sewing on You Tube has a great video on thread breakage in relation to the needle/hook. Makes good sense. I'd put the link here, but, then the thread would get moved, so just go to Youtube and google it. It might help you too.